In USA, Cricket Has Grown One Step Front, Two Steps Back

As the USA plays its biggest match of the World Cup against India today at the Nassau County Cricket Stadium in New York, Meenakshi Rao delves into the growth of the team and the game despite stiff acceptability challenge among the baseball-loving Americans and wonders why, despite stellar performances which have created shockwaves in the cricket world, the host team has been completely ignored by the American media.

New York (USA): The progress of the USA Cricket team has been phenomenal in this tournament but one of its conceivers Sushil Nadkarni, attributes the recent performances to consistent work on infrastructure, individual performances and a great Indian connection that has kept the true spirit of cricket alive in the Big Apple territory.

Nadkarni who played his youth cricket in India for Maharashtra in the 90s, was part of the under-16s and 19s also for India briefly. He debuted for Team USA in 2006 and scored a 100 on debut. By 2012, he struck the highest batting average in the history of US Cricket.

Nadkarni served as a Cricket Board member for three years and was the chair of the Cricket Committee. He has been involved in youth programmes to promote cricket in US pockets where communities from cricket-playing nations live.

“There are 800 students in Maryland who play cricket in school and those include white American kids. The game is finding its way into grassroots nurturing there but Houston lags,” he tells you.

Houston, where Nadkarni runs a cricket academy called Master Strokes Cricket America, has not been up to the mark as far as the growth of cricket is concerned. Grassroots initiatives and infrastructural progress have been inordinately slow here, Nadkarni feels.

The biggest challenge that Cricket America faces today is integrating this game into the American culture. 2018 onwards a new Board came with hopes of progress. But it’s been slower than expected – one step ahead, two back.

“Cricket has seen advancement from another lens though. Those are good things, infrastructure, investment into hybrid wickets which till now was happening on artificial turfs,” Nadkarni says.

The negatives are that, for now, there’s been a lack of school system cricket, and getting it recognised in NCAA for sports. Other than that, American reaction to this new entrant has, somehow, turned out to be counterproductive.

“Baseball has viewed it inversely. They see Cricket as a threat so it is not readily welcomed. When you go to practice, you do not get a welcome at the baseball parks,” Nadkarni says.

The World Cup too, which is the high point of the game, is with the ICC. “USA Cricket is, at best, semi-involved with no active role,” Nadkarni tells you.

Amid all this and more, the USA team has been performing with a big heart. However, despite two fantastic performances thus far, and virtually throwing out title contenders Pakistan, the team has been ignored by the local media. There is hardly any mention of the team and its effort, even the New York Times found no currency in giving newsprint to the game in America.

“This event is the biggest ever event that has taken place on Long Island, it is bigger than baseball and bigger than football. Even then we do not hear about the USA team at all,” Chris Taylor, an Uber driver, says.

May be, it will take a while more and another World Cup with its business end unfolding in this territory for Cricket to be noticed locally.

Nadkarni is meanwhile, doing his bit to carry on the legacy. His son Aarin and daughter Rhea are both fast bowlers. Rhea is with the Hoston Women’s team, a USA cricket pathway. “More like them will follow, hopefully, some of them will be white Americans,” Nadkarni says.

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