A SMALL GROUP, ONE SHARED VISION
When CJCC was co-founded in late 2023, the idea was born from a problem many professionals working abroad quietly carry but rarely voice. You join a company in a new country, you give everything to your work, and somewhere along the way, the things that shaped you — your passions, your communities, your identity beyond the job title — start to feel very far away.
We started with a simple but powerful belief: that a company can be more than a place of work — it can be a place where people truly belong. Cricket was our vehicle. The club began exactly as most good things do: informally. A few conversations in the office, enthusiastic heads nodding, a group chat that quickly filled with batting tips and weekend availability. Players joined at every level, some with serious competitive pedigrees, others who hadn't picked up a bat in years. What united everyone was the desire to play, and the belief that Cognizant Japan could be more than a workplace.
TWO YEARS ON THE CIRCUIT
Tokyo cricket scene is far more vibrant and competitive than most outsiders would imagine. Japan Cricket Association supports approximately 40 clubs, over 2,000 players, and more than 25 nationalities — with Sano International Cricket Ground in Tochigi emerging as the sport's beating heart in Japan. Over 2+ years, CJCC participated in multiple tournaments across this circuit, learning with every outing. We won our first trophy as silver winners in Jan 2026. Each campaign refined our game, our team dynamics, and our understanding of what consistent performance demands. But the tournament that always stood apart was “State Bank of India Cup”.
THE SBI CUP: JAPAN'S PREMIER CORPORATE TOURNAMENT
The decade old State Bank of India Cup is the most prestigious corporate cricket tournament in Japan. Organized by the Tigers Cricket Club with title sponsorship from State Bank of India and official support from Embassy of India in Japan and Japan Cricket Association, it drew approximately 40 teams and around 1,000 participants this year. CJCC entered for the third time. Our first two campaigns were character-building with setbacks that leave you hungry for more. This year, we were ready.
THE THIRD ATTEMPT: WHERE RESILIENCE MET REWARD
Winning a 40-team tournament requires more than one good day. You must strategize, perform across multiple matches, adapt, maintain energy, and hold onto the collective belief that sustains a team when games get tight — and in knockout cricket, they always do. What stood out across this campaign was not a single individual performance. It was collective intelligence — experienced players showing real maturity in every match, calm, focused, and backing each other completely. A remarkable wave of support to the team transcended borders, as non-playing colleagues — united across nationalities — rallied behind the team with unwavering solidarity cheering and encouraging the team with relentless energy. Our CEO was also cheering on the boundary lines.
"There is something remarkable that happens when a group of people chase the same goal through repeated setbacks and simply refuse to give up."
Lifting that trophy was unforgettable. But the real reward was on the faces of every CJCC player and supporter who had poured something genuine into building this club from a conversation into a championship-winning team.
MORE THAN CRICKET: A MODEL FOR COMMUNITY & ENGAGEMENT
SBI Cup trophy is significant, and we are immensely proud. But it has always been secondary to what CJCC was truly built for. The real story is not about winning a tournament — it is about what happens inside a company when people feel genuinely connected to each other, and what a club like CJCC can teach us about building that connection intentionally.
In large multinational organizations, employee engagement is one of the hardest challenges to solve. What creates lasting engagement is much simpler — and much harder to manufacture: the feeling of belonging to something beyond your job title. CJCC was built on exactly that principle. From the very first practice session, the club created a space where hierarchies dissolved and shared passion took over. A senior director and a junior analyst standing at the same crease, figuring out a batting partnership — that moment of equality and mutual dependence is something no workshop can replicate. And those moments, repeated across 2 years, quietly transformed how our team members relate to one another back in the office.
"The friendships formed on the field, the group chats more active than project channels, the quiet pride after a good result — these are the real returns on a community initiative like CJCC."
The impact has been tangible. Team members who previously interacted only across meeting rooms now share a deeper sense of trust. Colleagues from different departments have found common ground that extends well beyond cricket. New joiners have found a ready-made community — a warm entry point into company culture that makes the transition to a new environment far less daunting.
This holds a lesson for organizations across Japan and the region. For the large community of South Asian professionals in Japan, the distance from home adds a new dimension to the engagement challenge. CJCC addresses that directly — rooted in genuine shared identity. What it demonstrates is that community-building, when authentic and employee-led, becomes a multiplier for Cognizant values like work as one and raising the bar. For companies looking to strengthen engagement in multicultural workforces, CJCC offers a clear and replicable model: find shared passions that already exist among your people, create space for those passions to flourish, and watch what grows. Cognizant has multiple programs like CJCC which work on the principle of shared purpose.
WHAT'S NEXT
Winning SBI Cup is a milestone, not a ceiling. The club is growing, and so is its ambition. To the entire CJCC squad — every player on the field, every voice from the boundary, every colleague who believed in this from day one: this trophy belongs to all of you. You are proof that when people come together around something they love, remarkable things happen.
To the broader Japan cricket community — thank you for welcoming us and pushing us to be better. Here's to many more years on the field.
