It’s cricket’s turn at bat
All-star game features legends in a move to boost sport’s popularity
It’s been weeks since the Astros’ post-season jaunt, and it’s still months before the next season swings into play, yet Minute Maid Park has just undergone a face-lift in preparation for its next match.
A 60,000 pound, 74-foot-long pitch (no, not that pitch), specially manufactured and trucked here from Indianapolis, was lowered into place just behind second base and the triangular field was transformed into an oval.
The bases and home plate were removed, the pitching mound flattened and the outfield firmed up, all in readiness for a one-night-only homage to baseball’s older cousin, the globally popular, yet domestically misunderstood, game of cricket.
Tonight, two teams comprising some of the
most legendary players ever to grace the game, take to the field in a match that is part exhibition, part nostalgia, and part sports ambassador. Retired players from the national teams of eight countries — including West Indies great Brian Lara, South Africa’s Shaun Pollock, Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar, Australia’s Ricky Ponting, Sri Lanka’s Kumara Sangakkara, to name just a few — will compete.
Houston is one of three U.S. cities (along with New York and Los Angeles), chosen to host the first-ever Cricket All-Stars Series, a public outreach program jointly produced by Cricket All Stars and United Sports Associates and designed to spread awareness of the centuries-old game to the American masses beyond its current narrow, predominantly immigrant, expat fan base.
It’s also an attempt to correct the preconceived, and prevalent notion among American sports fans that the game is best enjoyed lounging on a grassy knoll with a cup of tea, and several hours, perhaps even days, to spare.
Two stars led the way
The All-Star Series was years in the planning, masterminded by two of the greats of the sport — Australia’s Shane Warne and India’s Sachin Tendulkar — to promote the sport globally, but particularly in America.
Cricket is essentially like baseball in that someone throws a hard ball very fast at someone else holding a bat who tries to hit it past fielders to score runs. The side with the most runs at the end of the game wins. But that’s where the similarities, and the possibility of easily explaining the sport to the uninitiated, ends.
(Note: In cricket, the one throwing the ball is called the bowler and the pitch, in case you were wondering, is a hardened strip in the middle of the field where the bowling and batting takes place).
The All-Star Series uses the Twenty20, or T20, format, a shorter (three-hour), faster and more adrenaline-drenched version of the game that should appeal to the U.S. palate. Tendulkar and Warne, a former superstar bowler, are the captains of the two teams — the Blasters and the Warriors, respectively.
Tendulkar, widely considered one of the greatest batters ever to play the game, said he and the 28 other players on the two teams will be teaming up with former rivals, or playing against former teammates. But that won’t alter the level of competition.
“Nobody’s going to sledge each other, we’re all mature guys,” the retired Indian star said. “But we’re out here to play serious cricket.” His team lost the first of three matches in New York on Saturday.
(Note: Sledge is a cricket term meaning to try and distract opposing team members by hurling insults at them.)
Organizers hope lifetime cricket fans will come to Minute Maid to see their sports idols (Tendulkar is a virtual deity in India where some fans are said to have fasted during his matches), and that perhaps the buzz will attract new cricket converts as well.
“We want to give something special to people who I feel haven’t had a chance to witness live cricket. To get excited, and understand the game,” Tendulkar said.
Sudheer Kannantha, president of Katy Youth Cricket, said his group bought out the first row of seats the moment tickets went on sale, which cost them close to $4,500.
“These are not some players,” he said “These are the best of the best, of all time. We grew up idolizing these people, and all of a sudden you see all of them.”
Tendulkar, known during his playing days as the Master Blaster, retired in 2013, but his name still means something to fans. Just ask the Katy Youth Cricket league members, most of whom probably can’t remember seeing much of his career live, but have memories of their parents staying up all night to watch his matches from the other side of the world.
A new generation
At a youth clinic at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday, at least 80 young cricketers ranging from around 6 to 20 years old took in some bowling and fielding practice alongside the superstars. However, relegated to the stands sat their excited parents, eagerly snapping photos and trying to shout out to their longtime idols. Calls of “Moin Bhai” or “Sachin Bhai” (a term of respect that translates to brother) erupted from the crowd, followed by a chant of “We want Sachin.”
Laksh Parikh, 12, started playing cricket at the age of 3 in his backyard with his father. He’s inspired by Tendulkar, because “he’s small, but he still scores so much runs because he has technique.”
“Like, he plays the fastest bowlers but he still hits them hard. I want to be like that,” Parikh said. “I want to be fearless.”
Cricket is the second most popular sport worldwide behind soccer, fanatically popular in countries ranging from New Zealand to Pakistan, countries touched by the British Empire in the past.
Once considered America’s first modern team sport and poised to be the national game in the 1800s, according to sports historian George B. Kirsch, the game didn’t meet the demands of a more fast-paced life.
The original format for the game, known as Test Cricket and still considered by many as the purest form, can take up to five days to complete. And as baseball rose in prominence, it became more difficult to maintain enthusiasm for a game seen as the sport of English immigrants.
Tendulkar and Warne have gone everywhere, from Facebook
to the New York Stock Exchange, to promote cricket to a new audience.
Kannantha sees this as a topdown approach to promoting the sport. He’d rather see the game gain popularity through a younger generation of fans playing the sport in youth leagues, and not through groups of adult males playing in weekend leagues.
This “expat audience” will eventually age out of the sport itself. Currently Kannantha estimates the Houston adult cricket landscape includes at least four different leagues made up of 40 competitive teams, and about 60 noncompetitive teams that meet on a regular basis.
“They age, then there’s a gap,” he said. “There’s not going to be ongoing expats to fill that gap, so it has to come from grass roots. That’s where we come in.”
Might be the next soccer
Kannantha sees cricket occupying the same space in the U.S. that soccer did about 20 years ago — globally known yet not so popular here before it became a mainstream youth sport.
But without dedicated cricket fields and limited resources, his team has to be fluid and adaptable to exist as an organization, much like cricket must do to regain relevance in America. For the most part equipment has to be imported, and during baseball’s offseason, his teams use the batting cages.
“The good thing is that baseball has a season; we don’t have a season,” he said. He also has set up nets along his driveway so his son can practice bowling there.
By Thursday, the all-stars will be on their way to Los Angeles for their third and final match. The custom pitch will be unearthed from the outfield and Minute Maid will once again become a ballpark. The pitch will be placed in storage until next year when the all-stars again take their cricket show on the road to new cities, possibly converting new fans along the way.