Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
Cricket History
Cricket is Haverford's oldest and most distinctive sport and was possibly introduced by the English landscape architect who planned the campus in 1833, William Carvill. Club teams conducted robust competition on campus from the early 1850’s, and one of the first intercollegiate contests of any variety played anywhere was Haverford's victory over the University of Pennsylvania in cricket in 1864.
One of the earlier varsity players, Henry Cope, Class of 1869, inspired Haverford cricketers for many decades, and the team's picturesque home pitch, surrounded by the president's and faculty members' houses, is now named in his honor. Almost every student of that era played some form of cricket at Haverford.
In 1890's Philadelphia, cricket was the prominent game, and crowds of up to 20,000 often watched matches throughout the area. Haverford College played a major role in that phenomenon, especially from 1895 and 1896 on when a great athlete from England, John A. Lester, Sr., 1896, and a Quaker lad from New Jersey, J. Henry Scattergood 1896, brought the Haverford XI to new heights. Lester, who also starred in American football and several other sports, and Scattergood, probably the finest wicket-keeper American cricket has ever produced, were the prime reasons the team sought stronger competition and launched the first in a long Haverford tradition of England tours, meeting all the major public schools there in the summer of 1896. The first professional coach, George Woodcock, was also imported from England in the 1890's.
Trips to England continued approximately every four years until 1924. A "rookie" on the 1900 trip, C. Christopher Morris 1904, returned to England his senior year and matched the superb play of Lester and Scattergood. "Christy" Morris had a long career as one of Philadelphia's finest cricketers. The C.C. Morris Cricket Library, housed in the college's Magill Library, is one of the most comprehensive collections of cricket publications and memorabilia in North America. Amar Singh ’54, former curator of the library, was a cricket and soccer star in the 1950's and was one of the principal supporters of the XI.
A veteran of the final England tour of that era, Howard Comfort ’24, son of then-Haverford President William Wistar Comfort, returned to Haverford a few years after graduation to teach classics and remained as head of that department and cricket coach until his retirement in 1973. Comfort's teams were well-coached and maintained a high standard of play. Most players were Americans who first learned the rudiments of cricket at Haverford, though there were occasional players with international cricket backgrounds. Jamaican Osmond Pitter ’26 was a fine cricketer and may have been Haverford's first student of African descent.
Sometime after the arrival of Kamran Khan, still coach today after more than 40 years of service, things changed a bit. While Americans still were heavily involved, students from many former British Commonwealth countries began to arrive, especially talented and experienced cricketers from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. They received excellent instruction from Khan, a former Pakistani national team member who now has served many years as the playing captain of the USA national team and spread the word.
By 1989, the XI under captain Samir Desai ’89 and brilliant all-rounder Ravi Sheth ’90, was deemed strong enough to cross the Atlantic again (several previous teams had been to Canada) and toured England and Scotland with much success. A triumphal England tour, seven victories and one draw against colleges at Oxford and Cambridge and other elevens, took place in 1996.
There is no shortage of cricket teams to play with the many clubs in the Philadelphia area and more colleges adopting the sport every year, though Haverford remains the only real varsity in the USA. With the coaching tradition of Comfort and Khan still intact, the program expects to see cricketers scurrying around Cope Field spring and fall for years to come. However, starting with the 2017-18 academic year, new red and black uniforms have given the team a distinct look from its competition.
