City to officially open completed cricket playing pitch Sunday

WICKET FUN

WOONSOCKET – Members of the local All Star Cricket Club will celebrate the installation of a cricket pitching box at Adrian Bissonnette Field, off Elder Ballou Road, with a ribbon cutting ceremony Sunday morning.

The pitching box, or simply pitch, added to the little-used softball field this spring, gives the local club a regulation surface on which to hold matches with other members of the New England Cricket League.

Club manager Bhagath Siddi said the brief ceremony and speaking program at 8:30 a.m. Sunday will precede an exhibition game with another New England Cricket League team at the field, the cricket team from Sharon, Mass.

Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt and other representatives of the city have been invited to cut the ribbon on the field before the game, he said.

Baldelli-Hunt, whose family is wellknown for its baseball and softball talents, will be given the opportunity to heft a cricket bat and even swing at pitch from one of the cricket “bowlers” at the field.

“We will throw the ball real easy,” Siddi said while voicing a hope that the mayor will be able to connect for a hit.

The local club hosts about 80 cricket players in all, many who work for CVS Health, Siddi said.

When the regular season gets under way, the club will send teams of about 20 club members to play a match, whether that is on the local field or at an away location.

After the practice rounds now running among New England Cricket League teams finish up in a couple of weeks, the league’s regular season games will begin and run through the summer before ending with playoffs and the finals, according to Siddi.

As for the improvements at Bissonnette – including the installation of the artificial turf-topped pitch and a new parking area on the field near its access to Elder Ballou – Siddi said the local players are very pleased with them.

“It’s really awesome and everyone is enjoying it,” he said. The players have been using the field for practices and found a significant improvement over what had been at Bissonnette while playing there last year. “It really is awesome,” he said.

And for those who have not watched much cricket, the game is something like baseball, but not.

The game does have a batsman who swings at the cricket ball with a flattened-out bat, and there is a pitcher to

Photo by Joseph B. Nadeau Poorna Komatireddy bats while Drupad Anantala, left, plays keeper, as a group practices on Woonsocket’s new cricket pitch at Adrian Bissonnette Field.