Pro Cricket
Yanks on the Pitch
By ASHISH KUMAR SEN

On a recent Sunday afternoon, two teams of men smartly attired in cricketing gear prepared for a face-off at a minor league baseball field in a suburb of Washington, D.C. Three hours later, with the match satisfactorily over, the cheery group was packing its bags and heading home. "Any longer and Americans begin to lose interest," explains Kal Patel, a Iselin, New Jersey-based entrepreneur. Patel has devoted a significant portion of his wealth to study cricketing trends across the United States. His survey revealed Americans want the "fast-food" version of cricket. "Americans don't want to spend more than three hours watching a movie, at the theater, or at a game," says Patel, who is chairman and commissioner of American Pro Cricket.

An abridged version of the game that commands a fanatical following in Britain and its former colonies, Pro Cricket is based on the "3G" (third generation) format that allots each team 20 overs of five balls each. Why five? "That extra ball [in each over] put us over the three-hour mark. Besides, it's perfect math. Five balls an over, 100 balls a side," says Patel.

Cricket has been around in the United States for longer than most Americans would imagine. Founding father John Adams was purportedly one of America's first cricketers. The Marin Cricket Club in Northern California notes that its earliest artifact is a 1932 photograph commemorating its first match against the Hollywood Cricket Club. Yet it's only recently that American cricketers have begun to get noticed on the international circuit.

Earlier this year, the U.S. team won the Six Nations Challenge in Sharjah to qualify for the 2004 International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy held in September in England. The ICC and the United States of America's Cricket Association (USACA)-the governing body for cricket in the U.S.-have joined forces to raise the game's profile in America. Gary Hopkins, an expat English businessman, took over in mid-August as chief executive of a development project to promote cricket in the United States.

An engineering manager based in Corte Madera, California, Laks M. Sampath played cricket while at the University of Texas. His involvement in the game has grown since his student days. Director of USACA's Northwest region, Sampath points out that the biggest challenge to popularizing the game in America is making "born and bred Americans play it." "There is only one 'American' playing cricket [in California] in the entire league," says Sampath.

Backpacking across Australia a decade ago, Michael Sobieski picked up a distinct Australian accent. And, he points out, "a passion for cricket, mate." Sobieski is, by Sampath's account, probably the only American-born cricketer playing league cricket in California.

Sobieski's hometown Petaluma, a short drive north of San Francisco, is better known for its dairy farms. Growing up, he had the typical American childhood-playing plenty of baseball and basketball. In 1997, three years after his brush with cricket in Australia, he contacted the Marin Cricket Club. At the club he discovered a multiethnic, multiracial group of cricketers and enthusiasts. "This was like a mini vacation; every weekend I got a chance to meet different people," he says, laughing. One of these was David Roll, whom Sobieski met while at a cricket tournament in Philadelphia. Both Americans, they gravitated toward each other and have been good friends ever since. Born in Baltimore, Roll was first exposed to cricket on a trip to England in 1990. The Indian team was touring that summer. He remembers Graham Gooch's inspirational knock of 333 runs that powered England to 653 for four. Kapil Dev then came in and hit a few sixes, saving India the embarrassment of a follow-on. "I was fascinated [by the game]," Roll recalls. On his return to America, he contacted the British and Australian embassies and they put him in touch with local cricket leagues.

At the "ripe old age" of 24, Roll was learning to bowl over-arm and developing a passion for batting. An avid tennis player, he discovered similarities between the footwork needed in tennis and that
required of a good batsman. A beguiling off-spinner who sometimes bowls medi-um pace, he has been working on his batting and has improved his leg-side shots.

After the president of his league, a close friend, suggested he try his hand at umpiring, Roll studied the rules of the game and even sat for tests. Roll has been umpire for 13 of his 14 cricketing years, and has gradually won the respect of South Asians and West Indians in his league. "When I took up umpiring they would wonder what a born and bred Yankee knew about cricket," he says. Now, Roll is one of the most respected and sought-after umpires in the country.

