What do Americans think about cricket?

American Perspective of Cricket

I have always wondered how Americans perceived the game, so to get my answers I interviewed Alan Michel, who graduated from Drexel as an electrical engineer and plays Ultimate Frisbee at the Prior ground. I had a chance to ask him about his knowledge about cricket and the way he perceives the game having watched numerous cricket games on the game ground. By the end of our chat we had hit upon several topics like what Americans think about cricket, if Americans would ever develop an interest in cricket, if Cricket can ever penetrate the saturated American sports market and the ways cricket can achieve that by drawing parallels to ultimate frisbee in America. Here is how our conversation went:

Question 1: So before you begin, could you tell us your name? And, what do you do? And just share what what brings you?

Alan: So my name is Alan. Michelle. I play ultimate Frisbee. We're playing a pick game up here. But yeah, that kind of brings me to the area, I'm from South Jersey, I went to Drexel. I Work in Jersey as an electrical engineer. So yeah, so that's kind of my extent of what bring me here. As far as how that relates to cricket, I have walked around on countless games, and you guys play in here and I know the pitch and everything. But it's kind of it.

Question 2: what were your first reactions of seeing us play?

Alan: It reminded me a lot of like baseball, honestly, it looked like it was just kind of standing racks. I didn't really see a lot of throwing maybe it's because you guys were in the middle of a game? I don't know.

Question 3: What if I tell you cricket predates baseball or, rather, baseball originates from cricket, what would your reaction be?

Alan: That'd be kind of crazy. To me. It feels like baseball is like this All American thing. And you're like, No, we fucking invented that.

Me: Funny story. Cricket used to be the national sport of America during the 1800s. When I found that out, I was taken aback. I'm from India, so I follow cricket back at home and like, also worldwide, but I didn't know cricket existed in America. So finding that out was like, pretty surprising to me.

Alan: Are you from an Indian?

Me: Yes, I am from Mumbai.

Alan: Okay, nice. Yeah, we actually a couple of us went to Ahmedabad, for we taught Ultimate Frisbee clinics, and on the vaad so it was pretty cool.

Me: What did you think about India? In general,

Alan: Some of the nicest, like, some of the nicest people I've met like, so we went to Goa a first go was beautiful. That's fine. Yeah. And then went to on divide. And just like, everybody was super nice. The oddest of the coolest thing was went to this like second Atlas. It was like a primary school and like, half an hour outside the city. And I just remember ever being super nice. The kids were awesome. And like, had a good time.

Question 4: Did you get a chance to watch a cricket game? Or like, did you see people playing on the street?

Alan: We saw more ultimate frisbee (jokingly).

Question 5: What do you think Americans think about cricket? First thing that pops into their mind or like your mind?

Alan: It's the pitching.

Me: It's called Bowling, but it's very similar to pitching.

Alan: Yes. Like you've pitching it like that. And then kind of swinging the club thing.

Me: It's called a bat, it's a cricket bat.

Question 6: Do you have any impressions about cricket? I've heard people talk about how slow the game works, how complex it is, do you hold the same opinions?

Alan: It feels like it's complex from like, not understanding it all. It looks like a complex but you see, like three sticks. I don't really know what it means. I don't really know like what the outs are or the scoring. So it seems more complex practices don't know about it.

Question 7: Do you know like anything about cricket?

Alan: Yeah, the three things (wickets) you have to throw it and knock those down. Right? Yeah.

Me: The pitcher’s or the bowler’s primary aim is to knock the three stumps down to get the batsman out. So that's what a bowler does and a batsman tries to not let that happen, or like score runs. So, that is cricket in a nutshell, maybe.

Question 8: Who do you Who do you think plays cricket in America?

Alan: I mean, just from being here, I've seen a lot of people in the Indian community playing cricket. So that's Probably the first thing I think, I don't really see a lot of, I guess at least in Philly, I don't really see a lot of other people playing. So I don't have to get as in other communities.

Me: If you want to know a little bit about it, there are several teams, almost like 50 to 60 teams all over Philly, who play cricket, they have their own ground, and it's a big scene in Philadelphia. But other than that, it's played on a local level. America does have a national team, but cricket is more local, more of a social significance among immigrant American population.

Question 9: So the next question would be what what do you think might get Americans interested in cricket, considering there are so many other American sports?

