American Cricket Academy opens summer registration for Missouri youth players

Can St. Louis cricket turn a summer signup page into a durable youth pipeline? American Cricket Academy is making that case again as registration opens for its Summer Academy session, with the next run set to begin July 3 at ACAC Park in Wentzville.

The Missouri-area nonprofit says the summer-fall session will run through Oct. 31, with practices scheduled Mondays and Fridays from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Families can register players online for the program, which the academy describes as a 501(c)(3) built around long-term youth development rather than a one-off camp. A separate session page also lists a Spring/Summer 2026 run from April 3 through June 30.

That structure matters because the academy has spent a decade building the entry point that cricket in the St. Louis metro has often lacked. American Cricket Academy says it began in July 2015 with six kids. Today, the group says it has more than 200 athletes, while a 2019 St. Louis Public Radio report put the figure above 300 players. Either way, the arc is clear: a handful of children, then a steady base of families, then a club that now helps define how young players move into the local game.

The academy’s philosophy is organized around three pillars, Character, Community and Cricket. In practice, that means batting, bowling and fielding are only part of the package. The site says players are also expected to build leadership, discipline, teamwork and service habits, with athletes and families completing at least one service project each month. Parents are not treated as spectators, either. The academy says they play an active role in day-to-day operations, which turns the program into more than an after-school stop and more like a year-round cricket network.

That model has also shaped who the academy serves. A 2015 USA Cricketers profile said the program was started by Ajay Jhamb and Sue Harris in May 2015 after their children began playing together in 2013, and that it was parent-volunteer run, with no compensation for board members or volunteers. That same profile said the academy served boys and girls ages 5 to 17. By 2019, the academy was offering free registration for girls to help address the shortage of female cricketers in the region.

The service work has become part of the academy’s identity, too. Its history includes visits to veteran hospitals, food banks, firefighter fundraising and highway cleanups. For families in Wentzville, Dardenne Prairie and the wider St. Louis metro, that is the appeal of the academy’s summer registration push: it is not just another cricket session, but a feeder for leagues, teammates and the next generation of Missouri cricketers.