Any young person in Spokane who wants to play. The program started with refugee and immigrant young people and most of our players still come from those families, but it is open to everyone. Local families are welcome too. If your child plays baseball, much of it carries over, the throwing, the catching and the hitting, and our coach borrows from baseball in how he teaches. .

Yes. We do not turn anyone away for their background, their religion, their language, how much money their family has, or how good they are at cricket. Nobody has to arrive good, and nobody has to explain themselves to be here. 

Email info@spokanecricketacademy.org or bring your child to a session. Tell us their age and we will tell you when and where we train. Before a first session we need to hear from a parent, and before a second we need the consent form signed. 

No, and it never will. There is no fee and no kit to buy. We lend the bats, balls and protective gear. The only thing we ask families to buy is an athletic cup, because it has to fit properly and cannot be shared. If that is difficult, tell us and we will sort it out. 

Either. Your child can come to a first session without signing anything, as long as a parent knows they are there and we have a number to reach you on the day. Before a second session we need the consent form signed, with an emergency contact and any medical details. 

Ages 9 and up. Most of our players are in middle and high school. Players who came up through the program keep training with us to about twenty-two, and after that there is a place here for them as player coaches, as volunteers, or helping new families find us and settle in. Several of our coaches came up this way. 

Good. Most of our players had never held a bat before they came. We teach from the beginning, and nobody faces a hard ball until they are ready for it. Nobody has to arrive good. 

Yes, girls are very welcome, though we do not have any girl players yet. If you are thinking about it, talk to us first and we will sort out what your daughter would need before she starts, including having a woman there at sessions. Cricket is played by women all over the world and there is nothing about this program that is only for boys. 

Yes, and most of our players came that way. A friend is welcome to come and watch or join in for a first session.
Before that first session we need a parent or guardian to know their child is there. A message or a call is enough on the day, and we take a name, an age and a contact number.

Before a second session we need the consent form signed, with an emergency contact and any medical details.

If we cannot reach a parent, the friend is welcome to stay and watch with us until we can.

Talk to us and we will work it out together. There is more room in cricket than people expect, and the jobs in a team suit very different players. Tell us what your child needs before the first session rather than after, and we will be honest with you about what we can do well and what we cannot do yet. 

Come along and talk to us. You will need a parent or guardian to know you are here before your first session, and we can help you explain it to them. Nobody is turned away for not having asked yet. 

Yes. Parents and family are always welcome. Email info@spokanecricketacademy.org for the current time and place. 

Comfortable clothes, athletic shoes and a water bottle. We provide all the cricket equipment, including cricket shoes for players who need them. The one thing families buy is an athletic cup, because it has to fit. 

Play, belong, grow together. That is what we ask of everyone here, players and adults.

Respect for teammates, opponents and coaches, and no bullying of any kind. If there is a problem we talk to the player first. If it continues we ask him to bring his parents, and we work it out together.

Nobody has to arrive good. We do not compare players with each other. We expect our players to help each other learn, and the ones who have been here longest are the ones who teach the newest.

The same, and more of it. Our coaches and volunteers are here to teach and to encourage. They speak to every player with respect, and they do not compare one player with another. No adult is ever alone with a young person, and no adult messages a player under eighteen one to one. There is no alcohol at anything we run. If an adult does not keep to this, they do not coach here.

Parents are welcome at every session. We ask that you let the coaches coach, and that you support every player on the field, not only your own.

It means we train after the school day ends, so a child can come straight from school. It is free and no experience is needed. Many of our players arrive knowing the game already, and many arrive never having held a bat. 

We train in most weather. If a session is called off we let you know rather than leaving you to guess, so nobody turns up to an empty field. If you are not sure, email info@spokanecricketacademy.org

We stop. When the air quality index reaches 151 we do not train, and we tell you rather than leaving you to check. That is the same threshold the city applies to its own fields. If you would rather keep your child home at a lower number, do it, and nobody will ask you why. 

