Story by Emma Cooke
Photo by Cameron Thomas
In North Carolina, the sport, cricket, is on the rise.
[Crowd cheers]
And a sixteen year-old from Cary, is headed to the Cricket World Cup in January.
The U.S. national under-19 team hasn’t qualified for the World Cup since 2010. In the August I.C.C. Americas Region Qualifier, vice-captain Utkarsh Srivastava didn’t know if his team was going to make it.
SRIVASTAVA: We were actually very nervous when we went to Canada because we lost the first game. After losing the first game, none of us were confident enough.
In order to make it to the world stage in Sri Lanka, they had to beat Canada in the final match.
[Crowd cheers]
The win was joyous.
SRIVASTAVA: It’s just that we’ve made it. No one expected it. No one expected it.
But Emerging Cricket contributor Nate Hays had confidence in the team.
With more than two thousand players registered in the Triangle Cricket League, he says the cricket community is strong.
HAYS: This is not a big area. This is not a metropolitan area… We do have a great ground here. We do have an enthusiastic community.
Raleigh hosted the last leg of the 2019 under-19 trials. This past summer, the inaugural season of major league cricket had seven of its nineteen matches in Morrisville.
Hays says the sport’s hold in North Carolina has been inspiring for youth players. That and the debut of minor league cricket in 2021 has changed the game for the nation’s cricketers.
HAYS: It’s expedited the growth of these, these young players in the U.S.A. like nothing has before and nothing could.
Sanjay Stanley is a minor league player in Morrisville. He says the new leagues have given youth players like Srivastava something more to reach for.
STANLEY: Because he has the potential to do that. You just gotta keep him on track and I think the best is yet to come.
Srivastava says it’s his hope to compete in the major leagues one day.
SRIVASTAVA: As a kid who came from North Carolina, from Cary, North Carolina and ended up playing U.S.A national team, I want people to think of me as a role model when they’re youngsters, when they’re growing up.
Right now, he’s focused on Sri Lanka.
I’m Emma Cooke reporting.
