Believe It or Not, Hartford Loves Cricket

“There are more cricket fans in the United States than there are in India,” according to Stan Walker, who played cricket in Jamaica before coming to Hartford. The Hall of Fame is an apartment-sized space packed with neatly framed pictures of famous cricketers, located above a Jamaican restaurant on Main Street in the North End of Hartford.

The Hall of Fame, which was established by expat West Indian cricketers in 1981, is the only institution of its kind in the US. And it’s main goal is to grow the sport.

“When I first came [to Hartford] in ‘68, we had 5,000 West Indians living in greater Hartford. Now we’re looking at 100,000,” according to Michael Chambers, a Jamaican immigrant who is the current President of the Cricket Hall of Fame.

“What we would love to see is stadiums like your baseball stadiums going up for cricket.  If we had like say three of those, then we would be able to compete on the world’s stage, but we can’t because the stadiums don’t hold a crowd,” Chambers explained.

Building a stadium and a movement is a dream that is widespread throughout the cricket community. It is even the subject of Netherland, a novel by Irish writer John O’Neill that has been hailed as the post 9/11 Great Gatbsy. The novel follows a lost Dutch businessman who begins to play cricket with a group of West Indian immigrants, including a Trinidadian Gatsby figure who dreams of building a stadium in New York. British author and critic Zadie Smtih calls cricket, in a long piece in the New York Review of Books about realism, fiction, authenticity and masculinity, “the deferred promise of the American dream” within the novel.

The novel was widely reported to have been read by President Obama, whose picture hangs on the wall of the Hall of Fame. Brian Lara, a great batsman, is teaching the smiling President how to swing a cricket bat at the Summit of the Americas, in Trinidad in 2009.

The book is, in a way, America’s introduction to an ongoing international conversation about America’s future in cricket. And the forces embedded in cricket are as complex as its rules. Issues surrounding immigration, colonialism, foreign policy and globalization abound.

“When you say you have a World Series in baseball, it’s not a world series. When you get passionate, it’s just local. When we get passionate, it’s a real war. We’re fighting against the English, we’re fighting against the Australians,” Chambers explained.

Hartford is central in the the evolving saga of American cricket. Important cricketers from a wide variety of backgrounds are honored yearly; The Hall of Fame's list of inductees has become a symbol of the increasing diversity of American cricket. Joseph O’Neill visited two years ago, as did the former Prime Minister of Jamaica.

As immigrants have continued to settle in Hartford, cricket has grown.

Today, there is a team that is largely Pakistani immigrants and another team that is largely Guyanese immigrants, along with a several of West Indian teams. “They play in Keney Park every weekend,” Chambers said.  

Almost everyone who plays, however, was not born in the United States.

“I can’t even get my son to come and watch me play,” Chambers said. Despite the predominance of one day matches, the sport still remains somewhat unknown and even foreign to Americans.

“Cricket is a slow sport. And Americans like things fast.” Chambers said.

Many are still hopeful, however. The newly formed American women’s team just beat Canada and is on its way to qualifying for the next ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup.

*Note: The cricket home run is not actually called a “home run.” However, if a batsman hits the ball--in the air---over the line that denotes the end of the field, he gets six points. If the ball rolls over the line, he gets four points. If it takes thirteen bounces and rolls less than five feet, he gets 2/3 of a point. Just kidding.