John: Cricket was once one of
this country's most popular
sports until baseball became
entrenched as America's game
during the civil war.
Now, the sport that was first
played in England is seeing a
resurgence here, thanks in part
to thriving south Asian
immigrant communities who revere
the game.
Amna nawaz takes us inside the
world of wickets, stumps,
batters and bowlers.
Amna: It's gameday in
germantown, Maryland.
Players warming up...
Parents settling in on the
sidelines...
And the unmistakable sound of
summer in America --
the crack of bat against ball.
But it's not baseball that
brought these crowds out today.
It's cricket.
>> One, two, three -- go
mavericks!
Amna: On this Sunday, two local
youth cricket academies are
squaring off.
Those are the mavericks in red,
and the jaguars in blue.
One of the first batters up for
the jaguars is 12-year-old
aakash venkatesh, whose journey
to cricket was a long one.
What was your first sport?
Aakash: Soccer.
Amna: And then after that.
Aakash: Tennis.
Badminton.
Amna: Was there any sport you
didn't try?
Aakash: Football, because too
much contact.
With other sports I played, I
had fun, but then it got boring
after a couple of weeks.
With cricket, I just felt that
spark.
Amna: A spark fanned into an
all-consuming passion by his
parents, including mom sunitha,
who dutifully drives aakash and
big brother adithya to dozens of
matches every year across
Maryland and Virginia.
Sunitha: We just love it.
I see the games going on, I see
parents cheering, supporting the
kids.
The love keeps going on.
Amna: Cricket keeps this family
close.
It also fills every corner of
their home, from trophies lining
the shelves --
to a makeshift practice pitch in
the basement.
Much of that enthusiasm comes
from dad venky, who grew up
loving the game in India.
Venkatesh: I started playing
cricket right when I was
probably eight or nine years old
and had a dream built around
cricket.
One day I wanted to be a cricket
player.
Amna: When the couple moved to
America, more American sports
took center stage.
Venkatesh: We introduced them to
all the American sports
initially -- to try tennis,
soccer, basketball, swimming.
But after a couple of weeks, the
energy kind of died down.
And cricket was the last sport
that was introduced to them.
Amna: And this time, it stuck.
Aakash: We all played at some
point or watched it and
sometimes we like, put on the TV
and then just watch it all
together and it's just a fun
thing to do together.
Amna: The family trains
together, honing the boys'
skills in a game that's now
catching on across the country.
And it's not as easy at it
looks.
Cricket was invented in 17th
century England, and spread
across the globe with the
British empire, arriving in
Australia, the west indies and
India by the 18th century.
The game is played on a 360
degree field with batters on one
team trying to score runs by
hitting the ball past fielders
and a pitcher -- known as a
bowler -- on the opposing team
-- all while protecting their
wickets from the ball.
It remains most popular in
former British colonies like
India, Pakistan, South Africa,
Australia.
So why is this old, British game
taking off in the United States?
Aishwarya: A confluence of
things is happening.
Amna: Aishwarya Kumar of ESPN
says immigration to the U.S.
From cricket-obsessed nations is
one reason.
Aishwarya: The south Asian
American population is
exponentially increasing.
It was 3.4 million back in 2010
and it's 5.4 million now.
Amna: Another is live streaming
cricket, keeping fans connected
to the highest level of play --
like the Indian premier league
-- no matter where they live.
Aishwarya: There is just a
global sort of movement around,
okay, we can stay in India and
Australia and still watch
cricket that's happening in the
U.S.
Amna: Another reason?
Money.
As the audience has grown here,
so has the financial investment.
Aishwarya: A lot of resources
are being poured into building
stadiums and actually making
sure that there is
infrastructure in place and
resources in place to develop
something from scratch and get
people excited here.
Amna: That something -- major
league cricket, or mlc --
launched this summer, an
American competition hoping to
win viewers around the world.
Vijay: The casual American
sports fan who's never seen a
game should come and take a look
at one and I think they'll be
hooked.
Amna: Vijay Srinivasan is
co-founder of the league.
Vijay: It's not the traditional
image of cricket that many
people in America have, which
lasts several days, and there's
people dressed in white clothes,
and sit down for a cup of tea
and break for lunch, and so on.
Amna: The league, featuring six
teams from across the country,
was a passion project for
Srinivasan.
He founded a live-streaming
cricket channel in the early
2000s, which showed him there
was a viewer base in the U.S.
Hungry for elite competition.
This season sold out most games,
and Srinivasan says there are
plans to build more stadiums and
infrastructure.
>> That's going to change the
landscape for cricket in this
country and hopefully with the
cricket world cup coming to the
U.S. Next year it's going to be
a very different picture of a
few years from now.
Amna: A picture that may feature
future pros like aakash and
adithya, who is now trying out
for the under 19 team usa.
So I'm going to ask you both the
question and I want you to both
answer at the same time.
On the count of three.
Ready?
Who's the better player?
1, 2, 3, go.
[Laughter]
>> I'm excited because the
cricket here is getting a lot
better.
At the end of the day, if we
become like a great nation in
cricket, we might be rivaling up
against India, Pakistan.
It's going to be fun.
Amna: What's it like for you as
a parent to watch your children
succeed in this sport that
clearly means so much to you?
Venkatesh: It's kind of a dream
come true.
Nothing else apart from that.
And I can say I'm living my
dream through them.
Amna: A dream carried across an
ocean, and a generation, that
found new life here in the U.S.
For pbs news weekend, I'm amna
nawaz in Maryland.
♪♪