Ahmadani explained how cricket teams get to compete in the AGCC.
"You have to play a certain number of matches on the table fixture and they see how many wins you have ... we won the table championship, which is a league championship, and if you win the most games you get [the table championship]," said Ahmadani, who moved to Georgia from Pakistan in 2002. "Once you qualify in the playoffs, there are eight teams, and from there if you lose one game you're out of the tournament and if you keep winning those games you go to quarterfinals, then you go to the semifinals, and the last two teams play in the finals."
Ahmadani said the game is played year-round with the 40-over season just ending and the 20-over season just beginning. He said a typical 40-over game lasts eight to nine hours and 20-over games last about two hours.
The game itself is comparable to America's pastime baseball, but with differences in equipment, scoring and field play. The University of Alabama's website, www.bama.ua.edu, explains "cricket made easy."
According to the site, "Cricket is a team sport for two teams of 11 players each ...Teams bat in successive innings and attempt to score runs, while the opposing team fields and attempts to bring an end to the batting team's innings. After each team has batted an equal number of innings -- either one or two, depending on conditions chosen before the game -- the team with the most runs wins."
The ball is like a baseball in size and weight and players have protective gloves, pads and helmets for use on the field or when a player is batting. The act of throwing the ball is called "bowling" rather than "pitching."
Ahmadani said passion for the sport is strong in Pakistan.
"The thing is, in Pakistan they play [cricket] in the streets. It's a common thing over there but here it's less common," he said. "You have to get the right facility and I didn't know for two years there was a cricket existence in the USA, and I picked up on baseball."
A lefty pitcher, Ahmadani said there were some parts of the game that were easy to pick up on while others were a new concept -- for example, using a baseball glove.
"Because of cricket, I can't catch the ball with the baseball glove very well, but I can catch it bare-handed with no problems at all, no matter how fast it is," Ahmadani said, laughing.
He eventually learned about cricket being played in Kennesaw and the NACC and began finding others with the same interest.
"My goal is to play for [the U.S. cricket team], which is professional cricket," Ahmadani said. "You get to represent the USA on the international level and play against other countries."