In past columns I have suggested the sport which could next carve a place for itself in terms of professional sports in North America would be T20 cricket.
It makes sense in terms of a growing ethnic interest in the sport on this continent due to rising immigration numbers from countries such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka where the sport is massively important.
While we may develop new sport interests over our lifetimes, most sport fans can trace their love of at least a sport or two to growing watching that sport with family -- Hockey Night In Canada with my dad being an example. So it stands to reason many grew up watching cricket and maintain a love for the sport.
In December reports began circulating that Major League Cricket (MLC), a professional Twenty20 cricket league would launch in the US in 2022.
While cricket league start-up rumours are not exactly new in North America, with past efforts fading rather quickly, there are indications this one might make it given who some of the backers are, including the owners of Indian Premier League's Kolkata Knight Riders who are said to have agreed to make a significant long-term investment in the first professional Twenty20 cricket league in the United States.
The Knight Riders Group, whose majority owner is Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, has said it will provide a cash injection as well as strategic expertise.
Also involved is Rahul Sood, who was born and raised in Calgary. Now living in Seattle Sood is among the owners of the Jaffna Stallions in the recently established Lanka Premier League in Sri Lanka. The Stallions were the league's first champions in 2020.
I was able to connect with Sood for an interview on cricket, and if pure enthusiasm ensures the sport's success the LPL Stallions, and the MLC in the US will be hugely successful. You can hear the love for cricket in Sood's voice, and his excitement for the new league, and the Seattle team he is involved with that plans to be the MCL's seventh team joining in 2023, is frankly infectious. As noted I'm not a cricket fan, my viewing of the game is limited, but after a half-hour on the phone with Sood, I am certainly excited to see how the new league proceeds.
The two leagues that Sood is involved, while both being new, start from vastly different cricket bases.
Sri Lanka, a country of nearly 22 million, is a hotbed of the sport behind only India and Pakistan in terms of the game, said Sood.
But "Sri Lanka never had a league, never had a pro league," he said, adding that might seem strange given the devotion to the sport found there.
"Cricket is a religion in Sri Lanka. It's not just a sport or a past-time."
The arrival of a pro league in Sri Lanka, and specifically in Tamil speaking Jaffna in the country's north, has been about unification and reconciliation, offered Sood, who noted a civil war raged in the Jaffna area from 1980 ending only in 2009.
In Jaffna, while the Stallions brought in players from around the world to populate its roster, four spots went to young players who showed promise from the city.
"The kids got to play and train with the best," said Sood, enthusing that Vijayakanth Viyaskanth was the first born-and-bred cricketer from Jaffna to appear in an internationally televised game from Sri Lanka.
Cricket won't have the same normalizing effect in North America, but Sood sees a bright future just the same.
"I find it to be a pretty addictive sport," he said, adding demographics dhow T20 cricket attracts a younger, generally well-off fan.
This comes at a time when some of the traditional sports on this continent, baseball, NASCAR and others are seeing the fan base age, as they are not attracting the younger viewer, added Sood.
There are of course hurdles; first and foremost a lack of cricket-sized stadiums, but Sood said the league, to be played in a tournament format over a few weeks, can get by with only a couple of viable pitches to start.
And even long term the league will never by massive, topping out at maybe eight, or 10 teams, which could include a team or two in Canada, said Sood, adding even in India the pro league has only right franchises.
"And that's a lot. It's a lot of cricket," he said, adding he is excited to see the game grow to similar heights in North America.
