For years, cricket advocates across the Tri-Valley have worked to make space for one of the world’s most popular sports in communities where demand is unmistakably rising. Kids are joining leagues, and towns in the 925 have become a major focal point for youth cricket in the East Bay.
But there’s a problem: there are simply not enough places to play.
San Ramon, one of the region’s top cricket cities, now has three regulation cricket grounds, after converting portions of existing baseball and soccer facilities over the past decade.
Yet the city’s own current field listings show cricket space is limited to just a handful of school-park locations, including Bella Vista, Gale Ranch Middle School and Windemere Ranch Middle School.
That shortage has become a real source of friction.
A new report from the San Francisco Chronicle details a growing dispute between two youth cricket organizations — the San Ramon Cricket Association Youth program and the California Cricket Academy — over access to city fields.
Both groups serve young players in the region, but their need for practice and game space has increasingly collided with a reservation system that must also accommodate baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse and other local sports.
The issue is a sign that cricket has moved from a niche activity to an established youth sport in the Tri-Valley, without receiving the same infrastructure that more traditional American sports have spent decades building.
Cricket has been growing locally for years. In 2022, KQED reported that Tri-Valley families, schools and youth organizations were pushing for dedicated fields in places such as Dublin, Pleasanton and San Ramon, with advocates repeatedly identifying field construction as one of the sport’s biggest barriers.
San Ramon has continued investing in the sport. The city’s newly adopted FY 2026-27 budget notes that a cricket pitch renovation at Gale Ranch was completed during the prior fiscal year, an acknowledgment that cricket facilities are now part of the city’s regular parks-and-recreation infrastructure.
Still, upgrading an existing pitch is different from creating enough capacity for a rapidly growing number of players.
That is especially difficult because a proper cricket ground apparently requires a lot of room. Unlike a simple practice cage or a small-sided soccer field, a regulation cricket setup needs a large playing area, a prepared pitch, safe run-up space for bowlers and enough separation from nearby homes, playgrounds and other activities.
City leaders face an uncomfortable math problem. More cricket fields could help serve a large and growing segment of local families, but each additional facility may require taking space from baseball, soccer or another heavily used activity.
For now, the 925’s cricket boom is both a success story and a challenging one. The sport is thriving, producing a new generation of local players and giving many families a meaningful connection to a game they grew up loving.
But unless cities across the Tri-Valley find more places for those players to practice and compete, the biggest battle in local cricket may not happen on the pitch at all.