Alan: Um, honestly, I think it you will have to advertise to people how it's different and how it is, entertaining, right? I would want to see more of the bowling. I don't know how fast that actually goes. I don't really like baseball that much. I go to baseball games to like, eat hotdogs. So maybe if they had like food and a lot of beer then people would come.

Question 10: Do you ever see Americans picking up the bat and the ball is like just playing cricket? You can be honest.

Alan: Now, I think it'd be tough. You don't even see a lot of people playing Ultimate frisbee. It's like a super, like, grassroots thing still. It might begetter known maybe one day.

Question 11: You pretty much answered my next question. It was really if Americans would ever be receptive towards this sport? What what do you think might interest Americans the most about cricket? Do you think simplifying or shortening the games might help? It takes six to seven hours for a game to finish. Do you think if we reduce it to like three hours or like for us, do you think that would be?

Alan: We're all gonna watch the Eagles later that is a two and a half, three hour game. So, that’s the kind of the pace that you would expect the games to be. So a six hour game would be a lot to watch. But honestly, I think more Americans than you think would be receptive to it, if they were just exposed to it. You know, it's not like you would be interested just by watching one game. You know, look it up, have a couple of beers and like, get into it. If the atmosphere is good, I think people would watch it.

Question 12: One question I've always had is, I think America in general has a very big sports culture. So do you think other grassroots level sports like frisbee or cricket, might gain popularity in America because there are so many games out there. Do you think other sports have like a chance to do to become mainstream?

Alan: I think so. Yeah. I think if the situations and opportunities are right. Drawing parallels to ultimate frisbee like we're trying. There's a professional league that a couple of us play in that we're trying to get going and get more people to watch. And they've kind of made it a bit commercialized. So they've put like timer like clocks to make the games shorter and more entertaining. So like little stuff that tweaks it.

Question 13: Do you think like the less popular sports can become mainstream in America just because it has a big sports culture?

Alan: It's tough. I think it's gonna be tough to break in. I honestly don't even see getting popular.

Question 14: If it were to be made popular, how could it be done?

Alan: Like I said, man, just like getting more people to watch, maybe do exhibition games, try to get more people to understand, like, this is what the game is, this is how it works. That kind of stuff. And maybe do like some exhibition games. Yeah, youth stuff, too. I don't know if you guys do like, a thing where you're trying to organize youth clinics to get kids interested because I think people must realize you gotta get kids playing the sport early to get it to stick and. So maybe you can do with cricket. And yeah, then like the first time I played frisbee was in gym class, gym class could have a cricket game. Like that way more people would at least understand what the sport is.

Me: Yeah, there are plans. I'm not sure like what exactly it is right now. But like I just said that they're trying to push cricket into like schools. So that way it becomes popular gradually.

Question 15: And that brings me to the last question. Would you start following cricket? And do you like watch any other American sports?

Alan: I watch mostly football, basketball. Baseball, so I guess so. Yeah.

Question 16: Oh, wait, one last question. Do you think a community or a fan following important in sports?

Alan: So that's tough, because at least from personal experience with Frisbee, it's very, I don't say closed off, but it's like very tight knit. Right? We only kind of interact with each other. And usually those with very similar skill level, or people who know the game already. So I've heard it before, like a lot of new people who come in to try to play the sport, they get very discouraged quickly, because you know, it takes time to get good at a sport. And a lot of times you want to play with people that have a similar skill level. So, as far as, playing it. I think community is huge. I can tell you, just from playing with these guys. I've met so many people all around the US and around the world. As far as fans are concerned, I don't really know too much about that. I feel like you can find more appreciation for a sport if you've played it. Well, we're finding that a lot of our fans a lot of people that come to our games are either our friends and family or like people who play Frisbee. You don't get like new people coming to like frisbee games. Because it's like they don't know the game.

Question 17: And I don't want to hold you for much longer, but, how do you think you could get more people into it? Just as a last question before the end of this interview. Because like the same principles might apply to cricket in a way.

Alan: I mean, like I said definitely youth clinics and like community outreach. I know at least here they do a lot of like youth clinics, with local schools, local community centers to try to get kids throwing a Frisbee and figuring out what the sport is, but from like a commercial point of view, growing the sport, growing interest, you just gotta get like a couple passionate people who are invested in it and, try to like actually put stuff into growing the community outside of the core group.

End: Nice to meet you. Thank you. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for your time, and appreciate it. Thank you, of course. Thank you.