Cricket Is Creating Quite a Buzz on GWU Campus

"Did Moose hit that?" wondered someone sitting on the sidelines of George Washington University's soccer field.

Indeed, Moose had. Or, rather, Mus had: Mustafa Karim, a 20-year-old sophomore studying international business at GWU. With a deft spin, he'd swung his cricket bat and knocked the ball over the fence. In cricket, that's good for six runs.

When, a few minutes later, Mus was out -- his wickets toppled by the stiff, overarmed pitch of the opposing team's bowler -- it was with some satisfaction that he strolled to the sidelines and his teammates, who greeted his return with a flurry of high-fives and back slaps. He'd scored 20 runs.

"Make sure you put down that I'm from the country that produces the best cricket players," he said to me.

And that would be?

"Pakistan," Mus said.

Nonsense, said Jahan Tahiliani, a lanky 19-year-old economics and statistics major who, truth be told, used an earthier, barnyard epithet. Jahan is from New Delhi, and in his opinion, India produces the world's best cricket players.

Then again, wasn't Victor Williams the best player on GWU's cricket team? He was still out on the field, on his way to scoring 25 runs.

"This is my summer find," Jahan said, nodding toward Victor, who had just scored another run. "I heard that he was West Indian, so I asked him to join."

Victor is from Jamaica, which might produce the best cricket players in the world.

It was an almost tropical day, the sun beating down on the artificial turf. The game between GWU's undergrads and a team of GWU graduate students had attracted three spectators, who sat in the shade on a hill overlooking the field.

"That's tripled our attendance," joked Curt Sonnet, an undergrad from New Jersey who before coming to GWU had never played cricket.