Startup: An Opinionated Primer for Would-Be Hobbyists

By: Marilyn Lewis -- Mercury News staff writer

  The scoop: If you thought cricket went out with the British empire, take a Sunday drive and get an eyefull of guys—yes, mostly guys—in ‘‘whites’’ playing the game that cricketers claim is an ancestor of baseball. It’s a team sport and it requires a special field, so if you haven’t grown up playing cricket (as many immigrants from Britain and its former colonies have), join a team as a ‘‘social’’ member. You can learn from veterans who play for fun and attend team practices. For Sunday games, any white pants and white shirt with a collar will do, says Puneet Grover, secretary of the Santa Clara Cricket Club. Oh, and bring patience: Traditional matches run 5 days; the short version, lasting eight or nine hours, is popular here.

The Web sites: www.ncalcricket.org/; www.cricket.org/

The lessons: Northern California has 22 clubs. Find them at the Web site above. Costs vary. The Santa Clara Cricket Club fee of $40 includes use of all equipment. Contact Ravi Shankar at membership@santaclaracc.org or (408) 732-9268. Ask about possible youth classes.

The bible: ‘‘The Tented Field: A History of Cricket in America,’’ by Tom Melville.

The gear: Helmet, $50-60; gloves, $20; thigh guard, $10-15; cricket bat, $100-250; leg guards, $30-50; balls, $20-25. Prices are approximate; cricket gear is imported and players buy it through their teams.

The model: Sridhar Ranganathan of the Santa Clara Cricket Club

Photograph by Patrick Tehan