For Sobieski, it was his experience playing baseball that made him a good fielder in his club. "I made that transition [from baseball to cricket] very easily," he says. For the rest of America, the transition has been relatively slow. According to Patel's survey, there are around 30,000 "active cricketers" and approximately 90 leagues across the country, each with 20 to 25 teams. Besides these groups there are 70,000 others who play cricket at a "casual level." "That's a tremendous number of people who play cricket-and the serious players are quite good," says Patel. The "active cricketers" take 15 to 18 days out of a year to play club games, while the casual players play between five and seven games a year.

On the East Coast, the game has a following in the New York-New Jersey area, Washington, D.C., and its suburbs, Boston and Florida. On the West Coast, many summer weekends are spent playing cricket in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Portland and Oregon. Further inland, cricketers flock to fields around Dallas and Houston, parts of Arizona and Colorado.

"The population that's playing the game right now is an immigrant population-they are weekend cricketers," says Sampath. In California, South Asians dominate the cricket fields, followed by West Indians, Australians, South Africans, Englishmen and New Zealanders. Mush-fiq Mobarak, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, spends his weekends bowling left-arm medium pace for the Royal Bengal Cricket Club. Having grown up playing cricket in Dhaka, he was drawn to the camaraderie of the team and found it "a nice place to hang out with other Bangladeshis."

In order for the game to grow beyond the expat communities, Sampath says, it has to undergo a metamorphosis. Touted as the "next generation in cricket," the Pro Cricket league currently consists of four teams on the East Coast-the New Jersey Fire, the New York Storm, the Florida Thunder, the DC Forward; and four teams on the West Coast-the Texas Arrowheads, the L.A. Unity, the San Francisco Freedom and the Chicago Tornadoes. Pointing out that USACA has been around for 25 years, Patel says, "They haven't been able to make a dent for this sport." But neither the ICC nor the USACA has endorsed Pro Cricket. The USACA's stance is that Pro Cricket is a "bastardized format" of the game and it will not have anything to do with it.

Like the "old guard" at the USACA, Roll, too, isn't impressed by Pro Cricket. "There's a lot of hype, and I've seen a few games. My initial impression is that the standard of cricket is pretty low…it's embarrassing." He says that for the abridged version to catch on it "has to be something that the ICC will endorse and sanction." Pro Cricket, Patel insists, is here to stay. "This is not a one-off type of deal for us. We will help them [ICC and USACA] see the light." While he would love to see cricket grow in America, Sobieski has mixed feelings about its chances. "I would love to be an ambassador for the game-as a coach touring and teaching kids. I think Americans want to see Americans play the game, but you can't have that opportunity unless our kids are learning it," he says.

Kinjal and spouse Hemant Buch started the California Cricket Academy when their nine-year-old son told them he wanted to play cricket. Buch, a visiting professor at San Jose State University, and his wife, an architect, take their Cupertino, California-based academy, quite seriously. This summer, Sachin Tendulkar's brother Ajit taught 8- to 12-year-old kids the nuances of the game. They've also invested in a British bowling machine. "Last year all our students were Indians…this year we've had some Britons and Pakistanis," says Kinjal. Explaining the game's popularity among Indian kids, she says the smaller-built South Asians stand less of a chance playing American football and baseball and so felt left out at school. "The kids were sitting at home and watching videos," she says. "As a team sport, cricket is a good game. Everyone can play it." Patel is confident that Pro Cricket will pique the interest of more Americans within the next five years. "If we can have log cutting as a sport telecast on ESPN, I think cricket stands a very good chance," he says.

"Cricket sells itself, it's the best game I've ever played. That said, we invented fast food-give it to me and give it to me quickly. The game has to change. As cricket perhaps makes changes for America I am hopeful that America will also make some changes for cricket. Like Steve Waugh, I certainly wouldn't want to see the great game 'Americanized,' " Sobieski adds.

About the Author: Ashish Kumar Sen is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist working with the Washington Times. He also contributes to Outlook and India Abroad.