Kansas Cricket Field of Dreams

By Dr. Sham Samaroo

September 21, 2009

Nestled in Haysville, Kansas, in the heartland of America, there is a family living out every cricketer’s dream, having their own cricket ground, literally, in their backyard. It’s the nearest that one can possibly get to cricket’s paradise in America.  Edward Fox and his family are living out this dream.

I know what you must be thinking: That I am dreaming again…did he really say cricket ground in Kansas?  Yes, I most certainly did. I first heard of the Fox’s real life fantasy earlier this year. And liking cricket a little (ok, maybe just more than a little), I took a little trip through the fertile plains of Kansas to this cricket field of dreams – the Foxfire Cricket Ground.  I could have flown to Wichita (Haysville is just south of the city).  But the two-hour drive from Johnson County was peaceful and relaxing - a nature-lover’s paradise. Cruising through the Flint Hills of Kansas one is reminded of what this beautiful country looked like over two hundred years ago.  

As I drove up to the cricket ground, Edward Fox patiently awaited me. With a broad smile, he welcomed me into the club house adorned with flags of several cricketing nations. 

Foxfire Club House  

Edward and Alice Fox 

The audacity to dream... of cricket

in Wichita, Kansas

An Aussie by birth, Edward Fox hails from Sydney. His lovely wife, Alice, who by this time had joined us, is from Kansas. So how did you meet, I wanted to know. “When she was holidaying in Australia in 1989”, Edward happily reminisces. He inconvenienced her just enough that she missed her bus (by design or preordained, you decide). But, being a gentleman, Edward offered to make it up by treating her to dinner. Married soon after, Fox relocated to America and for all intents and purposes cricket became a distant memory. That was until 2002 when he returned to Australia for a visit. While there, his son Jason fell helplessly in love with the game. It was enough to get Fox’s cricket juices flowing again. After returning to America, the Foxs bought a home with 15 acres and began to build their cricket field of dreams - Foxfire Cricket Field.  

An Aussie, married to an American, and owning a cricket field in the middle of America - this has got to be the stuff that dreams are made of. Kansans, you see, have always been dreamers. Instead of merely accepting what is, they dream about what might be. A hundred and fifty years ago, Kansans endured death and destruction (Bleeding Kansas; the history books call it) because they refused to accept slavery. Instead they dreamed of a world where all men might be free…and were willing to fight and to die for that dream. It is that same spirit, one sense, which moves the Foxs to dream of a world where American youths might also play cricket alongside baseball and football. 

In the fall of 2002 Fox began volunteering in neighborhood schools teaching cricket. It is “the best way to introduce the game to Americans”, Fox confidently assures me. Not surprisingly, the children took to the game like duck to water. In 2003, Mike Miller, one of the founders of youth cricket in America, had high praise for this Kansas initiative.  The United States Cricket Association (USACA), too, was equally impressed and invited Fox to make a presentation on junior cricket at a symposium in Florida. But at the midnight hour, USACA pulled the plug on his presentation, Fox regretfully recalls.

Hurt but not discouraged by USACA’s slight, Fox passionately pursued with his dream. The school initiative continued to prosper and by 2007, there were some 32 schools, from grades 3 through 9 that were involved in the program. The intention was to put in place a program of teaching the Physical Education teachers who would then turnkey the lessons to reach larger numbers of students. But in order to sustain the program some form of funding had to be forthcoming. The hope was that cricket would move beyond this voluntary initiative to a more formalized program within the public school’s athletics curriculum. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Struggling to survive, the initiative finally succumbed to the unseasonably wet weather in 2007 when the 17-week program was curtailed to a mere two weeks.

             Would the names of American cricket icons one day decorate this Wall of Fame?

So what has the experience taught him? Fox is unerring in his belief that cricket can succeed in the United States if everyone who loves the game introduces a fellow American to it – “each one brings one”.

Today the Foxfire Field, with its magnificent clubhouse and training facilities, hosts games of the Tristate League. The League boasts 8 teams from the Wichita, Oklahoma City and Tulsa area. Serving as League president since 2007, Fox tells me that he is considering stepping down in order to refocus his energies and resources on resuscitating junior cricket. In the past month “we have already signed up 11 young kids”, Fox happily shares with me. The Foxs are extending an open invitation to players and teams from anywhere in the country to come to the Foxfire facility for a stint of coaching, practice and playing. The Foxs will provide room and board free of charge. 

Foxfire Field holds lots of wonderful memories for the Foxs but perhaps the most cherished of them all so far was watching their son, Jason, now 17 years old, score his first hundred a few weeks ago (for baseball fans that’s like hitting a grand slam). “It was a chanceless hundred”, boasts Fox, beaming with fatherly pride. 

The dream for youth cricket at Foxfire Field continues…

            The Fox's dog...his name?...you guessed it...cricket!