The nicest park in Van Nuys

I first played at Woodley Park in 2001, when I was working as a summer intern programmer in a suburb of Los Angeles. My innocuous left-arm orthodox spin was hammered for 1 for 66 in 8 overs. But I loved it ... the grounds I mean, not the hammering. The one batsman I dismissed lbw didn't think it was out.

Recently I had the opportunity to play once again at Woodley Park during the USA Western Conference Championships. Not much had changed: I still got hammered, and a batsman I dismissed lbw still didn't think it was out. Once again, though, I loved it. In the intervening years, I got married and became a full-time code-monkey. I also made several trips to Los Angeles during those years, to play cricket there. I participated in a previous edition of the Western Conference Championships, in the LA Open T20 competition, and represented the USA Western Region against the visiting Marylebone Cricket Club squad, all at Woodley Park. I didn't get hammered every time, but I loved it every single time.

I consider the Woodley Park cricket grounds the best cricket facility west of Toronto, Canada. Personally, I rate it over Brockton Point in Stanley Park, Vancouver, where I've also had the pleasure of playing. Brockton Point was actually rated by Sir Don Bradman in 1932 as the "prettiest" cricket venue he'd ever played at. I don't disagree. Who am I to disagree with the Don? It may be the prettiest, no doubt, but that's different from being the best. Allow me to explain.

To me, the foremost attraction of the four cricket grounds (Marder, Wong, Wright, and Severn) in Woodley Park in Los Angeles' Van Nuys suburb, is turf wickets. Apart from Woodley Park, turf wickets can only be found in the USA in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a mere 2700 miles away. (There's a new facility coming up in Cupertino, California, with turf wickets, but I'm told that's only a practice facility.) No turf wickets at Stanley Park. Cricket is played everywhere in the USA and Canada, but largely on artificial turf.

We North American cricketers are masters of the parallel universe of astro-turf cricket. Just as experienced turf cricketers can identify bouncy, seaming, and turning tracks, experienced cricketers in the US can actually distinguish different types of astro-turf: fast and bouncy, skiddy, slow, etc. Woodley Park doesn't just provide the opportunity to play on turf pitches, but with four grounds in the Leo Magnus Cricket Complex, it actually has multiple types of turf wickets. When I played there last month, I played on a slow pitch with dense dried grass on the Wong ground on a Friday, a better batting pitch on Marder the next day, and an absolute belter again on Wong on Sunday.

What a rich experience.

Another attraction of Woodley is the smooth, fast and yet lush green outfield. Most cricket grounds in the USA are shared with amateur soccer or baseball clubs. Those wusses - especially at the amateur level - want thick grass in the outfield. Park authorities are thus loath to shear the outfield such that a well-timed cover-drive can reach the boundary.

The grounds at Woodley Park, on the other hand, are used exclusively for cricket and are impeccably maintained. A pleasure to field on, promoting good batting technique by encouraging ground-shots, and forcing bowlers to keep a three-quarter, as opposed to driving length.

To be clear, Woodley Park is not the best cricket facility in the USA. That honour belongs to the Lauderhill stadium in Florida, which recently hosted Twenty20 internationals between New Zealand and Sri Lanka. An electronic scoreboard, sight screens, floodlights, seating capacity of 5000, massive clubhouse, proper home and away dressing rooms etc make it an international-quality stadium. It is, however, used only for high-profile games: national championships, national team trials, and international matches.

Playing at Lauderhill instilled in me a feeling of awe. I was lucky to play a night game there during the USA national team trials last year. My abiding memory is that of climbing up Row A through Row H in the stands to retrieve the ball after USA star Rashard Marshall had hooked it miles over the square-leg boundary. Playing at Woodley, on the other hand, instills a feeling of joy. Playing cricket at Woodley is like visiting Central Park as a tourist in New York City. Playing at Lauderhill is like visiting the United Nations building. I'm told the Toronto Cricket, Skating, and Curling Club - famous for hosting the India v Pakistan Sahara Cup games in the 1990s - is a terrific cricket facility as well. I've never been there.

Perhaps the biggest compliment I can pay Woodley is that my team at the Western Conference Championships, the North-west Region, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, didn't mind letting go home advantage for a chance to play there. By rotation it should've been our turn to host the tournament: a prestigious event just one level down from the USA national championships. But nobody complained about playing away at Woodley, the home of our rivals, the South-West Region. It says a lot about Woodley, and also about our own craze for cricket, that some of us spend day after day in Los Angeles, and tour after tour at Woodley, with nary a visit to the city's world famous tourist attractions: Hollywood, Disneyland, Universal Studios, Venice Beach, and Santa Monica.