Outdoor practice pauses when the weather is not safe. We want to keep training indoors and we do not have a space yet. Last winter the players sorted it out themselves, booking a racquetball court at a gym and taping a target to the wall. This winter we want to do it properly, with coaching, and with room for the players who do not have a gym to go to.

If you know anywhere with a hard floor and room to run up and bowl, a school gym, a court, a warehouse, a church hall, or an indoor baseball facility, we would like to hear from you. Email info@spokanecricketacademy.org

Outdoors from May to October, indoors through the winter when we have a space. Two sessions a week, about two hours each, usually one weekday and one weekend day. We set the days around players who are studying or working, and we ask them before each season. Players come for as much or as little of it as their families can manage. Email us for the current times. 

He keeps his place. Work, school, family, illness, Ramadan, anything. Come back whenever you can. Nobody is dropped from this program for being away, and nobody has to explain themselves to return. 

Players get to Underhill Park in different ways. Some are dropped off, some walk or take the bus, some come with an older brother or a friend's family.

On the consent form a parent tells us how their child normally comes and goes. If that is by bus or on foot, a parent confirms they are happy for the player to arrive and leave on their own. We do not need to be told every week, only if it changes.

If someone other than a parent is collecting a player, tell us before the session. A message on the day is enough. Without that we keep the player with a coach until we reach a parent.

If a player needs a lift from one of us, we tell you who is driving and ask your permission first, and no player travels alone with one adult.

The meeting point for our own matches is Underhill Park. For away games it is where the team leaves from and returns to, and we tell families the place and time in advance. A player is collected from there, not from the ground.

A player is not released to make their own way home from an away ground, and is not collected from the ground by a parent who travelled separately, unless a parent tells us in writing beforehand. If someone other than a parent is collecting your child, tell us who, beforehand.

If nobody has arrived fifteen minutes after the end, an adult coach or volunteer stays with the player and calls the parent, then the emergency contact.

Away matches can mean a long drive, sometimes across the state. Before every trip we tell you the date, where it is, and when we expect to be back. Every trip has at least two adults, never one adult alone. Drivers are named to you in advance, hold a valid licence and insurance, and have a cleared background check. A parent or guardian gives written permission for each trip, not once for the season. Overnight trips need separate written permission, and a player never shares a room with an adult other than their own parent.

When a player travels with a club rather than with us, the club follows the same rules. That is part of the agreement they sign.

Carpooling between our families is something parents arrange with each other, not something the Academy organizes. If a family asks us to pass their number to another family, we ask that family first. A player travelling with another family is that family's responsibility, and a parent tells us in writing before the day. Any driver the Academy arranges goes through the same checks as a coach.

Lifts to club matches are different again. A club driving one of our players follows the same rules we do: drivers named in advance, licensed, insured and background-checked, and a parent's permission for each trip.

When a player arrives at a session or a match, and when they leave. Getting there and home again is not covered by us, unless the trip is one we have arranged. 

Every adult who coaches or transports a player must pass a background check, volunteers included. Our head coach is cleared. We are arranging checks for the other adults and they will be cleared before the spring season. Until a check clears, that adult works only alongside a cleared coach, and no young person is alone with an uncleared adult. 

Coaches handle minor injuries at sessions. Serious injuries mean a 911 call and an immediate call to your emergency contact. 

No. We cannot provide medical insurance for players, and any care a player needs is billed to the family or their insurer. We are arranging liability insurance through SIMBA, which covers the program rather than individual medical costs. If a player is injured we call 911 and the emergency contact we hold for them. 

He comes off, and he does not go back on that day. He does not train or play again until a licensed health provider trained in concussion has seen him and cleared him in writing. Every family signs a concussion information sheet at the start of each season.

This is the standard Washington sets for youth sports, and the City of Spokane requires it of youth groups using its fields.

Not yet. We are arranging liability insurance through SIMBA, our fiscal sponsor, and we expect it in place before the spring season. We would rather tell you that than let you assume otherwise. Liability insurance covers the program if a child is hurt because of something we got wrong. It does not pay medical bills, and it does not cover ordinary sporting injuries, which happen in every sport and are nobody's fault.

