Shortly after Rohan Burman arrived in Cambridge with his family from northern India, he dove into his new life by joining his school’s volleyball and badminton teams – even its drama club.
Yet he couldn’t help but think something was missing.
“Coming here to the (cricket) club is really a connection for me to back home,” the 16-year-old Jacob Hespeler student said after a recent indoor workout at the Manulife Financial Soccer and Sports Complex.
“Now I look forward to playing cricket every weekend.”
For a group of local teens, the game of cricket is more than a pastime, it provides an unbreakable bond to their heritage and even a roadmap to their future.
Burman is one of about 150 members of the Waterloo-based Sunrise Cricket Club, many of whom come from the south Asian nations of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, along with others from Britain and Australia.

The club offers programs for juniors, seniors and masters as well as women.

During the summer months, club members often hold court in Waterloo Park.

Sunrise is more than cricket, though.

“I’ve made a lot of friends (at the club). They are brothers to me,” said 13-year-old Shiva Sharma, a Grade 9 student at Waterloo high school, Sir John A. Macdonald.

Sharma was born in Canada, but his parents emigrated here from India where cricket is “big, like you can’t believe,” said his dad, one of the club’s founders, Parveen Sharma. “It’s religion.”

In terms of world participation, cricket ranks second only to soccer, said Sharma, a prototype maker for a Kitchener-based manufacturer specializing in men’s leather belts..

Criticized by some in North America for its inscrutable nature and lengthy games, cricket combines intricate strategy with incredible stamina and athleticism.

The bat-and-ball game is played on an outdoor oval and involves a bowler pitching at batsmen who attempt to protect wooden stumps called wickets.

“Runs” or points are scored by players who hit a bowled ball with their bat and then, along with a team member, run from one wicket to the other and before the fielding side can return the ball.

Today, Cricket Canada estimates some 40,000 people play the game on our soil, the sport receiving a boost in recent years from recently arrived immigrants.

And the game is considered one of Canada’s fastest growing sports.

Cricket boasts a long history in Canada, dating back to 1759 when British soldiers introduced the game here.

By Confederation, the game was so popular, it was considered our national sport.

But interest eventually waned in cricket as baseball’s prominence rose.

For local youth like Pakistan-born Hamza Yousafzai, a 17-year-old Waterloo Collegiate student who arrived in Canada with his family in 2009, the club offers more structure to the sport he played only on the dusty streets back home.

“This guy is our future,” the elder Sharma said, admiring Yousafzai’s batting technique.

On this day, Yousafzai brought his younger brother, Talha, 15, to practice.

Hamza plans to attend the University of Ottawa to study engineering in the fall, but has promised to return to the club in the summertime.

Parveen Sharma smiles approvingly.

“Education always comes first,” said the energetic Sharma, for whom a conversation is not only calisthenics for his larynx, but a full-body workout.

“It’s important to bring value to our teams. I want to bring them respect. They must respect their parents, their seniors and their teams.”