T20 World Cup: Tepid response in New York should peak with India games, but local participation would be win-win

Having been a veritable beehive of activity on Saturday, when it witnessed its first slice of high-profile cricket action, the Nassau Country International Cricket Stadium wore an almost deserted look on Sunday.

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Indian and Bangladeshi fans had added colour and dash to Saturday’s warm-up game in the lead-up to their T20 World Cup 2024 campaigns that get underway later in the week, but on Sunday, the attention was trained on Cantiague Park, a few miles away from the sprawling Eisenhower Park inside which is housed international cricket’s soon-to-be latest venue.

South Africa and Sri Lanka, who will formally introduce the Nassau Country International Cricket Stadium to the sport at the highest level on Monday, were to train at Cantiague Park on Sunday, but the tiring journey from Brooklyn, where they are housed, the previous day had taken its toll with the Sri Lankans crying away from training. Only skipper Wanindu Hasaranga made the hour-long drive to address the mandatory pre-match press conference, attended only by a half-dozen Indian journalists; the South Africans, meanwhile, went through their paces, confident that they had the personnel to break their duck in World Cup competition.

New York has been tepid, if not indifferent, to the first major cricket tournament to be staged in this country. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, not with cricket not having a major footprint here even if the
first ever international cricket match
was held back in 1844 in New York, featuring the United States and Canada. It was fitting, therefore, that the same two teams should kick off this World Cup, on Saturday night in Dallas. Contrary to fears, with the predicted thunderstorms staying away, more than 6,000 fans streamed into a stadium with a capacity of 7,000, eliciting waves of relief, if not ecstasy, from various invested stakeholders.

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The Nassau County stadium can host nearly five times as many people as its Dallas counterpart, and one can rest assured that it will be a heaving, throbbing scene of activity next Sunday when India and Pakistan renew rivalries for the first time since they met in Ahmedabad during a league fixture of the 50-over World Cup last October.

This is any cricket tournament’s highest-ticket outing, even more than the final if it does not involve even one of the teams. If the United States has lumbered through the World Cup until then, it will wake up with a start. The MCG in 2022, at the T20 World Cup, saw nearly 90,000 fans, largely Indians, turn up to soak in the attention. This venue can’t hold a little more than a third of that number, but there will be no shortage of intensity or electricity, no dimming of following or fervour.

Until then, New York will perhaps not be as generous in its patronage of an event designed to ramp up interest in a sport that has hardly created a ripple when it comes to awareness and consciousness. True, no effort is being spared in spreading the arrival of the World Cup, though the distinct absence of signage either at JFK Airport or the Long Island Rail Road which is the advised mode of commute from New York does stand out. A fan park at the World Trade Center attracted hundreds on Saturday night when the US and Canada were doing battle, though not many turned up to watch the action on the not-so-giant screen. Those present were there more to soak in Yuvraj Singh, the Player of the Tournament at the 50-over World Cup in 2011 and one of the ICC ambassadors for this event. A start, nonetheless, one would have to accept.

Nassau County Stadium:
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Perhaps, interest will perk up once play gets underway here, though that might not necessarily eventuate. Of the eight matches in New York, three involve India, two in which Pakistan will be on view, and one apiece with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh doing battle. Given the large number of followers of these countries that nestle in and around these parts, those games are certain to attract good numbers. But what of Canada vs Ireland, say, or Netherlands vs South Africa? Of course, given that even in ‘traditional’ cricketing countries, many matches report poor turnouts when there is little local or historical interest, it would be naïve to expect bursting-at-the-seams audiences for non-marquee clashes.

No one is under any illusion that a World Cup, or a few matches thereof, will spark wild enthusiasm for the sport among the locals, who have so many avenues of entertainment to choose from. The hope is that at some level, it will stir the consciousness of the lay Americans and drive the indigenous to the sport, because for cricket to flourish in this part of the world where the possibilities are immense, the locals must take to the sport in strength. It might appear a pipedream at the moment, but isn’t it always the first tiny steps that are a precursor to any revolution?