Is Cricket a losing cause in the USA ?
Last week, I had the honor of hosting a cricket event in Houston Texas called Tales of Cricket. Being a founder of an online cricket community called Cricket Huddle, our intent at organizing such events has always been connecting people who follow the sport online, with the stakeholders running the sport in the local cricket communities offline. To bring those who love the sport close to each other.
The whole purpose of the event, was bringing to light stories of cricket that no one talks about or even knows about. This time it was America’s greatest batting and bowling record holders in a one-one interview session. The guests of honor were Sushil Nadkarni and Usman Shuja. According to me the Greatest, but if others think otherwise, at least one of the best to have ever worn the American cricket colors.
The format was decided, the flyers were out, The guests were ready, the local cricket leagues and its members informed. Even ESPN Cricinfo’ s journalist Peter Della Penna decided to make a surprise entry for the guests. So we took the initiative of spreading the word using phones, flyers, cricket whatsapp groups and social media to reach out to as many people as possible. The base price of the ticket was decided at $20 for adults and $10 for kids a pop. 1000 % less than what an average Houstonian paid for a Cricket All Stars game in Houston Texas 3 years back. In fact we even tried reaching out to stakeholders of cricket leagues personally either by message or phone only to hear from the other end.
“What is the point for going to this event when we can interact with them every day. They are not International level players”
“We put the names of Sushil and Usman in the hat for representing USA and you are asking us to now come for seeing the interview of people we lifted ourselves”
Being an eternal cricket romantic and optimist and having done events like these before, knowing the sub-continental mindsets of people turning up last minute, we were still prepared to have people turn up without RSVP directly at the venue. As climatic as it may sound as a Hollywood caper at the end — we only had about 40 people show up three of which were Sushil’s own family members.
The show must go on. So we went ahead with our event and things went as per plan. With both Sushil and Usman recounting stories of struggle, strength and plans for the US cricket’s bright future. Content wise — It was simply fantastic as each of their words was insightful and gave the audience lot to learn from. We all went home — content but disheartened as so many enthusiasts missed out on so much.
The next day I got calls from several people asking me all sorts of questions from how did the event go, how many people attended, where can we see the video. When a thought ran through my mind : Neither did you attend the event, nor did you participate, nor were you even interested. Why are you inquisitive about seeing what really happened then ? Why do you care ? Why do you want to know how many people showed up ?
On pondering, I came to the conclusion. A common strand for not attending was either they did not think it was worth their time, they did not think the speakers were good enough or just wanted a piece of the action and could’nt get any. I understand It’s a dog eat dog world and will continue to be. But at least fight like dogs where there is enough meat to chew on. Presently, it seems like everyone is taking huge bites of the thin air we breathe only to fill our stomachs and brains with loads of air. Coz there isn’t even meat to chew on in US cricket.
I did not give a hoot about not being able to make money. That was never the intent anyways. To spill some more beans, no one in the United States right now is making millions of dollars from cricket. If they are saying they are — they are just plain lying. What was more disappointing was people from the cricket fraternity not showing up to support Sushil and Usman, both of whom have contributed immensely to USA cricket.
It was no different when it was USACA and it will be no different with the new ICC governing body. Coz the ICC might have great intentions to tap the American market — but at the end we are all humans with flesh, blood, desire, greed and power.
There is no discounting the fact that all the individuals involved with the sport in US have done loads for not just keeping cricket alive but kept it thriving. But it’s high time all the different stakeholders come together and start treating the game’s growth as a community effort rather than individualistic accomplishments. Coz if the sport grows, naturally everyone would grow. For that the cricket community needs to come together and show support whole heartedly.
Couple of weeks back I had the good opportunity to chat with Chief Executive of VaynerSports AJ Vaynerchuk — when I had asked him about the potential of cricket in the US when compared with smaller sports with far lesser eyeballs like Lacrosse. His answer was crisp and to the point. He said ‘It’s Culture’. Americans are not used to watching cricket with their family, enjoying it on the weekend with friends so how do you expect the habits changing.
Tushay!
It was definitely a wakeup call for me. It’s going to be a hard and long battle for Cricket in America. Coz, Changing Culture is Hard. The only way I think it could be done is through a strong community of people supporting a common vision and telling others to participate. Community is what made Facebook grow, Community is what made Apple thrive and Community is what will make Cricket survive in US.
At the end, even with 20 people in the room there was pin drop silence when the guests were speaking. People were so engrossed that it went above its normal time. The guests were lovely and were in their zone once their interview started. They poured their hearts out- telling stories of their early days starting out with cricket to the Under 19 India tours, training with Dennis Lillee and on top of it starting a 12,000 person riot. That’s right. Sushil and Usman and the US cricket team of 2010 started a 12000 person riot. But no one will ever know how. Coz no one was present. All I can say is the so called Cricket lovers in Texas and USA this time you just did not miss out, but you chose to miss out.
