A Field of Their Own: Cricket Field Debuts Friday in Boyds

Having spent the past decade pleading for a permanent place to play, Upcounty cricketers may finally have a field to call their own.

On Friday the Montgomery County Parks Department will debut a permanent, regulation-size cricket field at in Boyds.

A ceremony and game are scheduled for 1 p.m.

Ex-pats from cricket-playing countries — like India, Pakistan and South Africa —created a niche demand for the sport in Montgomery County, according to Manish Lodaya, president of the Montgomery County Cricket Association.

“This is huge deal for the community of cricketers out here,” Lodaya said.

Local cricket players have been lobbying the county for a permanent, full-size field Upcounty for at least 10 years. The problem is that cricket fields take up lots of space and can only accommodate a small number of users for games that last all day.

Up until recently, cricketers were competing at Clarksburg Village North, but that site will be transformed into a school in the fall.

According to Planning Department records, there were talks of putting a cricket field at , a 27.8-acre park proposed for Ridge and Brink Roads, but the idea was taken off the table after county planners determined the park lacked the space to accommodate a cricket pitch.

Melissa Chotiner, a spokeswoman for Montgomery Parks, said $17,000 in Ballfield Initiatives Project funding was used to cover the cost of transforming an old field used for softball and soccer games into the 85-yard radius, oval-shaped cricket field.

Montgomery County Cricket Association invested $2,000 for the field’s turf, according to Lodaya.

Lodaya formed the Boyds Cricket League in 2005 and is also the founder of a league in Frederick County, Md. He said Montgomery County’s 40 teams were known to produce talent and talked up Boyds Cricket League member Adil Bhatti, a member of the U.S. National Cricket Team who recently returned from Dubai for the Cricket World Cup qualifier.

Cricket season resumes in April and lasts through October. Lodaya said the Boyds league is looking forward to a fresh start.

“We’ll play our first game at the field on Friday,” Lodaya said.