Cricket, a game whose existence may be practically unknown to the vast majority of Americans, now comes to the US capital in a queer, capsule form.
Washington-based Ambassadors of eight major cricketing nations have got together to host a series of “one-hour” cricket matches in a single day. The quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals will all take place on September 7 at a recreational park in suburban Washington.
Teams representing the diaspora communities of India, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri lanka, West Indies and Bangladesh will vie for the “Ambassadors’ Cricket Cup”. Pakistan is not part of the series for reasons that were not immediately clear. So is the case with Zimbabwe. The first-ever tournament of its kind will comprise seven games of one-hour duration: four quarters, two semis and a final.
The tournament is the brainchild of Ambassador Neil Parsan of Trinidad & Tobago and Ambassador Mike Moore of New Zealand. “Cricket is a very important part of Caribbean culture - and we’re looking forward to challenging our brothers and sisters from around the cricketing world to a day of friendly competition,” Ambassador Parsan said.
“Cricket is a force for unity in the world. It’s played on every continent - and is one of Britain’s great gifts to the world,” Ambassador Moore said.
For the benefit of an unknowing American audience, an announcement said: “Cricket has similarities to baseball, but is a much older sport that uses different equipment and rules. Baseball and cricket both use “bats” to hit the ball; however, the equipment looks quite different.”
It then went on to stress the point that based on viewership, cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world - and is the most popular summer sport in South Asia, Southern Africa, Australasia, and the English-speaking Caribbean.
Although many Americans may be clueless about cricket, it is not as though the game is alien to the country. The United States does have a national cricket team to represent the country in international matches. Washington itself has a regular cricket league. But the game is more popular in places like California, which have a big Indian presence.
America’s only professional cricket stadium is the one in lauderhill, Florida — the Central Broward Regional Park. The only other established cricket ground is the leo Magnus Cricket Complex in los Angeles. An American team that played in the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier was led by Sushi Nadkarni with Aditya Mishra and Gowkaran Roopnaraine as opening batsmen.