T20 World Cup: US gets a taste of a whole new ball game | Cricket News - Times of India

Source: The Times of India
Author: Dwaipayan Datta

NEW YORK: Westbury is a small Long Island station where people aren't used to this. On Wednesday morning, regular commuters travelling to New York City suddenly found themselves submerged in a deep blue sea.

Cricket has come to New York, and the big boys who are carrying the cross and helping the sport find a footing in this part of the world are making their debut.The buses that the ICC has arranged to bring fans from the station to Nassau County ground were more or less empty till now, but it was a whole new ball game on Wednesday morning.

Thousands of Indian fans-from different parts of the US, and even Canada-decided that they will show their adopted home what "cricket entertainment" is all about. "When the NFL Final happens, USA goes into an overdrive. We try to soak in, but we don't always feel like being part of that party. But this is our very own, this is what we live for," Abhay, a techie who lives in Boston and had driven for four and a half hours to be part of history, told TOI.

Even as the younger Indian Diaspora, some of them painted in the tri-colour, trooped in, TOI caught up with an elderly woman dressed in India blues and rushing towards the stadium. "I stay in New Town in Kolkata and my son and daughter are here. I have been to the Eden Gardens before, but this is something else. We came here in a group of 17. It's truly a picnic," Shyamali Chakraborty said as her 'gang' joined in with "we will win" slogans.

They have all been obviously boosted by captain Rohit Sharma's promise that the Indian team wants to "leave something" for the fans here. When a local radio jockey asked him on match eve about his feelings for the game, Rohit said: "We know how the fans are waiting to see us and we will give it our best."

Many of them were desperately looking for India-Pakistan tickets and still haven't been able to manage one. A young couple from Toronto, with their baby in tow, walked in. "We really wanted tickets for the Indo-Pak game, but those are just not available. This was the second best option, so we flew in for this," Twinkle said, hoping to see Virat Kohli weave his magic with the bat.

Over the next hour or so, the Indian bowlers took it on themselves to make them happy. The band played, the tri-colour fluttered in the crisp morning breeze as cricket truly celebrated its new shore.