By Rifat Malik
“How do you grow the game?” asks NCL Chairman Arun Agarwal. “In any sport, first, you get the players involved and then second is infrastructure. So we are interacting with different cities, different states and stakeholders …as soon as this week, we are negotiating to expand the infrastructure, not only in Dallas but in other cities, like LA, Atlanta and Chicago.”
Still on a sporting high, days after the 10-day Sixty Strikes tournament ended, he displays the kind of zeal and strategic thinking you would expect from an Indian American entrepreneur who is CEO of Dallas-based Nextt, one of America’s largest home textile companies.
Agarwal, appointed last month by Governor Greg Abbott as Board Chairman of the Texas Economic Development Corporation, outlines his grand plan to popularize the sport in the US. As he mentioned, a key element is involving star players like Sir Vivian Richards, Suresh Raina, Shahid Afridi, and Wasim Akram—just some of the legendary figures from the second most-watched game in the world who are adored by its 2.6 billion fans.
The announcement that the “God of Cricket” Sachin Tendulkar was joining the NCL’s ownership group presented another powerful boost to its credibility. The deity himself was in North Texas last week, mentoring young would-be cricketers at the University of Texas at Dallas’ home stadium, appearing as guest of honor at a Dallas Cowboys home game and fittingly awarding the coveted Sixty Strikes trophy to Chicago CC who convincingly beat Atlanta in the Final.
“Cricket has been my life’s greatest journey, and I am pleased to join the National Cricket League at such an exciting time for the sport in the U.S.,’’ Tendulkar said during his visit. “The NCL’s vision to create a platform for world-class cricket while inspiring a new generation of fans resonates with me…”
Agarwal has already initiated a series of thorough debriefings from team owners, stakeholders, players and admin staff and says he expects “big learnings” from the feedback to improve future tournaments. And there’s no resting on any laurels from the venture’s central driving force as he signals that the next target for U.S. cricket is already in sight.
“We are going to introduce the College Cricket League, which meets our vision of expanding the game,” says Agarwal. “We have 20-plus colleges who have already signed up for that…right from Georgetown to Purdue, A&M, UT Dallas, to UCLA, have signed up…we plan to do it after March Madness in April.”
Partnerships are key for Agarwal. NCL’s deal with UTD is believed to be the first between a national sports league and a university and during the competition it partnered with dozens of local North Texas organizations with special nightly tributes to the Red Cross, Veterans Associations, domestic violence nonprofits like CHETNA-DFW among others.
Not surprisingly for a game beloved in the Indian Subcontinent, thousands from the local diaspora of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities came out to watch the games, while millions more watched via the NCL app and online streaming.
While the International Cricket Council (ICC) gave its approval to NCL’s short format, it first accredited its equivalent T10 or ten-over format cricket in 2018, for a U.A.E. national championship. However, Agarwal believes his group has produced a winning re-branding formula.
“I would keep on repeating 60 strikes as in a 60-ball game,” he says. “T10 did not succeed because of a number of challenges and that is why we wanted to brand it where the American sports lover understands what the game is and strikes are so familiar to them because of baseball.”
He believes today, only a certain type or generation of die-hard fans will be willing to watch something like the classic 5-day Test match series he grew up watching. The NCL’s 90-minute period will appeal to most people, including a younger demographic, in line with sports like Basketball and Football as well as Soccer in the U.S. Adding entertainment to the mix, as Sixty Strikes did, he says “really showed the success.”
Agarwal is also excited because for the first time in over 120 years, cricket will once again be part of the Olympics and America will be the hosting venue for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. With men’s and women’s T20 or twenty-over formats slated so far, there may be a possible shift to a shorter format.
“Cricket is part of the Olympics in 2028 but they have still not decided on the format … I’m hoping one of the discussions might be that there is a shorter format, and if it happens, it would be 60 balls. That really will give validation to this game,” says Agarwal.
And like millions of fans of limited-over cricket, he feels the sport’s ruling body is on the cusp of accrediting T-10 or Sixty Strikes cricket for international tournaments, saying “I think eventually ICC will adopt it as one of the official formats.”
Many observers agree cricket is set to boom in emerging markets like the U.S. Just days after the New Zealand women’s team’s historic victory over South Africa in the T20 World Cup in Dubai, the business mogul says the NCL too will be launching its own women’s league. Meanwhile, league owners are also in the process of building stadiums in key cities where teams have been established such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta.
“The global reach is phenomenal,” says Agarwal. “Cricket today is where soccer was 15 years back, but it will not take 15 years for cricket to get there. I give it three to four years, cricket will be one of the top games, and our league will be one of the top sports leagues in this country.”
