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"The Cricket Ball", Swamibu, © 2010 Flickr, courtesy Creative Commons

Like every sport, cricket requires specialized equipment: bats, balls, wickets, padding and helmets.

Finding that equipment in Vancouver is a challenge.

Vancouver’s oldest sporting goods retailer, Abbie’s Sports Shop, does not carry cricket equipment of any kind. Chris Collins, Abbie’s owner and manager, said he tried stocking the gear about six years ago. “One of our boxing suppliers had some so I tried it out, but we couldn’t get rid of it,” said Collins.

Twice a year, Collins visits the Canadian Sporting Goods Association trade show in Vancouver, hunting for gear to add to his store’s selection. “You never see it,” said Collins. “You think it’d be more popular.”

Considering some of the larger clubs in Vancouver boast over 100 members and that there are two cricket leagues and 46 teams in the Lower Mainland, the Metro Vancouver Cricket League and the British Columbia Mainland Cricket League, it is somewhat surprising that cricket gear isn’t flying off shelves.

Where are the stores? A quick Google search for “cricket equipment vancouver” turns up some surprises.

The second result links to a Craigslist advertisement for SinghSportingGoods.com But the link fails. However, a Surrey address, 8198 132nd Street, is provided. Here’s what it looks like:

Obviously, that is not a retail storefront. It’s a house. Unfortunately, the mystery shrouding this retailer remains unsolved as voice messages left with the vendor were not returned.

That one of the only contacts for cricket equipment in Metro Vancouver operates out of a household points to something mentioned by Chris Collins. When it comes to getting cricket equipment in Canada, “lots of people here have connections overseas, like in Pakistan,” said Collins.

Players and teams often get their gear through personal relationships. Nitish Khanna, a second year chemical engineering at the University of British Columbia, told me he just brought his bat with him when he moved to Vancouver from Mumbai, India. “I didn’t have room for anything else,” said Khanna. But he knows someone who is heading to Pakistan soon and will be bringing back some new gear.

Jeff Ryan and the Meraloma Cricket Club do not rely on such nebulous connections. They have contracts with two companies – Gabba Sporting Products in Australia and John Newbery Ltd in England – and buys its bats, balls, pads, helmets, nets and even artificial turf from them.

But if you are looking for team and are worried about being without equipment, fear not! Most teams have extras they’re willing to share.

What’s a Meraloma?

According to the Metro Vancouver Cricket League, it’s the name of a cricket team. But after visiting the team’s clubhouse and talking to their president and vice president, I discovered that the team is not named after a person or a place.

Meraloma is a portmanteau. The Meraloma Athletic Club was established in 1923 by twelve young swimmers, who originally called themselves the Mermaids. Two years later, they took the ‘mer’ from mermaid, the ‘al’ and ‘om’ from the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and omega, and the ‘a’ from always. The motto, “Mermaids, first, last and always,” sticks with the club to this day.

It hasn’t always been the motto for the cricket team though. Before 1989, the Meraloma cricketers were part of the Vancouver Rowing Club. According to Once a Mermaid: The Meraloma Club 1923-1998, the Rowing Club cricketers sought membership with Meraloma for two reasons: the amount of time they already spent at Connaught Park and the “continued indifference” of the Rowing Club’s executive. But Jeff Ryan, president of the Meraloma Cricket Club, said the Rowing Club wanted the cricketers to help fund a new building in Stanley Park. So they joined Meraloma instead to spend more time in the brilliant clubhouse, Connaught Park field house.

The field house has housed the Meralomas since the 1940s. Extensive renovation and preservation work in the late 1970s led to its designation as a heritage building in 1981. Now, the building has home and visitors’ changing rooms, a “refreshments” area, a darts room and a furnished apartment for players visiting from overseas!

But it is not quite time for cricket yet. During Vancouver’s rainy winters, cricket hibernates. Even preseason depends on the weather. “We might have training this weekend, depending on the rain,” said Ryan.

The Meralomas are getting anxious for the start of the season, especially after last summer’s successes. Three of four squads won their respective divisions in 2009, nearly a whitewash.

Thankfully, the first cricket of the season begins this weekend. On March 20, Vancouver’s other cricket league, the British Columbia Mainland Cricket League are hosting a Twenty-20 tournament that is scheduled to run until the middle of April.

I’ll update later this week on the continuing debate over Twenty-20 cricket.