On June 17, 2024, Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) director, Dr. Jim Witte, met with Jagan Nemani, Senior Vice President of Operations with the Seattle Orcas – one of six Major League Cricket (MLC) teams in the United States, Jivana Aras, a player on the women’s U.S. National Cricket team, and her father, Yatin Aras, an engineer, former collegiate cricket player, and cricket coach.
Jagan, also an engineer, who immigrated to the United States from India in 1999, was offered a job at a technology and engineering company in the United States soon after he graduated from college. Jagan eventually received his green card and became a U.S. citizen 15 years ago. For Jagan, being an active part of the community and contributing to the community have always been a priority for him. Jagan put this passion into action when he was asked in 2019 to join MLC to help build cricket throughout the the United States. For four years while working with MLC, he developed grassroots youth and adult cricket leagues throughout the country, particularly in Seattle. Last year, when the structure of the league changed and cricket expanded in the Seattle area, he was asked to join the Seattle Orcas organization. While developing cricket leagues throughout the area, the Seattle Orcas training facility was built for players to practice, but to also give local youth a place to practice as well. One of those local youths include Jivana Aras.
Picking up the Game
As articulated by Jivana, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and everything shutdown including playing soccer, her father Yatin, encouraged Jivana to pick up another sport. Yatin, grew up in Mumbai, India and noted that “cricket was always there.” Yatin started playing cricket when he was young and played through junior college and senior college. Yatin even went to Germany to play, played in the United States on a team in Seattle, and played in Vancouver, Canada. Yatin came to the United States for graduate school and began working in the technology sector. Although Yatin eventually stopped playing cricket when his daughter Jivana was born, Yatin continued to be involved in sports; he coached soccer and track and field and the Seattle women’s cricket team.
During the COVID-19 shutdown, the duo went to the park where Yatin taught Jivana how to play cricket. Jivana’s success and taking to the sport is also attributed to USA Cricket’s Domestic Pathways Program. This program aims to build a platform for growing cricket in the United States by providing structure, coaching, and opportunities for helping female (and male) athletes “move and get to the next level.”
Getting to the next level is something that Jivana has been able to achieve. When asked some reasons why she loves the sport, Jivana noted the physical activity benefits as well as the camaraderie, the ability to make friends, and playing cricket around the United States and world, including Australia and most recently in Abu Dhabi where the cricket World Cup qualifiers were held. Additionally, Jivana enjoys the fact that her teammates on the women’s national team also represent the diverse nature of the sport. Some of the players on her team were born abroad such as in India or Sri Lanka and other teammates are U.S. citizens who are children of immigrant parent(s), like herself.
When asked how Jivana introduces her friends to the game of cricket, she replied with a laugh by saying it is the “British and Indian version of baseball, but better.” Yatin also highlighted the similarities of America’s pastime to the game of cricket and how when “explaining cricket and baseball to a complete novice who does not know both games, it was much easier to understand cricket than baseball. What a lot of people don’t realize is that baseball has many of these intricacies, but they grew up with baseball, so they know it. But cricket is a lot simpler to understand as a game.” And for baseball fans, Jagan noted that they “will have another major sport to support." New and current cricket fans will get to enjoy the sport a bit more when it returns as an Olympic sport in 2028. The last time cricket was played in the Olympics was in the year 1900. As Jivana stated, “it’s always been my dream to go to the Olympics since I was little. Because I played soccer for so long, at first it was for soccer and now I am grateful that it [cricket] will be in the Olympics in 2028, that is my next goal.” In addition to competing in the 2028 Olympics, some of Jivana’s other goals include qualifying for the World Cup in either the T20 format or the one-day format or playing professionally either for the WBBL (Women's Big Bash League) in Australia, the WPL (Women's Premier League) in India, or The Hundred in England.
