Cricket

For more than 20 years, an elegant alcove at Haverford College has been the repository of the C. Christopher Morris Cricket Library and Collection - a large, eclectic body of information about the game both in the United States and around the world. The walnut bookcases and cabinets are lined with silver trophies, scorebooks from the late 19th century, wooden bats and decades-old cricket blazers and cricket magazines. "We think it's the largest and most varied collection in this hemisphere," said Murray C. Haines, caretaker of the collection.

If you want to watch something different this weekend, how about a cricket match? The Philadelphia Cricket Committee's annual Red Stripe Tournament will be on the next three Saturdays at 1 p.m. in Fairmount Park. Tomorrow's match, if played, has an India-Pakistan team meeting the Combined Islands Team, made up of players from the Caribbean. The match will take place at the Philadelphia Archery Club, Belmont Avenue and Edgley Drive. Next Saturday' game has Jamaica meeting the Combined Islands Team at 42d Street and Parkside Avenue.

Many University of Pennsylvania students went to their Wednesday afternoon classes sleepy and less alert than normal. That's because they got up at 5 a.m. - not to write term papers but to watch the semifinal match between India and Pakistan in the World Cup cricket tournament, a battle in which India ultimately prevailed. In parts of the world such as South Asia, where cricket is immensely popular, the prospect of a penultimate contest between two nations with chilly political relations and a record of fierce athletic rivalry on the cricket pitch was as exciting as the Super Bowl and World Series rolled into one. "This is a once-in-a-generation thing," exclaimed Umer Ali, 21, a senior of Pakistani heritage who is majoring in politics, philosophy, and economics.

Most spring weekends, the timeless scene unfolds on the bucolic campus of Haverford College. Just past the duck pond, on the broad lawn in front of the president's quarters, students dressed in crisp, white cottons play cricket. For more than 150 years, they've been playing this genteel game at Haverford, the only college in the nation with a varsity cricket team. Except for a halftime break for tea and other refreshments at the cricket pavilion, they're out there all day, playing against a disparate collection of club teams.

Cricket players are supposedly gentlemanly fellows in their white trousers and crew neck sweaters. They take tea breaks in the middle of a match. The very word cricket has become a synonym for fair play. That polite image might have been exaggerated, but when the captain of England's national cricket team, Mike Gatting, cursed and furiously waggled his forefinger at Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana during an international match last week in far off Faisalabad, he triggered what London's tabloid Sun called the worst crisis in 111 years of international play.

TALK ABOUT love deferred. Eugene George met a lovely girl named Muriel Daly while attending school in Grenada in the West Indies. Romance bloomed. But fate intervened. Eugene and his brother, Andrew, went off to spend a couple of years in Trinidad, and then Eugene, a native Philadelphian, was drafted into the Army in World War II. After his discharge in 1947, he returned to Philadelphia. He settled in with his parents, but he didn't forget Muriel. In 1949, he sent for her, and they were married within a year.

LOS ANGELES - If you think people who pre-pay their cellphone bills aren't the type to shell out for music these days, think again. Pre-paid wireless carrier Cricket said yesterday that its Muve Music service has quickly become one of the top unlimited mobile music plans in the United States with 100,000 subscribers, just months after launching in January. The quick uptake by Cricket consumers - many of whom do not have credit cards - is a rare success for the music industry, still reeling from a piracy-induced decline in CD sales and struggling to boost music sales via digital means.

The spirit of Haverford College alumnus C. Christopher Morris has a splendid vantage point from which to watch over the love of his life. A full-length portrait of the dapper gentleman, his eyes peering straight into the room, hangs high on a fieldstone wall in a special alcove of the college library. From that view, Morris, nattily dressed in a white cable-knit sweater with the traditional tennis V-stripes, stands as quiet lord of all that can be seen - scads of books, pamphlets, records, photographs, uniforms and paraphernalia concerning the sport of cricket.

Looking at Spencer Dunkley's menacing, 6-foot-11 frame, it's impossible to imagine that at age 12 and growing up in Wolverhampton, England, the Delaware center had a passion for . . . cricket. Imagine . . . "Master Spencer, care for a spot of cricket before teatime?" Uh-huh. What you're more likely to envision is Dunkley's foreboding inside game on a basketball court and what it has done for the Delaware Blue Hens. With Dunkley in the middle, the Blue Hens have been a formidable foe in the North Atlantic Conference the last two seasons, compiling an 16-5 overall record this season, with a 7-2 mark in the NAC. "People think cricket isn't a big man's game, but both my parents were Jamaican," Dunkley explained.

Women's Golf Association INTER-CLUB TEAM MATCHES Round 2 of 5. Philadelphia Cup Sunnybrook 4, Gulph Mills 3 Phila. Cricket 6, Manufacturers 1: Kerry Rutan, PC, def. Tracy Albertelli, 5 and 4; Sarah Easton, M, def. Melana Regan, 2 up; Alison Shoemaker, PC, def. Sue Klauder, 2 up; Marji Goldman, PC, def. Ann Gilmore, 6 and 5; Jan Albert, PC, def. Tricia Delaney, 1 up; Cynthia Clough, PC, def. Betsy Quinn, 6 and 4; Becky Sanderson, PC, def. Jeanne McKenny, 6 and 5. Second Cup: Whiteford 1 def. Coatesville, 4-3; Spring Ford 1 def. Radley Run 1, 6-1; Sandy Run 1 def. Wilmington 1, 6-1. Third Cup: Medford Village 1 def. Aronimink 1, 4-3; Overbrook 1 def. Waynesborough 1, 4-3; Little Mill 1 def. Phila.

Golf Association of Phila. MID-AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP At Chester Valley; par 70. Round 1 Leaders John Brennan, Phila. Cricket. . . 67 Benjamin Smith, Little Mill. . . 69 Michael Brown, Publinks. . . 71 Rich Pruchnik, Back Creek. . . 72 Chip Lutz, LedgeRock. . . 72 Daniel Feeney, Phila. Cricket. . . 73 Tim Freeh, Back Creek. . . 73 Bill Boyle, Metedeconk. . . 73 Gary Daniels, Applebrook. . . 74 Joshua Isler, Chester Valley.