South Asians help revive cricket in America

Did you know cricket used to be played in the U.S. long before baseball hit the scene?

Not only that, cricket even inspired baseball. These surprising facts are beginning to resurface as the gentleman's game makes a comeback in America, thanks to the efforts of South Asian immigrants.

"Baseball started from cricket," Atul Rai, who was recently elected president of the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA), told IANS. "It was President George Washington, an avid cricket fan, who brought the rules of the game from England."

"In the last century, under a decree from the Queen of England, only the British could play cricket in Philadelphia. A competing game, rounders, was started by those excluded from playing cricket, which evolved into baseball.

Rai now dreams of the day when cricket will become as popular as its stepchild, baseball. And that may not be far.

Hanover Park, a suburb in this American city, opened its first cricket field in July. So has the affluent Hoffman Estates, and one more could come up in the Woodridge area by 2003.

More suburbs are likely to be witness to the sight of men dressed in crisp white shirts and trousers running between wickets. There has been a "considerable increase" in the cities where the game has been played in the last five years, said Rai.

"In 1999, when India's A team played Australia's A team in Los Angeles, we were inundated with calls and e-mails from fans who did not know that the game was being played in the U.S."

Public officials welcome the game as a natural extension of diversity in the suburbs. Even if they are still a little perplexed about the finer points.

"I am still figuring the game out," said one official in Hanover Park, "We have a very diverse population in Hanover Park. As part of our mission to serve residents, we are reaching out to that part of the population."

So Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, West Indian and the odd British immigrant meet regularly to play the game, and terms like "sixer" and "lbw" are being heard in suburban parks where baseball ruled. But, the number of cricket players are still comparatively small.

In Chicago and its suburbs, says USACA director Akthar Masood Syed, there are 28 teams that compete in matches in the Chicago area. During the cricket season which spans May to October, there are another dozen men's teams playing casual games and tournaments.

It is estimated that there are about 30,000 active cricket players in some 600 established clubs throughout the U.S. and Canada with about 200,000 fans in the U.S.

Syed, who played first class cricket in Pakistan, participating in the Kaid-e-Azem tournament, said the average age of players was 12 to 50 years.

New York, California, Florida and Chicago have very active cricket leagues, said Rai. But the game is winning fans even in smaller places like Minnesota, Connecticut and Boston.

Cricket is relatively unknown to the American corporate world and the traditional five-day game taxed the American attention span. It is not easy to get sponsors, the exception being companies like Zee TV or Worldtel, who already sponsor the game in other parts of the world.

Visits by former Test stars like Bishan Singh Bedi, who is currently on a tour of the U.S., help popularise the game. And Syed has plans of a women's tournament with teams from Holland, India and Pakistan.

Mail Cricket Editor