Giving Students from the Diaspora a College Cricket Platform Worthy of NCAA level Competition
June 22, 2026
On college campuses across the United States, students from the diaspora sit in packed basketball arenas and football stadiums, surrounded by marching bands, school colors, alumni pride, and the unmistakable energy of college sports, which is uniquely American. Many of them grew up loving cricket just as deeply. And somewhere in that crowd, a question naturally forms: why not us? Why not cricket?
Across the United States, for decades students have built cricket clubs with little outside help. They organize practices, schedule matches, travel long distances, and keep clubs alive largely through their own effort. Many receive little or no formal support from their universities. Cricket is not represented in the NCAA, so student-athletes who love the game often have to build their own opportunities from the ground up.
That is why we built the Collegiate Cricket League.
For the Indiaspora community, this mission should be deeply personal. Indian Americans have excelled across education, business, public service, philanthropy, technology, medicine, and the arts. Yet when it comes to cricket, a sport so closely tied to Indian identity and community, many students have not had access to the same infrastructure, visibility, or institutional support that exists for other college sports.
When we launched 18 months ago from our campus at Georgetown University, our goal was simple: give student-athletes a real platform for the game they love. Today, the Collegiate Cricket League has grown to 50 universities and 750 student-athletes. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to organize and elevate collegiate cricket across North America, creating a structure where students can represent their universities, compete against serious competition, and be globally recognized for their talent.
We believe these students deserve better.
Our student-athletes deserve organized tournaments, trained officials, quality coaching, safe facilities, broadcast opportunities, university recognition, and a pathway that treats cricket as a serious collegiate sport, and deserve the chance to wear their university colors with the same pride as athletes in more established sports.
The early results show what is possible. Three Collegiate Cricket League players have already advanced to professional opportunities in the National Cricket League and the English County Cricket circuit, and several others are playing in Minor League Cricket. For a league that is still young, that is a powerful sign. It shows that when student-athletes are given visibility, structure, and belief, they can move from campus cricket to professional stages.
The Collegiate Cricket League was recently featured at Foreign Policy’s Sports Diplomacy Summit, sitting alongside leaders from Formula One and USA Rugby, where we discussed the league’s rapid rise and the role cricket can play in America’s expanding sports landscape. That moment reinforced what we see every day: cricket is no longer happening only on the margins.
Our long-term vision is ambitious. We want to help move collegiate cricket toward university recognition, varsity status, scholarships, and permanent infrastructure on campuses. We want to create a women’s collegiate cricket league by 2030. And we want American universities to become a serious pathway to professional and Olympic cricket.
But that vision requires community support. The Collegiate Cricket League, like many of the student clubs we serve, is self-funded. We are not receiving institutional support that established college sports receive from universities or the NCAA. We are building something that can benefit the next generation, but we cannot build it alone.
That is why we are asking the Indiaspora community to stand with us.
If cricket has shaped your childhood, your family, or your connection to India, this is a chance to help ensure that today’s students have opportunities many of you never had. If you believe in youth leadership, community pride, university pride, and building institutions that reflect the passions of the Indian diaspora, we invite you to support the Collegiate Cricket League.
Please consider donating at CollegiateCricket.com. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all donations to the Collegiate Cricket League are tax deductible. Your contribution helps us expand access, strengthen university programs, and give student-athletes the platform they deserve.
And if you would like to get involved as a mentor, volunteer, sponsor, university partner, or community advocate, please email info@collegiatecricket.com. We would be grateful to hear from you.
Ashrav Paul, Siddharth Rao, and Steve Smith are with the Collegiate Cricket League, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to organize and grow collegiate cricket across North America. Together, they are passionate about creating opportunities for student-athletes and building a collegiate platform for the game so many students from the diaspora love.
