Heightened violence against Indian international students in 2010 inspired a pastor in Melbourne to turn St Columbs Anglican Church in Hawthorn into a thriving cricket club.
Pete Horsford, a pastor at St Columbs Anglican Church, wanted to do something in response to the attacks on Indian students in 2010 and that is when he came up with this idea of turning the church hall into an indoor cricket facility.
A cricket lover himself, Pete thought the old church hall, located across from Swinburne University, which hosts a number of Indian international students was perfect for cricket and a great way to foster a positive environment and community atmosphere.
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“Swinburne was recruiting Indian students heavily but there was this anxiety amongst the community,” he said.
Pete saw the struggles people were facing as an opportunity to bring the Indian and Sri Lankan community together via cricket, a sport that is wildly popular in their home countries.
“I wanted to give them a welcoming and safe place to play cricket.
“The building has fabulous old architecture and people come in expecting to see a church but they get a cricket pitch instead, which makes it interesting.
“It’s also a community that people want to belong to and they want to come somewhere and see their friends and feel like they can come and stay a long time instead of just coming, playing a game and leaving,” said Pete.
Today, almost eight years, Indian and Srilankan international students gather five nights a week to play a twenty-twenty game in this 130-year-old church.
There are now four men’s leagues, one women’s league and between 30-40 teams in total.
Pulkit Gupta, who captains one of the teams, The Mighty Ducks, , "Pete's done a great job to maintain relationships, we all pitch in. It's a very tight-knit community, everyone knows each other."
St Columbs Cricket Club, which is part of Cricket Australia’s Community Champions Campaign, welcomes people of all religions.
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“As a church, we feel it is important to love people as they turn up, whoever they are,” said Pete.
The club offers innovative features such as live streaming of matches and decision review system (DRS) and are thankful for the volunteers, from both the church and cricket community that have come together to make it all possible.
“Our volunteers are people from both communities and even for those that don’t play, turning up and contributing is significant to people.
“I would like to keep what we have going and continually build those relationships that have been made,” he said.
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