Why Cricket In America Can Emulate Soccer’s Rise

Seattle Orcas, the only franchise in the six-team Major League Cricket without a footprint from powerhouse countries India and Australia, were poised for a stirring underdog triumph to launch the much-hyped T20 competition in the U.S.

But their title hopes were dashed when captain Nicholas Pooran bludgeoned a remarkable 137 off 55 balls to power MI New York – the franchise of Mumbai Indians owner Mukesh Ambani – to a seven-wicket victory in Dallas.

“Pooran was just on fire that day. It’s one of those things that happen once in 10 years and it just happened that day,” Orcas co-owner Soma Somasegar told me in a phone interview, the bewilderment still evident in his voice.

“We went into this not knowing what to expect, but I feel good about how our team performed in the first edition.”

While the new owners were understandably giddy seeing their shiny new franchises take center stage amid intrigue worldwide, there was much more of a collective buy-in with everyone understanding the stakes.

After years of failed attempts amid turbulence in American cricket, the well-heeled Major League Cricket – with over $100 million invested and boasting a sizable salary cap luring star international players – is hoped to seriously ignite the popular British bat and ball game in the word’s biggest sports market.

“In my mind, the tournament was an absolute success and exceeded all of our expectations,” Somasegar said with around 70,000 fans attending the 18-day tournament and the broadcast – with some games shown on CBS – beamed to 87 countries.

“We had a high caliber of international players. But the surprising and positive thing for us was the local players. We think the local players showed up really well and better than expected.”

While there have often been grandiose visions for American cricket, those involved were realistic in their initial goals for the fledgling league. With matches confined to venues in Dallas and Morrisville, exposure of in-game experiences – vital to converting those oblivious to cricket – were limited.

But the key initially was to attract South Asian expatriates and ensure they were on-board from the start.

“I heard from someone who drove 800 miles to watch the game and another told me they had been waiting 30 years for this. It was very heart-warming stuff,” said India-born Somasegar, who has lived in the U.S. for 35 years.

“We went in with a little bit of trepidation and anxiety, but I think we came out feeling extremely good that we did the heavy lifting to bring the sport and the league to this country.

“But this is just the beginning.”

Cricket almost surely will never become a major sport in America, but perhaps can try to replicate soccer’s trajectory. Part of the ownership group of the Seattle Sounders in Major League Soccer, Somasegar saw parallels between the global sports.

“If you go back to the 1980s, soccer was not well understood in this country,” he said. “But there has been a big trajectory for soccer since. If you go to any park in the U.S. you can see many kids playing soccer…there’s visibility at the grassroots.

“We are now starting to develop that with cricket, where there is club cricket being played. It hasn’t permeated into the schools and colleges but at the community level it is there.

“My dream is for cricket to become a mainstream sport as opposed to a niche sport for the diaspora.”

Apart from being the only franchise not receiving support from counterparts in India and Australia, the Orcas are based in the smaller market of pretty Seattle – compared to major locales of Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington DC and Texas.

When franchises were initially being devised, Seattle wasn’t among those initially discussed but Somasegar – who has lived for over three decades in the northwest seaport city – helped push it ahead of bigger cities Chicago and Atlanta as inaugural teams.

“Seattle is a smaller metro relative to all the other big cities in the league,” he said. “But Seattle is a sports town with major teams here and boasts a great fanbase.

“At first the conversations was that it might take Seattle some years to get a team. We showed the data (to the league) and convinced them that Seattle had to have a team from day one.”

Somasegar said a home ground for the Sorcas was planned at King County’s Marymoor Park, around 15 miles from Seattle. It would hold around 6000-8000 fans and hoped to be complete by 2025.

Having spent 27 years working at Microsoft, Somasegar these days is a venture capitalist at Madrona Venture Group. He long dreamt of trying to help ignite cricket in his adopted country, particularly feeling bullish about the three-hour T20 format, and now finds himself feeling almost giddy being amid this critical juncture for the sport in its American pursuit.

“The demand and enthusiasm is there. We think the business model can work,” he said. “Fundamentally we’re helping this country learn about a new sport. We really want this to be a mainstream sport that can stand the test of time.

“I’ve always been passionate about cricket. This is a great opportunity.”