This was published 4 months ago
How the NYPD became one of US cricket’s biggest supporters
By Malcolm Conn
As the Twenty20 World Cup prepares to make a splash in New York this week, the city’s police department has emerged as one of the game’s biggest supporters in the Big Apple.
Police officers were kept busy at the criminal court in Manhattan last week by a certain Donald Trump but the focus of Sergeant Mohammad Latif was also on the newly constructed – if temporary – 34,000-seat Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, about 35 kilometres east on Long Island.
While officers from the NYPD and Nassau County Police will be out in force at the venue from this week following a terrorist threat from ISIS, which local Governor Kathy Hochul claimed was not credible, a good portion of the crowd will be excited local cricketers.
The T20 World Cup began in Dallas, Texas, on Sunday (AEST) with the USA and Canada reprising the oldest international cricket match ever played, in 1844. The USA won a high-scoring match with New York-born but Barbados-raised Aaron Jones clubbing an unbeaten 94 from just 40 balls with 10 sixes. The Americans chased down Canada’s target of 194, with 14 balls to spare.
Originally from Bangladesh, Latif is New York’s “Mr Cricket”. He’s part of the NYPD Community Affairs Bureau, which created a unit called “immigrant outreach” that used cricket to connect with teenagers during the July and August summer holidays, “So they don’t get involved in bad stuff”.
“Almost 600 kids are involved, and everybody loves it,” Latif told this masthead from New York. “The NYPD Foundation provides all the cricket equipment.”
NYPD Sergeant Mohammed Latif, second from right, with officials and teenagers from his cricket program at New York’s City Hall promoting last year’s World Cup.
Established two decades ago by Adeel Rana, now a police inspector, some of the teenagers from the early days went on to become police officers, and the NYPD has a team in a local competition.
Many of the 600 children in the program, along with their coaches, were impromptu participants with the International Cricket Council’s T20 World Cup trophy tour through New York, which included lighting up the Empire State Building and a 100-day countdown in Times Square.
“We joined with them and a lot of kids were very happy,” said Latif, who was given tickets by the ICC to several of the eight T20 World Cup games to be played in New York, beginning with Sri Lanka against South Africa early on Tuesday (AEST). They don’t include the sold-out India-Pakistan match early on June 10 (AEST), which had a ballot that was enormously over-subscribed.
Former New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson is now a leading USA cricketer.Credit: AP
“I receive tons of phone calls every day,” Latif says. “Some got tickets in the ballot and are very happy. Some are sad.”
The T20 World Cup is a precursor to cricket’s Olympic debut at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, and organisers are trying to attract a wider American audience.
The USA’s T20 World Cup squad of 15 contains just four players born in America: two of Indian and two of Caribbean heritage. Five were born in India, two in South Africa and two in Pakistan. Former New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson and former Canada captain Nitish Kumar complete the squad.
Perhaps optimistically, the ICC wants a million children in the US playing cricket by 2028, along with training and education, and developing coaches and officials.
“The World Cup has a crucial role in grabbing the attention of fans and potential fans, but really what we leave behind as the legacy of this World Cup is what will count,” ICC chief commercial officer Anurag Dahiya said.
Last year, the NYPD program’s players and coaches were invited to be part of the 2023 World Cup launch at New York’s City Hall. More than 5 million south Asians live in the US, with more than half a million in New York, which is why three of India’s four group matches this month will be played in the city.
Construction of the stadium on an open park began in January and was completed in just under five months. The stands come down after the tournament, but the cricket ground will stay.
Adelaide Oval curator Damien Hough has brought his drop-in pitch expertise to New York, with 10 pitches grown in the favourable Florida climate and trucked 2000 kilometres north.
There are about 200,000 registered cricketers in the US. The ICC has been trying to crack the US for decades but has been hampered by ad-hoc administration and poor facilities.
That is changing, with wealthy Indian expatriates pouring millions into Major League Cricket: a six-team Twenty20 competition, dominated by IPL franchises, which launched last year and attracted several current and former internationals.
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