The deafening scream I heard when Sachin Tendulkar walked onto a Major League Baseball field in New York City on Saturday afternoon will remain with me all my life. Does it hearken a future for cricket in America?
The 20,000 or so mostly Indian fans in attendance let loose a simultaneous roar that was at once joy and appreciation for their hero, but also a sort of communal cry that they had arrived.
If baseball is America’s pastime then cricket, India’s passion, was suddenly visible and celebrated in America.
Having written recently about the All Stars of Cricket tour of New York, Houston and Los Angeles, I had to see for myself the opening match. Over the past several years I’ve studied and enjoyed the game on TV so the opportunity to see the greats — Tendular, Warne, Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Sehwag, Kallis, Vettori, Symonds, Akhtar, Akram, Ponting and Muralitharan — was compelling.
“We’re here to bring cricket to America and globalize the sport,” Australian Shane Warne told the crowd over the New York Mets PA system.
There were two questions I pondered Saturday morning as I made my way to Queens. First, would there be kids there? The promoters talked all week about encouraging cricket in the United States. The sport already has an estimated 2.3 billion fans, but cricket mostly died in this country just after the turn of the last century. Second, as an investor in two baseball teams in the Pacific Northwest, I was curious to see for myself how viable cricket might be in cities with large populations from cricket-playing nations.
On the first point, sadly I saw very few kids. For sure there were some, and they seemed to be having a grand time with their parents.
An 8-year-old Indian American wearing a NY Giants football cap said this was his first cricket match and he wasn’t too sure what to make of it.
14-year-old Tanraj was with his dad visiting from Toronto. He’s an all-rounder at his academy back home and seemed excited to see the action.
What I didn’t see were groups of American teenage athletes who might have been curious to see a sport that is so wildly popular around the world. Where were the young baseball, football, basketball and soccer players? Did the promoters offer free or discounted tickets to get kids in the stands? At lunch I met a consultant originally from Hyderabad who had traveled from his new home in Atlanta. He said he was disappointed not to see more U.S. kids.
On the second point, is cricket a viable sport for investors in this country, I was intrigued but not convinced. By my estimation, Citi Field was about two-thirds full, so maybe 20–25,000 fans were there (no attendance figures have been released). Pretty good considering the steep ticket prices. I met fans from New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Massachusetts and Canada.
Sponsorships from Oxygen, Uber, Mastercard and other brands appeared to be lucrative. ESPN and other sports media were there reporting. All good.
The concessions were almost fully open with a fairly brisk business, especially before the 1 pm start and certainly during the 2;20 pm lunch break. I didn’t see vegetarian alternatives, which would have been wise.
It was a real miss not to have a merchandise stand. The Mets team store was open but I saw no evidence of any Cricket All Stars souvenirs. Commemorative t-shirts would have been scooped up in no time.
I stopped a reporter for ESPN near the final overs of the match to ask what he made of the event. He told me the crowd reminded him of other high-profile international matches. The play on the field, however, was hardly high quality given that the players are retired.
Which begs the question, would these fans return to see the stars of today from the Indian Premier League, English county cricket or even international test cricket? Could the U.S. ever host a World Cup?
I suppose that is the hope.
In the end, Australia’s master of spin, Shane Warne, defeated Tendulkar’s team by six wickets after about 3 hours of play. This was the T20 form of cricket, which means about 120 balls thrown per side. Basically the equivalent of a baseball game.
Just a week ago Citi played host to the World Series. I asked an usher which event was louder from a fan perspective, the Series or the All Stars of Cricket? He smiled and admitted it was close but the World Series got the edge.
