As an end-of-year experience, Mrs. Michelle Richardson took her AP World History class to the bottom fields to play a game of cricket.

The class had watched the movie, Lagaan, a couple days prior to playing.

The movie  and cricket experience draw together several lessons from the World History curriculum. Lagaan takes place in 1893 in a small town in India that is under British occupation. In the movie a tax has been imposed on its citizens by Captain Russell. A local farmer is outraged by this, Captain Russell’s solution to this dispute is to challenge the farmer to a game of cricket, which is foreign to India. If the farmer, Bhuvan, wins the game of cricket, then the tax will be replaced.

In a game of cricket there are two teams, and an unusual flat bat.  For Americans, the rules sound very confusing, but the students enjoyed learning.

Sophomore Harry Rassmussen said, “It was a marvelous learning experience.”