On June 9, the India-Pakistan match broke the record for the most-attended cricket match in the USA with 38,028 people – and I was one of them. The low-scoring match with rain interruptions eventually met the demand of the audience (90 per cent of which were Indian fans) thanks to the clinical bowling of Jasprit Bumrah.

Although the ‘drop-in’ pitch did not meet the standards of a high-scoring T20 match, that it was transported from Australia and an entire popup stadium was built (at a cost of $40million) is an achievement. The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium was constructed in just 106 days and will take approximately six weeks to dismantle.

With high-profile people in attendance – Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Indra Nooyi, Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai to name a few – the logical next stop for cricket is America.

The question is – can cricket become America’s national sport? Jayesh Patel’s Flannels on the Sward asks that question and answers by saying, “It would have been”. By 1859 cricket was being played in at least 22 US states, in over 125 cities and towns, with an estimated 1,000 clubs! Around the time of the US Civil War, the game began competing with baseball for participants, and gradually declined in popularity. 

After I moved to the US in 2014, my interest in cricket declined, primarily because watching India’s games posed a time zone challenge. Also, cricket was never the topic of discussion with colleagues as it competed with basketball, baseball, football, and other sports for mindshare. However, once I started mentoring Anika Kolan (wicketkeeper, batter), the 17-year-old Vice Captain of the US Women’s Cricket team, my interest levels increased, especially in cricket in the USA. With the current T20 Cricket World Cup being played in the US and the West Indies, cricket is making a comeback in the US.