Cricket is having its moment in the Bay Area. What does the future hold?

Rohit Shesh, of Fremont, bats during a practice for the Santa Clara Bees cricket club at Wilson Field in Santa Clara, Calif., on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)

SANTA CLARA — Prakash Giri, the president of the Northern California Cricket Association, is a cricket lifer. A day rarely goes by without the game he loves crossing his mind. As one of Giri’s colleagues jokes, “Out of 24 hours in a day, he puts in 25.” Giri fully understands, then, the gravity of the United States cricket team’s historic, unprecedented run this month.

“These are moments that can change the game, how it’s perceived,” Giri said. “I think history will remember this.”

Despite qualifying for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup only because of their host status, the Americans are shocking the cricket landscape in their first tournament appearance. After beating Canada, the United States upset heavily favored Pakistan, then impressed for putting up a valiant effort in a loss to top-ranked India. Despite its underdog status, the U.S. has advanced to the Super Eights, automatically qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. In 2028, the Americans will host the Summer Olympics.

Though the first international cricket match is credited with having been played in New York in 1844 when a U.S. club played a team from Canada, America does not have a rich cricket history. That seems to be changing in real time. For those who love the “gentleman’s game,” they’re relishing the opportunity to see their game get its time in the sun.

“I think it’s only going to get better from here,” Giri said.

Among those who have felt the buzz is Rajendra Badadare, who coached batsman Steven Taylor with the U15 national team. Badadare, who lives in Foster City, recalled neighbors and city council members reaching out to him following America’s upset over Pakistan. Badadare shared that his daughter, who attends Cal Poly SLO, began fielding questions from her friends about cricket in recent weeks as well.

“It’s been the talk of the town,” Badadare said. “Even though cricket is not a local sport, it’s being discussed locally.”

On June 29, the NCCA, which spans from Sacramento through the Bay Area to Fresno to Fresno, will host a watch party for the World Cup finals at Ohlone College in Fremont. Among those planning to be in attendance is Sunil Gavaskar, the former captain of the Indian national cricket team and considered to be the greatest opening batsman of all-time. Though Gavaskar currently lives in India, he is visiting the Bay Area specifically for the watch party, as well as another event. The hope, of course, is that the United States, which features 32-year-old bowler Saurabh Netravalkar who works as a software engineer at Redwood Shores’ Oracle, is there to represent in the finals.

“The underdogs are the feel-good story in American sports,” said Ganesh Sanap, a former NCCA president. “We don’t have resources. If you see what international quality is compared to what we have, we are nowhere in the picture. But these boys, with all our years of resilience, as they say, everything is falling in place.”

The United States, currently ranked No. 17 in the T20, is turning heads for a reason. Cricket’s popularity lags well behind that of other sports, and that second-tier status is reflected in numerous ways.