As the International Cricket World Cup played out in South Africa, many cricket followers installed satellite dishes just to watch the game live. Because of the time difference between South Africa and California, local fans watched the games from midnight to 7 a.m. They got only one hour to sleep between the two innings. Some fans who could not watch the World Cup on TV followed the games via a live webcast.

"In India, the Cricket World Cup is like the Super Bowl, but it only happens every four years," says Pranav Shah, who bought a 100-inch front projection television along with seven other friends in order to watch the World Cup. An estimated 90 million fans in India watched the event.

De Anza freshman Milan Brahmbhatt and his classmates have closely followed the World Cup.

"Cricket is my passion," says Brahmbhatt, 19. "My favorite player is Sachin Tendulkar. He is the Michael Jordan of cricket. One game commentator says if cricket is a religion, Sachin Tendulkar is the god."

Brahmbhatt tried to get some sleep before the matches so he could stay up and watch them with his parents and twin sister. If he fell asleep, he watched the replays in the afternoon. He was happy that semifinals weren't played every day so he could concentrate on preparing for his finals at De Anza.

Restaurants are among the most popular places to watch the games. For the World Cup, fans from South Africa, India and England flocked to Banjara Indian Cuisine at 407 Town and Country Village, Sunnyvale, for the three big movie screens and six televisions that dominate the restaurant—fans could watch the game from any angle.

"Cricket is like religion in India," says Lu Muvva, owner of Banjara, who is also a cricket fan.

"When India and Pakistan had a match on March 1, it was like a war. We had more than 200 people in the restaurant," he says. "Pakistan played pretty well, but we beat them."

The match might be like a war in the eyes of many Indians and Pakistanis, but De Anza student Fahad Karamat, 21, was happy no matter which team won. Karamat's mother is Indian and his father Pakistani. Serving as president of the Pakistani Student Association and treasurer of the Indian Club, Karamat brought cricket fans of both clubs together for the first time this year. While the match could have been an emotional issue because of the conflicts going on between the two countries, good sportsmanship prevailed over the political differences. The two teams will play another match in May.

Some cricket fans have even flown to South Africa to watch the games.

Chandra Bodapati, founder of the Sunnyvale Cricket Club, booked a World Cup package for $2,000 six months before the event. The package included plane tickets, game tickets and opportunities to play with other cricket fans.

Bodapati's passion for cricket is well-known in local cricket circles. His most famous suggestion to bachelors is: "If a girl doesn't like cricket, don't marry her."

Bodapati, 45, is not joking. His wife, Sujatha, said one of the first questions Bodapati asked her was whether she liked cricket. Bodapati's son is named after India's best batsman, Sunil Gavaskar.

"We bought our house in Saratoga because the backyard is big enough for his cricket net," says Sujatha, 40. "He didn't even bother to look at the inside. And we bought the cricket net even before we bought the furniture for the living room."

Although it's not yet a popular sport in the United States, the craze for cricket is picking up here as immigrants from Great Britain and its former colonies bring their bats and white uniforms with them.

The United States of America Cricket Association, which represents the United States in the International Cricket Conference, now has 29 established leagues, 500 clubs and more than 10,000 players. The United States is likely to host some of the games in the next World Cup.

Monta Viista High School has its own cricket team. But since Cupertino doesn't have a cricket pitch, the Monta Vista team plays once a month at Memorial Park. Many cricket lovers play at Ortega Park, 636 Harrow Way, Sunnyvale.

The pitch was build by the city of Sunnyvale and the Sunnyvale Cricket Club, one of the oldest cricket clubs in the Bay Area. The club has gone through several transformations and finally settled on its current name in 1992, when the city of Sunnyvale agreed to build a standard pitch at Ortega Park.

The club's partnership with the city has been extensively covered in many publications, including a cover story in India Today, the Indian equivalent of Time magazine.

"Sunnyvale is famous in India," Bodapati says. "Many Indians come to Sunnyvale because of the cricket pitch."

With a permanent home, the Sunnyvale Cricket Club has attracted many good players. Two of its three teams belong to the A-Division League of the Northern California Cricket Association and one to the C-Division League.

Members just resumed practice to prepare for the league game, which will kick off in April. The teams practice twice a week in the evening at Ortega Park. Although practice is not mandatory, members who fail to show up won't be selected for the teams.

"The 55 members of our club come from different parts of India and speak at least six different Indian dialects," says club member Chandra Venkatraman. "But cricket is our common denominator, as it has held India together."

Some club members play cricket for nostalgic reasons.

Photograph by Sean Penello Sunnyvale Cricket Club members (from left) Srikanth Rabhavan, Ganesan Ramu and Salman Choudary play a game at Sunnyvale's Ortega Park.

"As the first generation of Indian immigrants, we are still emotionally attached to India," says Venkatraman, who came to the United States in 1980. "Cricket reminds us of our childhood and youth in India."

To continue the heritage, Venkatraman and other club members send their children to Bodapati's house on the weekends to learn cricket.

Some say they like playing cricket because it is a sophisticated game.

"A formal cricket game takes five days," says Bhavani "Bob" Pedadda, founding member of the Sunnyvale Cricket Club. "To be more efficient, a game is reduced to one day, but it still takes a lot of long-term strategies to win."

Cricket originated in England during the 12th century.

"Cricket is similar to baseball, but the bat is flat and the ball is red," says Ravi Pindiproli, president of the Sunnyvale Cricket Club. "The batsman can hit the ball in any direction since there is no foul line. And unlike baseball, the bowler [pitcher] cannot bend the arm when throwing the ball."

Pindiproli, 35, says cricket stresses the importance of sportsmanship.

A game usually consists of two innings and is played by two teams of 11 on a 525-by-550-foot level pitch. Two wickets are placed 66 feet apart near the middle of the field. The batsman scores if he bats the ball far enough that he and the batsman at the other wicket can exchange places. If the ball goes far enough, the two men can exchange places up to four times, racking up as many points.

A player is out if the bowler or someone on the opposing team knocks down the wicket with the ball. A batsman is also out if an opposing fielder catches a batted ball on the fly, as in baseball.

"If a player knows he's out, he will leave before the umpire asks him to," Pindiproli says. "This is not a do-or-die game. This is a gentlemen's game."

No matter why they like cricket, club members and their family members have developed strong bonds.

On a recent Sunday, club members practiced at Ortega Park while their wives sat on white lawn chairs and chatted with one another. The children played cricket on a small pitch nearby. During the lunch break, everyone sat on the grass and ate curry chicken and Indian bread delivered by a local Indian restaurant.

"It's like a social event to us," Venkatraman says. "It brings everyone together. It is the inclusiveness of the game that attracts me most."

The lives of cricket fans returned to normal when the Cricket Conference World Cup ended on March 23 with India losing to Australia.