ICYMI, part one of this series offers a colourful story of cricket in America—and explains why it is co-hosting the World Cup. In part two, we have a quick overview of this year’s tournament—and introduce you to the darkest horse in this race—Team USA or should it be Team H1-B?
T20 World 2024: The basic deets
The tournament: This is the ninth edition of the T20 World Cup—not to be confused with the OG ODI version. The tournament began on June 2 with an opening clash between the United States of America and Canada. There are a total of 20 teams. So the cool bit is that we get to see teams like Nepal, Oman, Namibia, and Uganda—all of whom had to fight to qualify for the tournament.
The venues: There are a total of three venues in the US—and six in the Caribbean. There will be 16 contests held in Lauderhill, Dallas, and New York. In case you're wondering, Lauderhill is in Florida—and boasts a stadium dedicated solely to cricket. Matches in the West Indies will be played across six nations—including the all important knockout rounds. The grand finale will be held in Barbados on June 29.
Where we are now: This has turned out to be an especially exciting world cup. Most of the games have been extremely close—including the latest four-run victory of South Africa over Bangladesh. India is at the top of the group A points table, followed by USA. Australia, Afghanistan, and South Africa are leading the other three groups.
The extra special venue: Nassau County, New York
The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in Long Island was the setting for the blockbuster clash between India and Pakistan on June 9. Built on one edge of the 100-acre Eisenhower Park, it can host 34,000 spectators—making it the largest of the three. But here’s why Eisenhower is special:
The playing field, with the rectangular pitch in the middle, was fashioned from special grass grown in Florida. The grandstands are borrowed materials most recently used at Las Vegas’s Formula 1 race and professional golf events. After the last match is held at East Meadow on June 12, the stadium will be dismantled, the parts shipped back to Las Vegas and another golf event, and Eisenhower Park will return to normal, but with a world-class cricket pitch left behind.
In other words, it’s the ultimate athletic extravagance––a ‘pop-up’ stadium!
A bit too special? The $30 million pitch has been making news for all the wrong reasons. Last week, Rohit Sharma was forced to retire hurt—after being hit on the arm—in the match against Ireland. Soon after, its “unpredictable bounce” was widely panned by the pundits: “It is bordering on dangerous. From a length from both ends it was skidding along the ground with some tearing up and hitting people on the thumb, gloves, helmet.”
The problem: Nassau has a ‘drop in’ pitch—turf that is ‘incubated’ in a tray, not out on the grounds:
A drop-in pitch is the same as a normal 22-yard cricket strip, but is prepared and kept encased in a steel tray and not developed at the ground, as is traditional. It is prepared in favourable conditions—it can be outside the ground or at a turf farm—and comprises layers of soil, clay and grass that are bedded in together for a period of time.
The Nassau pitches also didn’t get time to sort out their teething problems—because the entire pop-up stadium was erected in just 106 days. The first proper match was a warm up game between India and Bangladesh—just two days before the tournament kicked off.
The unforgivable sin: The unpredictable bounce has resulted in extremely low scoring matches—unforgivable in T20 matches that are popular precisely because of the flashy batting. Last week, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 77 runs by South Africa—and Ireland barely managed 96. There was great panic before India’s marquee contest with Pakistan—which was also a low-scoring thriller. We beat Pakistan by six runs after they could not chase our total of 119. Sharma later said, “There was enough in the pitch, it was a good wicket.” It’s all good when you’re winning, we guess.
Point to note: The ICC has scheduled the six matches on consecutive days at Nassau—which is unprecedented.
Good stuff to see: Pitch aside, the Nassau match offered a refreshing palate cleanser after the ugliness of the India vs Pakistan World Cup match in Gujarat. Being away from home helps blur the borders—as you can see in this fan jersey:
Also sweet: The camaraderie between veterans Yuvi and Shahid Afridi:
The extra special team: The American eleven
As we noted in part one, cricket is more of an all-immigrant than all-American sport. Most of the players are black or brown—as are the fans. So it’s hardly surprising that Team USA is truly a melting pot—though dominated by Indian flavours.