What we do have in the meantime: two adults at every session, a first aid kit, and an emergency contact for every player.

If any of this worries you, ask us. We would rather answer it than have you wondering.

We use photos from practice and matches on this website and in reports to the people who fund us. For anyone under eighteen we use first names only, never a full name, a school or an address. If you would rather your child was not photographed, tell us and that is the end of it. It changes nothing about their place here.

Cricket clubs take their own photographs and publish them on their own websites and social media. Our agreement with clubs requires first names only for players under eighteen and asks them to check with us before publishing a picture of one of our players. If a club does not follow it, tell us and we will take it up with them.

Not without your permission. If a newspaper, broadcaster or photographer wants to speak to or film a player under eighteen, they come to us first, and we come to you. Your child is never asked directly. 

Talk to Manoj, our head coach, or email info@spokanecricketacademy.org. 

We have a written agreement covering how our players are treated at any club they join. We are putting it in place with the clubs our players are already with, and no new club takes one of our players until it is signed. Invitations come through the head coach, never directly to a player. We talk it through with the player and his parents, and the parents decide. We look for clubs that value a player's growth over quick results.

These are the same rules any youth program works to. At least two adults are present and no player is ever alone with one adult. No player under eighteen is added to a club's group chat, and no adult at the club messages a player one to one. Drivers are named to us in advance, hold a valid licence and insurance, and are background-checked. The club tells us the date, the destination and the return time before every trip. A player stays overnight only with written permission from a parent for that trip, and never shares a room with an adult other than their own parent. If anything happens that concerns a player's safety, the club tells us the same day.

The agreement also covers what the club publishes. On its own roster, website and social media, the club uses first names only for players under eighteen, and checks with us before putting up a picture, a video or an article about one of our players. Where it does publish something about them, it names Spokane Cricket Academy. The cricket league's own site works differently, and we explain that below.

If a club, or anyone from a club, approaches you or your son directly, tell us. We will take it from there, and nobody is in trouble for being asked.

No family pays. Our players are at school or college, or working to support their families, and a club fee is the difference between playing and not playing. Our players only join clubs that waive it, at any age. Your child plays with our equipment. If a club ever asks you for money, tell us before you pay anything. 

The club carries its own insurance, not ours. We ask every club what it carries before one of our players turns out. 

Only if a parent's waiver has been signed and filed with the Northwest Cricket League. Without it the league's insurance does not apply and the league takes no responsibility for an injury. No player of ours takes the field in a league match until that waiver is filed. 

If your child plays a match for a club in the Northwest Cricket League, the league requires a profile on its public website, cricclubs.com, carrying his full legal name and a recent photograph showing his face clearly. That is the league's rule, not ours, and it is different from what we do here, where we use first names only for anyone under eighteen.

If you would rather your child's picture was not on a public website, tell us. The league's rules allow an umpire to check a player's ID on the day instead, though that is the umpire's decision on the day. We will arrange it with the club and tell you where it stands.

Players under eighteen also need a parent's waiver signed and filed with the league before they play. The club does the registering, not us, but we make sure you are asked first, and no child is registered without a parent's permission.

Yes. USA Cricket  https://usacricket.org/ runs age-group competition across the country, organised into regional hubs. Spokane sits in the Seattle Hub https://cricclubs.com/USACricketJunior/, which covers Washington and Oregon, and you can see its teams and fixtures there.

If your child wants to go for it, talk to us. We will tell you what the selection looks like this year and help with the entry.

These are the same rules any youth program works to. Talk to us first. Invitations to play come through the head coach, never directly to a player, so that no young person is asked to choose between a club and his family, school or job. This applies to any club, and to anyone acting for one, whether or not we have worked with you before.

We have a short written agreement covering how our players are invited, how they travel, how they are kept safe, and how the club names the Academy when it posts about them. We ask every club to sign it before one of our players turns out. Email info@spokanecricketacademy.org
 , and we will send it over. Please email rather than call or message, so there is a record for both of us.

