At this time of year, the southeast grassy corner of Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York, is usually a gathering place for softball games, family picnics and cricketers enjoying a warm weekend afternoon. On Sunday, it was transformed into the scene of the most-watched global sporting event of the year.
Over 34,000 fans and cricket enthusiasts packed into a temporary stadium built over the past three months in a Long Island park to watch the most anticipated match of the T20 Cricket World Cup between India and Pakistan.
For around three hours, fans in the blue and orange shirts of India mingled with the dark green of their rivals, Pakistan, who were vastly outnumbered, creating a festive and lively atmosphere.
They cheered after every big play, yelled, waved signs and flags, ate South Asian food from concession stands, jumped, chanted, high-fived fellow supporters and, after a brief rain shower, soaked up the sunshine on a normally quiet day in the park.
“It was exciting,” said Chandu Tara, an India fan and entrepreneur from Tampa, Florida, who attended the game with his son Aryan, a high school senior. “We paid $2,500 for the tickets and have no regrets,” he added. “It was a dream come true to be able to see India here.”
After a slow start, India came back strongly to win the match with scores of 119 off 113. Indian fans cheered when Pakistan’s Naseem Shah batted the last ball off Indian bowler Arshdeep Singh.
“It was great,” said India bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who was named man of the match. “Whenever India plays Pakistan there’s a lot of emotion. It felt like there was a lot of support.”
Few in the New York area may have noticed, but a match between the two cricketing powerhouses, India and Pakistan, is a monumental event, at least for cricket-loving fans in South Asia and elsewhere in the world. The last time the teams met, last fall, it was watched by 398 million people in India alone, according to the International Cricket Council. (This year’s Super Bowl drew 123 million viewers.)
Sunday’s attendance (34,028) was the largest ever for an international cricket match in the United States, according to the International Cricket Federation (ICC), and included cricket legends such as India’s Yuvraj Singh, Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi and Australia’s Ricky Ponting.
The cricket match was the first for Omar Minaya, special adviser to the Yankees and former general manager of the Mets.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “The atmosphere is amazing. It’s like the World Baseball Classic or the Dominican Baseball League.”
The T20 World Cup is a shortened cricket tournament held every two years involving 20 nations. This year, for the first time, it will be held in cricket-rich America and the Caribbean. The USA will also play in Dallas and Lauderhill, Florida, but the headline match will be played in New York.
Cricket is part of the culture in both India and Pakistan, but decades of political tensions have forced the two countries to play each other elsewhere.
“Yes, this is a contentious, real battle of emotions,” said Narinder Kapoor, 84, a former U.S. Treasury Department official from New Delhi. “When these countries play against each other, it gets really nasty.”
Kapoor, a former amateur cricketer who moved to Syosset, New York, in 1972, hadn’t seen a live cricket match since 1974, though he’s always watched it on television. He watched Ireland play Canada on Friday and had hoped to attend Sunday’s big game but stayed home because of a sore knee, said his son, Sandeep Kapoor. Kapoor enjoyed Friday’s sparsely attended game, but added that the temporary stadium did not have adequate facilities for people with disabilities and seniors had trouble climbing the stairs.
“But when you get in, the fields are amazing, the views are amazing,” he said. “It’s world class.”
Security was tight for the match, especially after a website reportedly linked to the terrorist organization ISIS called for attacks on the event. Mounted police, SWAT teams, sniffer dogs, helicopters and numerous police officers flooded the venue, and long lines formed as attendees passed through security scanners. Nassau County Mayor Bruce Blakeman said the ICC paid for some of the security costs, and that it also covered the costs of security provided by local, state and federal agencies, including the FBI.
“I want to commend our fans,” Blakeman said, adding that they were “all very polite, respectful and followed the instructions to stay safe and healthy.”
There was at least one exception: A plane carrying a sign reading “Free Imran Khan” entered the restricted airspace above the stadium before the match. (Khan, the former Pakistan cricketer and prime minister, is serving a prison sentence there.) The plane was ultimately intercepted, according to Blakeman.
The atmosphere in the stadium was generally upbeat, even for the losing Pakistan fans.
“The relationship between India and Pakistan is very much a problem,” said Tim Martin, an air cargo transport businessman from New Jersey and a Pakistan supporter, “but this is not a war. It’s a game.”
He said ticket prices for Sunday’s game at East Meadow had plummeted from more than $2,000 to $600 after Pakistan’s upset loss to the United States in Dallas last week. He said he plans to travel to Barbados for Pakistan’s next match, then attend the final match in Antigua.
Three more matches are scheduled in New York, the final one between India and the United States on Wednesday, after which the stadium will be dismantled and the parts sent to other sporting events around the country. Blakeman estimates Nassau County will make $150 million from the tournament’s eight New York matches — 10 times what the county spent on infrastructure, planning and security. Cricket officials told him viewership for Sunday’s match could reach 600 million people worldwide, he added.
He said he has heard from investors who want to bring the sport to Nassau County, possibly through a New York Major League Cricket franchise.
“Judging by the way things have gone over the last few weeks, I think cricket is here to stay,” Blakeman said.
