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…
Read the full article here
