March 24, 2010 was a momentous day. On that day, DreamCricket.com published an essay by Jamie Harrison entitled “Getting Kids Playing Cricket” and DreamCricket’s Venu Palaparthi offered Harrison ten cricket sets with which to test his theory about American children taking to the game. Later that day, Harrison had an EIN number created for a new entity that he called the “Maryland Youth Cricket Association.” He then purchased the mdyouthcricket.org domain.
With that, Maryland Youth Cricket was off and running. By year’s end (and with more support from DreamCricket.com) dozens of teachers in Maryland had cricket sets and training, and hundreds of children in Maryland had experienced a new sport. In the next few years, key leaders joined the organization, community programs sprang up, and soon after a statewide youth cricket championship was born. Schools cricket competitions were not far behind. The rest, as they say, is history.
In 2020 Maryland Youth Cricket celebrates its tenth anniversary. As it does, the nation will be focused on Maryland, as in addition to our regular slate of competitions, a number of prestigious tournaments will take place in the state.
Opening Day for the state championship season is April 18, and then the National Capital Youth Championship is scheduled for Memorial Day weekend in May. The state championships are set for June 27, and then things get really busy. The National Youth Cricket League tournaments will take place from July 3 -13, followed by the National Women’s Cricket League tournament July 12 – 15. After a window for our annual summer cricket competition, we’ll then have the Capital Youth Cricket Championship over Labor Day weekend.
Also, part of our celebration in 2020 will be a revamped MYCA logo, which will replace the image that has served us so well for our first ten years. The new logo is a shield design, and while it is different, it retains the “flag & fireball” motif that has come to be identified with MYCA. There will also be a logo variant that commemorates the 10th anniversary celebration.
The new logo will appear starting January 1.
So, get ready, Maryland, and look out, America! 2020 is our big year!