MLC is selling out matches, turning heads, and bringing the party.
Nestled in Raleigh-Durham’s Research Triangle, the national hub of science and technological research, thousands of transplanted cricket fans get the taste of home they’ve been missing. Adorned in the jerseys of their favorite Indian Premier League teams and carrying the flags of their home nations — 3,000 pack into the newly-constructed Morrisville Cricket Ground to see the final Major League Cricket (MLC) game in North Carolina, before the league heads back to Texas to close out the season.
From knowledgeable die-hard fans, to those new to the game, young and old alike, there’s one prevailing sentiment sweeping the grounds: Cricket in the United States is going to work.
MLC is finishing up its inaugural season, and Tuesday night saw the league-leading Seattle Orcas take on MI New York in an absolute nail-biting game which saw the Orcas pull out a win with four balls remaining in their innings, thanks largely to masterful batting from South African international Heinrich Klaasen, who finished the match with 110 runs, scoring the first century in league history in the process.
The result of this one game was far less important than what Tuesday night represented: Five games in Morrisville, five straight sellouts, matching the runaway success that MLC has had in Texas, where games have been selling out an even larger cricket ground in Grand Prairie (a suburb of Dallas) since the league began two weeks ago.
This season was designed as a proof of concept, and that concept has been proven. The appetite for cricket is alive, and the sky is the limit. Intentionally targeting markets with large South Asian populations, Major League Cricket has already won a cult following of Indian, Pakistani and Afghan fans — relishing the opportunity to see some of the best players from cricket’s past and present play in their new backyard.
Tuesday night also gave way to tremendous emotion, as Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan, now playing for MI New York was swarmed by fans at the fence while fielding. Predominantly teenagers and children, the majority of whom are refugees who found asylum in the United States. They had a rare chance to see a national sporting hero in their new home — and it clearly affected Khan, who did his best to continue playing while signing autographs for the legion of supporters chanting his name.
MLC has managed to capture the party-like atmosphere of T20 cricket. The ground was a festival of color and sound, mashing together traditional cricket culture and a new environment. The PA system alternated between playing Indian pop songs and western Top-40 hits, whistles and horns droned through the crowd after ever big shot, and fans were encouraged to bring their own coolers of food and drink to fight back the heat. This league isn’t a cash grab, but a celebration of cricket and a love letter to the game.
Major League Cricket is already achieving something most sporting league dream of: Attracting young fans. At least 80 percent of those in attendance were 35-years-old or younger, with a majority of children and teenagers in attendance. Sure, one might chalk that up to being dragged to the game by their parents — but every fan in attendance was engaged, cheering, and excited to be a part of something that felt big, special, and on the verge of truly breaking out.
Arjun, a native of Mumbai now living in the Triangle, brought his wife and two young children to experience the game. “Cricket was a part of my childhood,” he says “now I want it to be a part of theirs.”
The next step is outreach and education. The league can certainly survive on a migrant population alone, but to thrive it will require transcending traditional cricket fans and capturing Americans who don’t know the game. To this end T20 is the perfect onboarding process, allowing games to last 3-4 hours, in a format which rewards big risks, huge hits, and plenty of excitement.
That’s no easy feat, but as the sport grows the FOMO of the next big thing in sports will set in. Especially as stadiums keep selling out and word of mouth travels about just how much fun cricket can be. Nobody left the grounds on Tuesday night thinking it was just “okay,” but rather even non-traditional fans seeing their first match raved about how incredible the experience was.
“I was dragged here by my British coworker,” says Tyler, a software engineer from Raleigh. “I’ve heard of cricket before, but never seen it. This was incredible. Everyone would love this.” Tyler admits he didn’t always understand what he was watching, but he’s already hooked, “I’m definitely going to learn the rules and come back next year.”
It’s been over 20 years since I saw a cricket match in person. The 2002-03 Ashes 5th test between Australia and England was the final sporting event I saw back home before moving to the United States for college. Never in my wildest dreams did I think cricket would follow me to NC, but here I was, in 92-degree heat, with a smile plastered on my face for hours on end. I wasn’t the only one, because Morrisville has caught cricket fever — and it’s only going to spread.
Major League Cricket isn’t just here as a curiosity, it’s truly arrived.
