Cracking Willows began as a pipe dream of Rufus Gandhi back in 2009 soon after he moved to Singapore. Having given up playing following the arrival of his twins in 2006, Rufus decided to go and try some nets and was joined by Sandeep U who had also recently moved to Singapore from India. The two were just wanting to get back into the game slowly with a view to joining a local club to play some friendly cricket. However, despite contacting a number of clubs, there was not much response, so the idea formed to see if we could start our own club.
Slowly a team started to take shape and started to form an idea of arranging some games. Cracking Willows was able to secure US$10,000 sponsorship to fund players kit and other various expenses and the first official outdoor game took place against Chameleon Cricket Club on 29th November, 2009
Numbers continued to grow as the reputation of one of the few clubs that had a team that encouraged and enjoyed each others company was evident to all the other clubs. Players will come and go over time as is the nature of any club, but the philosophy and team culture continues to remain in place.
Often, opposition captains would ask how we managed to have such a collegiate team environment when they had to struggle with constant fighting and players competing with each other and the simple answer was that every person who joined needed to gel with the rest of the team. Despite having very good players from Balaji to James to Kunjan and Jitesh, the team environment has always stood tall and the fondness for each team member has been retained
From the days where 3 or 4 of players would play a match in the early morning, then drive to play an indoor game (or 2) in the afternoon, 2017 has seen Cracking Willows becoming strong enough to run two teams and play across four divisions.
If you are interested in joining our club, we are always on the lookout for new players across all levels of ability.