Sports
The cricket crisis in the US and Pakistan inspires local players
Sachin Mahajan first stepped onto the campus of Oklahoma State University in 2003. He had just moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma, from his hometown of Mumbai, India.
He didn't know anyone. He didn't even see anyone when he arrived on campus in the middle of summer. Mahajan said he was used to going out on the streets of Mumbai and seeing hundreds of people. So when he stepped onto the streets of Stillwater and didn't see a single soul, he wondered if he was too far out of his comfort zone and too far from the life he knew.
The anxiety increased when he realized he was thousands of miles away from home, without a hint of his culture on the Cowboy campus.
But Mahajan discovered that Oklahoma State had a touch of India on its campus: a cricket club. He joined and soon found friends who became his family. He felt like he had found a home.
More than twenty years later, Mahajan continued his passion for cricket in the United States as president of the Arizona Cricket Association. He was elected to the position in 2023, but has been in the league since moving to Arizona in 2006. Mahajan said the cricket community in Arizona is growing with no end in sight.
The ACA is a nonprofit organization that started in 1989. It is home to 75 teams, 30 clubs and approximately 650 leather-ball cricketers. The ACA plays year-round and only takes breaks during holidays, Mahajan said. During the summer, the ACA organizes a tournament with the 10 best teams from the league.
Those teams play multiple matches every weekend in the sweltering Phoenix heat, not to win a trophy or award, but to simply spend time with the cricket community playing a sport they love.
Vitasda Shinde was at a Guadalupe Tigers cricket match in June to cheer on her husband, a batsman for the team. Her husband was the second batter in the lineup. He stepped onto the field at 7 p.m. and was eliminated five minutes later.
Cricket, baseball's more complicated cousin, has the equivalent of one inning. Each team bats and fields once per match. So after Vitasda's husband Muluk was absent, he waited more than two hours to play again in the field portion of the match.
“I don't even like cricket,” Vitasda said, laughing. But when my husband plays well, I like to watch.
Vitasda said Muluk is waiting all week to play one or two games this weekend. Even though Muluk was out in the first five minutes of the match, his excitement and dedication were still palpable. Playing cricket under the unforgiving Phoenix sun is reminiscent of the Shindes of India. Muluk said the streets in India are full of young boys playing cricket in whatever spare time they have, especially in triple digit weather.
Cricket is worshiped like gods in India, Muluk said.
Muluk initially moved to New Hampshire to pursue his master's degree in 2018. He has been in Phoenix since January 2022. He found no cricketing community on the East Coast and expected the same in Arizona.
It was such a huge change because there is cricket everywhere, Muluk said.
He started playing cricket when he was about 4 years old. It is something that has always been part of his life and in a way embodies his connection to his home. Even in Arizona, Muluk sees cricket as a direct route back to India.
If I ever feel homesick, I just go and play cricket with my friends and it will be easier, Muluk said.
On June 6, a tremendous cricket performance was etched in Muluk's memory as a favorite memory. The United States defeated Pakistan in what has been called one of the biggest upsets in sports history.
The US has toppled Pakistan, one of the most prestigious cricket teams in the world. Pakistan lost in a Super Over, baseball's equivalent of extra time, in a Twenty20 World Cup match. It was the second ever T20 tournament match in the US. The USA continued to prove their cricketing legitimacy on June 12, losing to number one India by one run and just seven wickets (110/8-111/3).
The International Cricket Council has organized the T20 World Cup since the early 2000s. It is the shortest form of the game, with each team batting 20 overs. An over contains six balls from the same bowler of the fielding team and the game can last almost five hours.
The T20 World Cup has been held every two years since the first match in 2007. The current tournament consists of twenty countries, with teams divided into four groups of five countries. The top two teams in each group qualify for the Super Eights. The teams then advance to the semi-finals and then to the final, where two countries compete for a trophy.
Pakistan were runners-up in the T20 World Cup in 2007 and 2022. They won the tournament in 2009.
The US took part in the tournament for the first time this year and had played just one match before meeting the cricket giant. This year, the US is co-hosting the tournament with the West Indies.
It is truly a miracle that they defeated Pakistan, Mahajan said. It's like an amateur league versus a professional league. The cricketers who come from there, that's all they know.”
For example, one notable American player, Saurabh Netravalkar, is an engineer at Oracle by day. Being a national cricket star is just his side gig. The competition, which was held in Grand Prairie, Texas, was not televised and only about 7,000 people attended. However, the June 9 match between rivals India and Pakistan filled the 34,000-person Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in Long Island, New York, according to The Athletic.
About 400 million people watched the June 9 match as India and Pakistan are two of the most popular cricketing nations, which are also warring nations off the field. The 2024 Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs drew just 125 million viewers, according to The Athletic.
This recent success against Pakistan and the near victory against India, combined with an insane number of eyes on the sport, could move mountains for local cricketers.
Something like that actually inspires someone like me who practices it as a recreational sport, Muluk said. As someone who came here just for training, I can now also think about playing for this country.
As a non-profit organization, the ACA uniforms and equipment are funded by player fees. Of the 29 cricket playing venues in Phoenix, only two have permanent cricket facilities, Mahajan said. More popularity, more funding and more interest could fuel the foothold that cricket has in Arizona.
Cricket is more like religion to us, said Gilbert Grayhawks captain Thomas Pinto. All the friends I have are because of cricket.
It is a connection to their culture. And its rising popularity locally and nationally is just the beginning.
Sources 2/ https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/2024/06/23/phoenix-cricket-players-explain-us-pakistan-upset/74047686007/ The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article |
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