The Lutherville-Timonium Recreation Council has given its approval for a new youth cricket program set to debut in the summer of 2012, according to Kris W. Mervine, community supervisor at Baltimore County Department of Recreation & Parks.

"The council meets every other month," Mervine said. "They discuss whether a program is recreational in nature or whether it's for-profit. They take a lot of things into consideration" before giving approval, he said.

Because the sport already has a foothold at LTRC, with an adult cricket program, it should make things easier for area youth to follow suit.

However, no coaches or teams have been selected yet, Mervine said.

That will all come in due time, according to United States Youth Cricket Association president Jamie Harrison.

The USYCA is the organization that donated equipment to a gathering of Baltimore County Public Schools physical education teachers in August in hopes of "planting a seed" from which the sport will grow.

After waiting a couple of months, Harrison, an information technology specialist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, decided to make his case to the LTRC board.

"LTRC was recommended to me," Harrison said, "because they welcome new ideas. It sounded like a good idea to me, so I did it. The biggest part of my pitch was that it won't cost them anything.

"The object of the program is to keep it as low cost as possible," he said. "We want them to be able to offer a new sport without charging an arm and a leg."

He said he hopes the cost would not exceed $25, although that determination will eventually ne made by LTRC officials.

Harrison added that the objective is to offer cricket on an introductory basis for the first year, with the season to run from mid-June to early August.

"We're not out to rob other sports of their players," he said. "But if a kid ends up wanting to play cricket, we think that would be great."