Didn't even know we had a cricket team.... http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-4/109479564483220.xml Friday, September 10, 2004 BY REBECCA GOLDSMITH For the Star-Ledger LONDON -- Toiling in obscurity for 10 years, Jignesh Desai became one of the top cricket players in America. His ascent was a team effort. His wife, a nurse, accommodated his all-consuming practice schedule. His parents, Indian immigrants who live with him in Passaic, contributed care for his infant son. And his job, part-time phlebotomy work in Montclair, gave him flexibility to go on the road. The hard work began to pay off this year. Desai, 30, helped the U.S. national team emerge as surprise victors in a Dubai contest of six second-tier teams. The victory propelled the Americans to the Champions Trophy -- a biannual international tournament of the world's best teams -- for the first time. Today and Monday, Desai and his 13 teammates will play the biggest games of their lives here, against Australia and New Zealand, the world's second- and third-place teams, respectively. A new generation of young men born to American immigrants from cricket-loving countries such as India, Pakistan and the West Indies are entering the field. Weaned on Pay-Per-View and family lore, they are connected to their families' home countries via the Internet and cheap air fare. The newcomers are making American cricket better. The United States now has about 100,000 club-level and amateur cricket players. The sport's boosters have succeeded in cultivating young blood and expanding the number of leagues. But they have yet to figure out how to make it profitable. While cricket has been a money-losing proposition in the United States, it is valuable around the world. Rupert Murdoch's Global Cricket Corporation paid $550 million in 2000 for seven years' worth of rights to telecast the biggest cricket matches. Last year, 1.4 billion people watched cricket's World Cup. The Champions Trophy is expected to attract an audience of a billion people, mostly from India. It is worth about $35 million in TV rights and sponsorships. The Champions Trophy, played every other year, and the World Cup, played every four years, are the most prestigious events in cricket, bringing all 10 of the major cricket-playing countries together to compete. Regardless of the U.S. team's dim prospects, the American cricket community -- sometimes dismissed as an inconsequential band of immigrant hobbyists hopes this week's global exposure will help take the sport mainstream. For the first time, their cause has the backing of the London-based cricket establishment, the International Cricket Council, which runs the major international matches. "The United States is a terrific market," said Brendan McClements, spokesman for the council. "We know we'll never compete with the NFL or the NBA, but we hope we can carve out a niche there." Cricket boosters are divided on how to sell a game that is uniquely un-American in its approach. Cricket is a game of anticipation that unfolds slowly over the course of a match. Games can run anywhere between eight hours and several days. A group of upstarts want to Americanize the game. They favor fewer turns at bat and rules to allow the emergence of celebrity batters, such as baseball's "designated hitters." This summer, New Jersey entrepreneur Kal Patel, an Indian immigrant, launched a professional cricket league from offices in Iselin. He called it American Pro Cricket and adopted the slogan, "fast and furious global action." "American audiences are very picky about what they want, and we have to adapt to change," Patel told ABC News recently. The traditionalists' camp, led by the International Cricket Council, is slower to accept change. It recently hired an executive officer to promote cricket in the U.S. The organization, based in the legendary Lord's Cricket Ground in London, does not recognize Patel's Pro Cricket. The odds of cricket making it in America are tough. There are tons of talented athletes and loads of sponsorship opportunities, but cricket's arcane rules, strange customs and interminable matches make it a hard sell. "I'm not optimistic of its success," said former Nets president Michael Rowe, who is a sports business consultant in Lyndhurst. "Just because you love a sport and you play it does not mean it's a commercially profitable venture." Even Akram Khan is skeptical. A cricket aficionado from West Caldwell who oversees marketing and sponsorship for the Cricket League of New Jersey, Khan thinks cricket will not make money in America anytime soon. If it does, it will be thanks to the prosperous immigrants of New Jersey. "If cricket cannot make money in New Jersey, they cannot make it anywhere," Khan said. Efforts are under way around the country to provide better facilities for cricketers. The United States' first cricket stadium is in the works in Broward County, Fla. In New Jersey, cricket pitches are planned for parks in Piscataway and Old Bridge. The improvements have been long in coming. "Right now we are just the stepchild. We find space between two soccer fields where no one is using a spot or a little away from baseball diamond," Khan said. Players like Desai, who have dedicated their lives to the sport, also feel like Cinderellas. In India and Pakistan, where cricket is like a secular religion, the greatest players get treated like gods. Their American counterparts have trouble simply getting days off from work to play. Desai thinks America will embrace cricket by the time his 8-month-old, Raag, comes of age: "It should be popular just like soccer is, maybe more."
I'd be extremely surprised if a cricket league was ever successful in North America. But i would not be surprised if the US started fielding a very competitive cricket team quite soon. Just lookat the success in Soccer. I did a quick search for FIFA rankings, and there's the ol' US of A at number 10. Just ahead of Germany and Portugal!
Man, dont you just love it how all these immigrants make our team better at sports that we used to suck at. I heard the world cup for cricket may be held here soon.
Don't pay much attention to the FIFA rankings, they're basically just BS. For example, Mexico has been ranked ahead of us for about a year, but have not beaten us in the last 8 or so meetings. In addition, they haven't scored against the US, in the last 400 mintes of play. Most soccer fans don't even look at them.
what like the rules in American football or the fact the game stops for ad breaks on TV every couple of minutes.... got love the world champion in a sport played in one country mentality
With all the Indian and Pakistanis living in the US you'd think that we'd get good at that sport. If New Zealand is the number 3 team in the world, and they only have 4 million people living there, their pool of players to draw from probably isn't much bigger than ours (100k). I guess the fact that cricket is emphasized a lot more in NZ would help, though.
Great article, NWO. As a cricket aficionado living in the US, and having attended two world cups of cricket myself, I've always wondered how the US would fare on the world stage. Its about damn time..
One day cricket matches are very enjoyable and captivating. I can see how people would complain about the length of a test match though.
