Before Citi Field hosts Tendulkar vs. Warne match, Shea Stadium was venue for a top match.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: One can almost hear the resounding applause and raucous cheers at the 45,000 plus capacity Citi Field Stadium, the home of the Mets, when some of the greatest cricketers the sport has even seen walk out to play on November 7, marking the inaugural match of the ‘Cricket All-Stars’ T20 series. The galaxy of international stars led by Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne will also play at the Minute Maid Park in Houston on Nov. 11 and the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, on Nov. 14.
Even though the much awaited match at Citi Field between ‘Sachin’s Blasters’ vs. ‘Warne’s Warriors’ would no doubt mark only the second time a truly world class match would be held in the US, it may come as a surprise to some that the US is no stranger to cricket: in fact, an astonishing 380 cricket matches were played 110 years ago, in the year 1905, in the US, according to the American Cricketer.
The year 1905 also marked the peak for cricket as baseball with its organized ballparks and scheduled seasons was quickly turning into a popular sport, relegating cricket to only a few fashionable enclaves of American society, according to author Jayesh Patel, who has recorded the growth and the wane of the sport in the US, in his terrific book ‘Flannels on the Sward – History of Cricket in the Americas’.
Cricket did try to resurrect itself in the US almost 40 years ago, when in the 1970s, a team comprised of the ‘Rest of the World’, including arguably India’s greatest spin bowler Bishan Singh Bedi, played at the Shea Stadium, which gave way to eventually Citi Field as the home of the Mets, in New York City.
Surprisingly, barely 200 people had come then to watch that match. Compare that to a crowd of 15,000 which gathered to watch a game of cricket between a Philadelphia team taking on an Australian team, in Nicetown, Philadelphia, in 1878, according to the American Cricketer. The spectators paid an admission fee of 25 cents each to watch the game.
And before Tendulkar walks out to show his exploits at Citi Field, one is reminded that another great Indian batsman before him had played in America, and that too three matches, more than a 100 years ago.
The first Indian player to play in America was Ranjitsinhji, who was related to the ruling family of the then Gujarat state. He captained a Cambridge team to America, in 1899, and played against a Philadelphia team – though cricket started in New York, Philadelphia was considered the cricket capital of America. In his cricketing career, Ranjitsinhji scored 24,692 runs at an average of 56.37, the highest career of a batsman based in England. Financial woes forced him to return to India.
The New York Times had reported Ranjitsinhji coming to America to play, terming the Indian as a ‘Prince’. There were rumors that the ‘Prince of Hindoo’ was also looking to marry an American heiress, and that his royal father sacrificed two slaves every time he scored a century. Ranjitsinhji played 3 matches in America, and his highest score was 68, against Philadelphia at Germantown, noted Patel in ‘Flannels of the Sward’. The Cambridge team won two of the matches by an innings. The fearsome American bowler John Barton King, who played against Ranjitsinhji in those matches was later made an honorary member of the MCC – the first and only American cricketer to be granted that honor.
Coming to the All-Stars games, of course, the current crop of international stars would be missing at the three matches, but then it would be worthwhile just to see one flowing, regal cover drive by Tendulkar or Brian Lara, the brutal power of Jacques Kallis, Andrew Symonds or Lance Klusener send the ball searing into the bleachers, an angled snorter or a yorker from Wasim Akram, Glenn McGrath or Allan Donald with their hallmark run-ups, or a special spinning delivery by Warne that befuddles a charging batsman, who would find only thin air to strike at, with the keeper behind finishing the job.
Patel notes in ‘Flannels on the Sward’ the origin of cricket in the US is to be found in Bristol Connecticut, in the early 1700s, and continued to be played till the 1910s. The country’s first president – George Washington – is documented playing cricket with the troops at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, on May 4, 1778. The first recorded international cricket match in the US was played between America and Canada, at the St. George’s ground, in New York, in 1844.
It’s also noteworthy that the first Cricket Hall of Fame in the world was established in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1981. Till now, the following players have been inducted: Sir Vivian Richards, Alvin Kallicharran, Joel Garner, Michael Holding nd Andy Roberts of the West Indies, Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Syed Abid Ali and Farokh Engineer of India, Gregg Chappell and Kerry Packer (posthumously) of Australia, and Tony Greig of England.
Is Tendulkar going to be the next to be inducted from India to the Cricket Hall of Fame? Most cricketers who will take the field on Nov. 7 at Citi Field have legitimate grounds to be inducted too.
Here are the 24 players in order of their country caps, who will take the field for Sachin’s Blasters vs. Warne’s Warriors at the ‘Cricket All-Stars’ games:
India: Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, V V S Laxman, Ajit Agarkar.
Australia: Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath, Andrew Symonds, Michael Vaughan.
South Africa: Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener, Jonty Rhodes, Allan Donald.
Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan.
England: Graeme Swann.
West Indies: Brian Lara, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose, Carl Hooper.
New Zealand: Daniel Vettori.
Pakistan: Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Moin Khan, Saqlain Mushtaq.