“Cricket is a game that most Americans don’t know about, but it seems ready to take off”
- Dr. Jim Witte
When asked how Yatin sees the future of cricket in the United States, Yatin stated that similar to soccer, it is going to take a while to gain some traction. For example, soccer was in the United States since the 1930s. It took 40 to 50 years until the 1970s and 1980s when it started getting a little more traction with the professional leagues. For example, “in Seattle it was Major League Soccer that took over…and that [MLS] really gave soccer a different level of momentum in this country, especially in Seattle.” Similarly, with the introduction of MLC, people will start to understand that there is a professional league for cricket and a future for playing this game. This will give “a lot of impetus to younger players to actually take it more seriously and that it is not just an immigrant sport. It is great to have this. It is great to even have IPL another league around the world doing this as well. Because in cricket it was mostly international fixtures but to have these professional leagues develop and do really well, it is great for the game.”
Yatin also stressed that it is also important to think about adding cricket as an NCAA sport. While cricket is being introduced in schools now, it will take some time for colleges to pick it up as a collegiate sport. As a result, Yatin emphasized that cricket “will truly be an amateur sport because it won’t have the viewership that other sports have. But given the number of immigrants in U.S. universities today as a ratio of what it used to be in the past, there is a very good chance of success for cricket because…the university is actually serving the students. It is not about the viewership right now. But for students to play the game, for students to compete, you have to have cricket as an NCAA sport.” As of now, approximately 90 universities or colleges in the United States offer cricket as a club sport, which is governed by the American College Cricket organization. The American College Cricket organization was founded in 2008 with the first college cricket national championship taking place in March 2009. However, adding cricket as an NCAA sport will provide greater opportunities for students in the United States and abroad to play and grow the sport while earning a college education.
Men’s T-20 World Cup 2024
The U.S. National Men’s Cricket team was in the spotlight after qualifying for the ICC Men’s T-20 World Cup 2024. The 2024 T-20 World Cup look place in June and was played in three venues in the United States: Grand Prairie Stadium (Grand Prairie, TX), Eisenhower Park (East Meadow, NY), and Central Broward Park (Lauderhill, FL) and at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago. The U.S. win over Pakistan by five runs stunned many fans around the world and increased media attention to the sport. However, the United States ended up losing six days later to India, who went on to win the T-20 World Cup beating South Africa by seven runs. Of those who played on the men’s U.S. National Cricket team in the World Cup, two are on the Seattle Orcas: Aaron Jones who was born in the United States and Harmeet Singh who was born in India and immigrated to the United States. In addition, the Seattle Orcas had eight other players who played in the World Cup representing their home countries.
Nearly half of the players on the Men’s U.S. National Cricket team and the Seattle Orcas are domestic players in that they were born in the United States, have a U.S. passport, or grew up playing cricket aboard and immigrated to the United States and became a U.S. citizen. As Jagan noted, “immigrants who grew up playing cricket somewhere else bought into the American dream, came over here, worked and played hard, got their green card… and now they have taken our national team from nothing to being in the top eight.”
Jagan pointed out that “four years ago, we started to find really good talented players from other counties who were not getting an opportunity to play. We tapped into those players and showed them the American Dream… and a few of those players made it to the U.S. National Cricket team. Jagan tells a great story of how immigrants can come and give back and really have an impact. He clearly illustrates this when he explains: “it would be a great story for all of us, for all the immigrants, for all the kids who are born here, all the players who are born here or part of the U.S. team and how we are able to adopt, enhance, and win… When you have a good player, who is an immigrant who comes in and raises the bar, everybody playing on his team and the opposite team have to raise the bar otherwise they do not win…the bar and talent overall for the country raises.”
And it is not only about raising the bar, but also the welcoming spirit towards immigrants to the United States and how through sports “we can gain that acceptance for each successive cohort of immigrants.” As Dr. Witte pointed out, “that’s the American dream. It has been built by different cohorts of immigrants, whether it was my grandfather or you [Jagan], making those kinds of contributions.” Furthermore, Jagan highlighted how “that’s the beauty of our country…we are welcoming to people who want to come, who want to work hard, who want to give back, and get us to a better place. That’s our American dream.” Building the American dream is something that all individuals – immigrant or non-immigrant living in the United States - aim to achieve.
August 16, 2024