The international cricket federation has bet on building a temporary stadium in New York to host the small World Cup, an unexpected event which gives hope of a turning point to local organizers and players.
“We are going to have people from all over the world, kings, princes, high dignitaries,” enthuses Michael D’Ambrosio, deputy director of green spaces for Nassau County. “Many are jealous and envious.”
About ten kilometers from New York stands a forest of metal tubes, topped with 34,000 seats, a temporary stadium which will host, at the beginning of June, 8 matches of the Cricket World Cup, in T20 format, a game mode tightened.
The structure is entirely financed by the international federation, the ICC, which fell back on this immense park on Long Island after the failure of a project in the northwest of the Bronx.
In the land of baseball, Nassau County officials did not hesitate for long to give the green light to this unprecedented adventure.
“It’s the second most important sporting event in the world” in terms of audience, recalls Michael D’Ambrosio.
The ICC has invested in the future of sport in the United States and in particular in the New York region, which is home to several hundred thousand people from the Commonwealth (notably India, Bangladesh and Pakistan).
The headline match of the competition, which will pit India against Pakistan in this pop-up stadium, is already sold out and no ticket is selling for less than a thousand dollars.
“The Mecca of Cricket”
But once the structure is dismantled in July, local cricket will return to its initial condition, that of a sport which, although having around 10,000 regular players, does not have any dedicated venue in the New York region.
“Cricket is growing, but infrastructure is a struggle,” notes Ajith Shetty, president of two leagues, including the Commonwealth Cricket League (CCL), the most renowned in the metropolis.
Paradoxically, New York does field a team in Major League Cricket, the professional league launched last year, and plays in a dedicated stadium… but in Texas and North Carolina, like all MLC franchises to control costs .
“We are studying opportunities that would create a permanent location close to our fans,” a spokesperson for MI New York, reigning MLC champion, told AFP.
In the meantime, we have to make do, and the CCL carries a mattress weighing more than 200 kg from park to park which acts as a “pitch”, the rectangle located in the center of the field.
“No other sport has to struggle as much as cricket in New York,” says Ajith Shetty. “They make us suffer, as if they want to dissuade us.”
“New York was the Mecca of cricket,” in the United States, says the entrepreneur of Indian origin, “but in the last five or six years it has deteriorated, because other states have emerged, (. ..) especially Texas.”
Backed by local entrepreneurs, some CCL teams pay players up to several thousand dollars a year, but not enough to devote to their sport full time.
Waqas Ashik, who plays with Long Island United CC, sees the glass half full.
“When we started, in 2008, we only had one team and we sometimes struggled to have enough players,” he remembers before taking up the bat. “Today, we have three, with replacements. We exploded.”
According to Ajith Shetty, the ICC wishes to invest in the practice of young people in the United States, particularly in view of cricket’s participation in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
“I’m in contact with schools,” he says. “Some are up for it.”
Besides the quest for a stadium, “the challenge now is to integrate young people”, adds Waqas, because “the children of immigrants do not necessarily take up cricket like us”, arriving from elsewhere, of Pakistan, in his case. “That’s the only way we can continue to grow.”
2024-05-25 09:18:03
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