HOUSTON — World Cup fever may be sweeping the nation, but in Houston, Texas, there’s another sport quietly making serious noise. Across the city, the sound of leather ball striking willow bat is becoming more familiar as baseball fields make room for cricket pitches and the centuries-old game gains a foothold in the Lone Star State.
Much of the sport’s momentum in Houston comes from communities with deep ties to cricket-playing nations — immigrants and their children from India, England, the West Indies, Australia, and South Africa. But organizers have bigger ambitions, hoping to bring the game into communities where it hasn’t yet caught on, using soccer’s American success story as their roadmap.
Surya Saladi founded what is now known as the Triggers Cricket Consortium, or TCC, back in 2004. The organization has become a major engine for growing cricket throughout Harris County and the surrounding region. What began as an adult club evolved 12 years ago to include youth teams, and the response has been remarkable.
“We started with 30 kids but now have over 1,000 players between the ages of seven and 17 playing youth cricket in Houston,” Saladi told Reuters. “We have adult teams that compete in the Houston Cricket League, our own tapedball league with around 45 youth teams and we also run high-performance courses for youth cricketers.”
Tapedball cricket is a modified version of the sport that uses a tennis ball wrapped in tape, producing a smoother, heavier ball that works on virtually any playing surface.
TCC currently has access to 35 cricket grounds across the Houston area, ranging from traditional grass wickets to astroturf facilities. Still, Saladi sees room for much more growth.
“Cricket is a foreign sport in this country and getting the community backing is very important,” he said. “Slowly we are building an eco-system where cricket will be an affordable sport and gets the attention it deserves. For us to make this a mainstream sport, getting into schools is important. If you go back to the 1980s, soccer was in a similar situation, it never got the attention it deserved. But what worked for soccer was that at a grassroots level it grew, even if the commercial appeal wasn’t there at the time.”
A Dutch coach who runs an Atlanta-based academy team regularly brings his players to Houston for tournaments and has been struck by how much the sport has expanded across the country.
“There is so much cricket being played, it is unreal,” said Job van Bunge. “When I came out here for the first time it was all baseball diamonds and now it is cricket pitches and indoor centres with 10 lanes. The participation rates are growing and I don’t think it is stopping anytime soon.”
Gholam Nousher, a former Bangladesh international cricketer, also sees the quality of play improving alongside the numbers.
“The standard is growing. Players are starting to understand the game because professional coaches are here,” he said. “Even with women’s cricket. We have a girls’ team starting from the age of seven. Houston’s cricket is growing.”
The sport has also become a viable professional pursuit in the United States, giving young players something to aim for beyond just recreational competition.
Fifteen-year-old Ishaan Malpani, an all-rounder in Houston’s youth club system, already has his sights set on an international career.
“I have been playing for almost 10 years,” he said. “My Dad introduced me to the game and I loved it. My ambition is to play all over the world. I play games on Saturday and Sunday and train almost every day of the week.”
Dipak Singh, a committee member with the Houston Youth Cricket Consortium, says those kinds of dreams are no longer out of reach.
“Five kids out of Houston have recently made the United States Under-19 team,” Singh said. “One of the biggest tournaments in the country happens in Houston each year, the National Youth Cricket Tournament. Fifty-six teams come and play over four days. Parents and kids are now thinking about professional cricket, so the mindset is changing.”
