Cricket games are on all summer long across the Twin Cities

Some grass, a ball, a bat. On this day in Brooklyn Park, an international pastime is underway.

"It's very competitive," Ramesh Ailaveni, the president of the Minnesota Cricket Association. "We want to prove who is the best and why we are the best."

The Minnesota Cricket Association has more than 2,000 players. It was started in the 1960s and is steadily growing. All summer long across the Twin Cities metro area, cricket matches are taking place.

"It gives us a platform for us to continue the game that we play back home and enjoy that thing — cricket, right — which relieves the stress off us," said Ailaveni. "We work the whole week pretty hard, IT jobs, stress, whatnot. And here we come and take the stress out."

Pratik Jagtap grew up playing in a small town in India. He came to Minnesota almost 20 years ago, thinking his cricket days were over. He was wrong.

"The fact that, in India, cricket is almost like a religion. So, you tend to enjoy it, but also follow the stars, the idols that play really well. So it was immense joy. And that joy is something that my sons who currently play in Minnesota have been able to enjoy as well," Jagtap said.

"Beauty of the cricket is we don't care where they are from," said Ailaveni. "It has players from all the continents. We have teams from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Caribbean Islands, Australia, New Zealand, England. Name it, we have pretty much everybody."

 Minnesota has many youth cricket clubs. Their next goal: get the sport into the high school league.

"A lot of legislators are showing interest," said Ailaveni. "But we need to get into the high school league to get the proper infrastructure, introduce the game into the high school. Start at the grassroot level so it can grow more."