The desi brigade: Six players are of Indian descent—a number of whom are on H1-B visas! But their paths to the US team are diverse—each telling a different story of Indian immigration:
- Saurabh Netravalkar is a Mumbai boy who gave up cricket for his graduate degree in computer engineering at Cornell—and currently has a job at Oracle.
- Captain Monank Patel left Anand, Gujarat, in 2016 for New Jersey to play cricket. But he instead opened a Chinese restaurant to pay for his mother’s cancer treatment.
- Nosthush Kenjige was born in Alabama but raised in Karnataka. He returned to the US to work as a biological technician.
- Milind Kumar played for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy before quitting his job in ONGC—to play league cricket in Houston.
- Nitish Kumar used to be captain of the Canadian team—until he moved to the US.
- Harmeet Singh played for two Under-19 World Cup teams for India—but was derailed by an IPL spot-fixing scandal. He moved to the US to get back on track.
- Jasdeep Singh was born in New York but moved to Punjab as a toddler—and then moved back as a teenager. He fought his way up from New Jersey league cricket.
As for the rest: Apart from the Indians, there are other players from distant shores, as well. For example: 33-year old Corey Anderson who used to be on the New Zealand team—but moved to the US with his American wife and kids.
The Indian dairy cartel: Team USA is sponsored by Amul! The Gujarat co-op has tied up with Michigan dairy producers to distribute fresh milk in the US. This isn’t the first time Amul has extended patronage to foreign teams. It has sponsored New Zealand and Netherlands teams—in the 2017 Champions Trophy and the 2011 Cricket World Cup, respectively.
Don’t count out Nandini: Karnataka folks will be relieved to know that the Nandini brand has not been left behind by its Gujju rival. It is sponsoring Ireland and Scotland in this World Cup. (For context: See our Big Story on the north-south dairy wars.)
The greatest underdogs: Team USA emerged as World Cup rockstars after their jaw-dropping victory over Pakistan on June 6. It took a Super Over tie-breaker to seal the deal, but the win is the biggest ever upset in cricket history—and rightfully so. Consider the following:
- Team USA is ranked #18 compared to Pakistan—which is #6. There are only 20 teams in the entire tournament.
- In fact, it is their very first appearance in a T20 World Cup.
- As we noted before, the national cricket board has part-time staff, financial problems, and no CEO.
- And the team didn’t even have a head coach until mid-April.
The truly amazing bit:
Those results are astonishing considering USA had not played a T20 International since the World Cup qualifiers in July 2022. Since USA Cricket was admitted, the national men’s side has played just seven T20Is outside qualifying events. Since the start of 2022, they have played a total of twelve T20Is. By comparison, Nepal has played 36 in the same period.
The most desi moment: was not on the field, but in this viral clip of Netravalkar on the sidelines of the Pakistan match:
The bottomline: Most Americans don’t know their cricket team is kicking ass—in fact, many don’t even know about the world cup being played in their backyard. But it doesn’t matter because global sports is being shaped by a different set of movers and shakers. Cricket is in America because of filthy rich Indians. Golf is in the Middle East because of filthy rich Saudis. As SKEMA professor Simon Chadwick points out: “There is this pivot from global north to global south. And this pivot is evident not just in cricket or sports, but obviously in economic and political affairs, generally.” This world cup is a sign of the times—of the turning tide of history.
Reading list
CNN has the smartest take on Team USA’s victory over Pakistan—placing it in the broader context of global sports. For more on the team, read BBC News and Indian Express—which focuses on the Indians. The biggest star of the lot is Oracle man Saurabh Netravalkar—who has been profiled by the New York Times. The Times also has an excellent read on the Nassau stadium. Forbes has more on Amul’s foray into global cricket. ESPNCricInfo explains the controversy surrounding its ‘drop in’ pitch. For the best overview of the tournament, read Al Jazeera.
