Cricket club looking for a new home

TWO weeks ago, Raju Singh and all of India went berserk as the country won their second ever cricket World Cup. This week, the New Delhi man, who lives in Shannon and works in Limerick, has a more basic cricketing issue to deal with. A member of the County Clare Cricket Club, who share a playing pitch with Shannon Hibernian FC, at the back of the Ballycasey Craft Centre, Raju and his clubmates are looking for a new home.
Rental costs have escalated and the club, which won a Munster Division 2 league title in 2009, is finding it hard to nail down specific times for training or playing.
“We’re looking for another ground. It would be nice to have our own field,” Raju told The Clare Champion this week. Ideally, the new ground would be in Shannon or Ennis but they are not fussy. 
“We don’t mind driving,” he said. “There’s a lot of interest in Clare. We have 20 to 25 kids and that is only going to increase. We had training last Tuesday week and there were at least 20 new school kids who turned up. After Ireland doing so well, there were a lot of people interested,” he added.
The club is in its fourth year competing.
“This year, we are playing in two leagues. Before this, we were only in Division 2. Now we’re in the Munster Division 2 and 3,” Raju explained. The Division 3 team will be made up largely of youngsters. The club also has access to Paul Foley, who is a qualified cricket coach.
The County Clare Cricket Club have been in touch with Clare County Council in an effort to seek a ground but to no avail yet. 
“They have told us to write a letter to them. We’ve tried to talk to them over the last couple of years but nothing turns up. They give us promises but nothing happens,” Raju lamented.
He watched India’s six-wicket World Cup final win over Sri Lanka at home but later joined up to 50 of his country men and women to celebrate their second World Cup win.   
“I watched it at home but after the match, we all went to a friend’s house. After that, we went to Darcy’s in Shannon for a party and we were there until 4am in the morning. It was probably the best day of my life,” Raju recalled.
He wouldn’t have minded being at home in New Delhi for a few hours last Saturday week.
“We were saying that we wished we were in India. It was crazy over there. All of the Indian news channels were showing pictures. Everybody was out on the roads partying. There’s more than a billion people in India and it seemed that they were all outside on the road,” Raju reflected.
On a more local level, the Clare Cricket Club’s first Division 3 league game will be played on April 24 with a cup game due on May 4. Raj, who is an all rounder, hopes the club will have a decent year but more significantly, they are very keen to tie down a permanent home somewhere in Clare.
The club continue to train every Tuesday evening at 6.30pm in Shannon. Contact details can be found on clarecricket.webs.com.