An excerpt from his email to me:
I am now Director of international Programs at Lewis-Clark State College (4 year undergrad college) in Lewiston, Idaho. My wife (the reason I moved to USA though retirement is back to Australia) is Director of International at the University of Idaho (larger research university) in Moscow Idaho- about 35 miles from Lewiston.
We both have a large Nepalese student population- I have around 45 (and one South African) and she has at least that many plus Indians, Aussies, Kiwis. We both have a sprinkling of other cricket playing nations.
We organize internal sporting competitions e.g. soccer, volleyball, badminton but the students are always asking whether they can play cricket.
I gather in the past we had a bat but it disappeared before I got here.
We would like enough gear to:
* Have equipment so students can just play social cricket
* Demonstrate cricket to those "heathens" who have no idea what the game is
* Create an internal competition at each college
* Have an annual match between the two colleges - my wife and I plan to put up the money for a Director's Challenge Cup.
There is also another large university- Washington State about 8 miles over the border from the University of Idaho. They also have a large international population and even have an Aussie in senior management. There are also visiting scholars, grad students, husbands etc working in the local communities. We could eventually have a tri-series.
Students are also keen to have a "national" competition challenge.
I am sure if we get this started, we can get extra equipment /replacement balls etc from:
* New international students as we will promote the existence cricket
* U Idaho and WSU have agreements with universities in cricket playing countries
We would create a cricket page as part of our international club and post regular updates, results and acknowledge any donations, support.
What I would like to do is request any donations of unused/old cricket equipment that you or your clubs have to assist in supporting this initiative.
Sufficient equipment to facilitate the games would be something in the order of:
8 bats
8 prs pads
8 prs batting gloves
2 prs w/k gloves and inners
2 prs w/k pads
plus any helmets and protectors that we can get
Cricket Australia will come to the party by filling any small shortfall, but it would be great to see the local cricket community get behind such an initiative - who knows, it could even create exchange opportunities for those that contribute.
Please PM me with the details of anything you can provide - I will arrange pick up and storage of items and regular updates of our progress. The deadline is April 10th for any donations, anyone who has some gear that they will be replacing at seasons end would be helping immensely by sending the old gear this way.
Many thanks