Manoj Thirupal founded the program and volunteers as head coach. Seven of the people who coach here arrived as players. Our head coach is background-checked, and we are arranging checks for the other adults, who work only alongside a cleared coach until their own check comes back. Everyone who coaches is listed on the Who Runs the Program page.

Spokane Cricket Academy is a fiscally sponsored project of SIMBA  https://spokaneindependent.org, the Spokane Independent Metro Business Alliance, a 501(c)(3).

Spokane Cricket Academy is a fiscally sponsored project of SIMBA, the Spokane Independent Metro Business Alliance, a 501(c)(3), so donations are tax-deductible. Every player plays free and always will.

Our head coach is a volunteer and has never taken pay. We can only run as many sessions as we can pay for, which is why some young people are waiting for a place.

Money buys coaching hours, and coaching hours decide how many young people we can take. You can give at spokanecricketacademy.org/donate. Donations go through SIMBA, our fiscal sponsor, and are tax-deductible.

If you would rather help another way, we need a spin bowling coach, a wicketkeeping coach, a woman volunteer so girls can join us, and somewhere indoors to train this winter. Email info@spokanecricketacademy.org and tell us which one you can help with.

Yes. A session has a limit, and we are at it. Our coaches are volunteers who fit this around jobs and school, so the number of sessions we can run is the number of hours they can give. Paying for coaching hours is what would open another group. Every young person who asks goes on the list, and we contact families as soon as there is room.

If you would like to help us open another session, you can support the program.

Yes, and three things in particular. A spin bowling coach and a wicketkeeping coach, because every coach here is a pace bowler and those are two of the four jobs in a cricket side. And a woman volunteer, so that girls can join us. You do not need to know cricket for the third one.

We also need drivers and helpers at sessions. A baseball coach, or anyone who plays, would be especially welcome.

Every adult who volunteers goes through a background check, and until it clears they work only alongside a coach whose check has cleared. Email info@spokanecricketacademy.org

Yes. If you work with young people who might want this, tell us and we will make room. We can come and run an information session for your families, in their own language where we can. Email info@spokanecricketacademy.org

We do not take adult players from outside into our sessions. Our own are different. Players who came up here and are now in their twenties stay with us, coaching and training alongside the younger ones, and they will play together in our own team when it enters the league.
Our players learn from each other, and it is easier to learn from someone who was where you are three years ago than from a stranger.

Once a player is established at an adult club, he plays there, and we are glad when he does. Our kit and coaching go to the next young person coming through.

If you play and want to help, we are looking for coaches info@spokanecricketacademy.org

No. We coach in groups, and there are always at least two adults present. That is how we keep everyone safe, and it is how the program stays free for every player. 

Yes. We can run an introductory clinic at your school, or take your students into our program. Cricket travels well for young people who already play baseball, because the throwing and the hitting carry straight over, and our head coach has taught cricket from kindergarten through eighth grade for the Reardan-Edwall School District. Email info@spokanecricketacademy.org and tell us what you have in mind. 

Nobody is ever asked to miss prayers to be here, of any faith. We adjust sessions during Ramadan, and if a religious holiday falls on a training day, tell us and we will work around it. A player who misses sessions for their faith keeps their place, the same as a player who misses them for work or school. 

English. Nasser, our cultural navigator, works with families in Dari and Pashto, and several of our players speak both. 

A bat-and-ball sport between two teams, the second-most popular sport in the world.

New to it? KSPS, our own PBS station here in Spokane, made a seven-minute introduction

Growing quickly. Cricket returns to the Olympics at Los Angeles in 2028, a professional league has been running here since 2023, and schools and clubs are starting up across the country, including here in Washington. 

The Spokane Otters. Our own team, made up of players who came up through this program, aiming to enter the Northwest Cricket League in 2027. Getting there depends on two things: enough funding to keep coaching through the winter and into the spring, and ground time we can count on.