Cricket may have finally gotten its moment in the U.S.
The U.S. men’s national cricket team delivered a stunning blow to heavyweight Pakistan in Texas on Thursday during a surprisingly close T20 World Cup match that went into the equivalent of extra innings.
The match in the group-stage round of the tournament, which the U.S. is co-hosting with the West Indies, was played in a former minor-league baseball park in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie, one of three U.S. venues where the tournament is being held.
Cricket fans around the world are calling the win one of the biggest upsets in the history of the sport. On NPR, “All Things Considered” co-host Juana Summers likened it to “the Boston Red Sox losing to the Durham Bulls,” a Minor League Baseball team in North Carolina.
The crowd was dominated by green-shirt-clad supporters of Pakistan who were disappointed by their team's performance, but left the grounds impressed with the U.S. side, said fan Aziz Rajwani, a 58-year-old immigrant from Karachi who lives in Colleyville, Texas.
"They had a great respect. The crowd was cheering," Rajwani told NBC News on Friday. "Yes, they were upset with their team, Pakistani fans were. But at the same time they were appreciating this American team."
The U.S. team, he said, is now the “talk of the town, talk of the world.”
This historic American triumph is not getting the same reception in the U.S, where cricket is still considered a very niche sport, played mostly among its Caribbean and South Asian diaspora.
“Beating Pakistan, and playing for the first time, the way we played today I’m really proud of the boys,” said USA captain Monank Patel, who was named player of the match. “Of course, beating Pakistan in a World Cup is going to open many doors for us."
The win against Pakistan is all the more remarkable because the American players, who are on the team part time and have day jobs, were going up against a team that won the T20 World Cup in 2009 and came in second in 2007, the year the tournament began, and again in 2022.
Most of the U.S. players are of South Asian or Caribbean descent, and some of them previously played in India or the West Indies.
USA bowler Saurabh Netravalkar, an engineer at Oracle, is already achieving celebrity status in India, where he formerly played for its junior team.
“Proud of the team and our very own engineering and cricket star,” Oracle said in a post on X.
The U.S. win is good news for the International Cricket Council, which chose it as co-host of the tournament partly in hope that it would stir American interest in the sport. Co-hosting gave the U.S. team an automatic berth in the tournament, which it is participating in for the first time.
“Now that’s how to grow the game in the states,” Michael Vaughan, former captain of England’s cricket team, said in a post on X after Pakistan’s defeat.
For such a historic moment, few Americans actually saw it. The match was not broadcast on U.S. television, and the stadium holds only about 7,000 people.
“Credit to USA, they performed so well,” Pakistan captain Babar Azam said after the match. “They were better than us in all aspects of the game.”
Though the Pakistan team has been struggling in many ways recently, undergoing a series of leadership changes, it is still ranked sixth in the world, compared with 18th for the U.S. After its defeat on Thursday, Pakistan faced fury from its fans on social media.
Shoaib Akhtar, a former Pakistani cricket player known as one of the fastest bowlers in the history of the sport, described himself as “hurt and disappointed” in a post on X.
“Unfortunately Pakistan never deserved to win,” he said in a video. “USA was always at a commanding position.”
The U.S. now sits on top of the table in its group, having defeated Canada in its previous match last weekend. But the streak may come to an end next week against the world’s top-ranked T20 team, India.
Pakistan remains in the tournament, and will play India in New York this weekend in a highly anticipated match between two of cricket’s titans. Tickets for the match, which would usually sell out within a few hours if played in either country, were still available early Friday and going for up to $10,000 for premium seats.
Despite its low profile in the U.S., cricket has centuries of history in the country, where it was introduced to the colonies by the British. But it fell by the wayside as other sports such as football, basketball and its younger and simpler cousin baseball grew in popularity.
The sport is witnessing a revival in the U.S., where there are six Major League Cricket teams, one of which is co-owned by Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella.
The first season was hosted last year at Grand Prairie Stadium as well as Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina, and the second season kicks off on July 5, shortly after the end of the T20 World Cup.
Rajwani, who owns a gas station in Fort Worth, said he's confident cricket will grow in the United States, especially as second-generation children from immigrant households go to college and share their love of the sport with classmates.
"When Americans see the passion in the game, then I'm sure it will grow," said Rajwani.
Rajwani vividly remembers his childhood of scraping up the rupees to get into national cricket stadium and watch matches from uncomfortable concrete benches. He said he also believes this non-contact sport can appeal to American parents.
"It's a safe game, especially when you look at other sports like football," he said. "Cricket is a safe game."
But the renewed investment in cricket in the U.S. hasn’t been without challenges.
The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, where the match between India and Ireland was played this week, came under criticism by the ICC for not performing up to standards.
On Friday, the ICC said its team was working hard to “remedy the situation and deliver the best possible surfaces for the remaining matches.”
