{"id":8205,"date":"2026-04-25T01:36:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/new-cricket-stadium-in-southern-california-heralds-the-sports-olympic-return-after-128-years\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T01:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:06:33","slug":"new-cricket-stadium-in-southern-california-heralds-the-sports-olympic-return-after-128-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/new-cricket-stadium-in-southern-california-heralds-the-sports-olympic-return-after-128-years\/","title":{"rendered":"New cricket stadium in Southern California heralds the sport&#8217;s Olympic return after 128 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_Dayv5UGbq4P?ui_title_intro=Listen+now%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=2.7.1\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 It\u2019s been 126 years since cricket \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/t20-cricket-world-cup-united-states-west-indies-07bc2c9a37e907654c56ca12f27c88cd\">the second most watched sport in the world<\/a> \u2014 made an appearance in the Olympics. That\u2019s about to change in 2028.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, shovels hit the ground in Pomona, a city in the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, where construction has begun for a 10,000-plus capacity premier cricket stadium. It will serve as the venue for men\u2019s and women\u2019s games, played by six teams in each competition.<\/p>\n<p>The stadium is being erected in the Fairplex fairgrounds as the home of the Los Angeles Knight Riders, a professional <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/major-league-cricket-america-twenty20-fbd755b93611ac8bdab88509a9b11111\">Major League Cricket<\/a> team owned by the Mumbai-based Knight Riders Sports. The company is co-led by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.<\/p>\n<p>The groundbreaking kicked off with a \u201cbhumi pujan,\u201d a ritual rooted in Hindu tradition, which often marks the start of a construction project as a way of seeking divine blessings and forgiveness for disturbing the earth.<\/p>\n<p>Cricket is already woven into the cultural fabric of U.S. diaspora communities from all over the world, particularly South Asia, where it is followed with religious fervor. In the U.S., cricket fans, coaches and players view a dedicated cricket stadium in a major sports market like Southern California as a huge milestone.<\/p>\n<p>Investors hope momentum from local major league cricket games carries into the Olympics, taking the sport to a mainstream American sports audience. Many also believe that this newfound visibility will help carve out promising pathways for homegrown cricketing talent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Olympics could make cricket mainstream in America<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Venky Mysore, CEO of Knight Riders Sports, said establishing the Knight Riders Cricket Field is just the first step in getting the average American fan engaged. Mysore is convinced of the sport\u2019s commercial potential.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople who watch the Olympics are not necessarily cricket fans,\u201d Mysore said. \u201cWhen cricket becomes an Olympic sport, that takes interest and awareness to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Knight Riders Sports operates multiple teams worldwide \u2014 in India, the Caribbean and the United Arab Emirates. But the Pomona venue is the only stadium they\u2019ve built from scratch, Mysore said. Only three international-level cricket stadiums operate in the U.S. \u2014 in <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/t20-world-cup-united-states-988f8060776d37ec2f1b394fa7443e36\">Texas, Florida<\/a> and North Carolina. The sport is also played in other multi-purpose venues like the Oakland Coliseum.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LA is one of a handful of dedicated US cricket venues<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Peter Della Penna, who has been covering cricket in the U.S. for the past two decades, says this is the first time an international cricket event in the U.S. will have a dedicated venue. In 2024, a high-capacity modular stadium was specifically built for the T20 World Cup in New York, but was dismantled after the event.<\/p>\n<p>But during the LA Olympics, it would not be ideal to hold the cricket matches in another part of the country, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCricket players would want to be in the Olympic Village, walk shoulder to shoulder with U.S. track and field athletes, swimmers and basketball players,\u201d he said. \u201cCricketers in America have not had such prominence and U.S. cricket really needs that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cricket has had a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/cricket-baseball-t20-world-cup-072e95dba37691446392f8f63b2acee8\">long, rich history in the U.S<\/a>. The first international cricket match was played between the U.S. and Canada in 1844 at St. George\u2019s Cricket Club in Manhattan, New York. Canada beat the U.S. by a slim margin before thousands of spectators, with large wagers placed on the event.<\/p>\n<p>A high point came in 2024, when the U.S. national team achieved a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/t20-world-cup-united-states-pakistan-e1d790f59816588d4e3780f04d71cc79\">stunning upset<\/a> over Pakistan in a T20 World Cup match.<\/p>\n<p>Debjit Lahiri, a Wisconsin-based cricket historian, said Olympic cricket was last played in 1900 in Paris where the Summer Games were a chaotic sideshow to the World\u2019s Fair, featuring events like live pigeon shooting. Cricket never made it to the 1904 Olympic Games held in St. Louis.<\/p>\n<p>Cricket in Los Angeles began around 1900 with local clubs. It gained prominence in the 1930s with the Hollywood Cricket Club formed by expat British actors, drawing big names like Errol Flynn, Laurence Olivier, Cary Grant and Boris Karloff. The club\u2019s original home at Griffith Park was torn down to build an equestrian center for the 1984 Olympics. It moved to Woodley Park in the San Fernando Valley, where several aspiring cricketers learned to play the game, including Ayan Desai, a 22-year-old rising star who hopes to play for Team USA in 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Desai, whose family owns a motel near the future Knight Riders stadium, said he was thrilled to hear about a world-class cricket venue almost in his backyard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo play the Olympics is special, but to do it in front of your home crowd, in your home city, that would be amazing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Desai, a left-arm fast bowler, plays for the Seattle Orcas major league team and has competed in four international games as part of the U.S. national team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is what we\u2019ve needed to grow cricket in Los Angeles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Questions remain about cricket\u2019s sustainability<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Antigua native Reggie Benjamin, a former U.S. cricketer and longtime coach based in Los Angeles, remains skeptical.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m happy to see cricket get an opportunity to showcase itself here,\u201d he said. \u201cBut if you can\u2019t get average Americans to come to a game and sit in the stands for three hours, or if you can\u2019t get American kids to play cricket, the game is not going to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Benjamin said he\u2019s been disappointed to see homegrown talent and grassroots efforts cast aside as players from other countries are brought in to play for major league teams and the national team. He also points to poor management that has beset U.S. cricket and raised concerns about cricket\u2019s inclusion in the 2028 Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, those challenges came to a head as USA Cricket, a nonprofit tasked with developing the sport in the United States, filed for federal bankruptcy protection after ending a contract with American Cricket Enterprises, the group that created Major League Cricket. Since then, the International Cricket Council, which oversees cricket worldwide, has been temporarily running the U.S. national cricket team. ACE also filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful termination of the contract.<\/p>\n<p>Yet big investors like Mysore are optimistic that a cooperative relationship is possible between USA Cricket and Major League Cricket. Both feed off each other, he said. National selectors often look to major league teams for star players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA strong national team is important because it keeps interest alive in the sport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Walter Marquez, CEO of the Fairplex, says he believes in cricket\u2019s future. A diehard baseball fan, Marquez said he\u2019s been boning up on cricket recently. He now knows what a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.collinsdictionary.com\/us\/word-lists\/cricket-cricket-terms\">\u201cyorker\u201d<\/a> means, and he sees real potential for the game to grow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor those who don\u2019t know cricket, given an opportunity, they will learn what an exciting game it is, especially the T20 format,\u201d said Marquez, referring to the truncated format the Olympics will use in 2028.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe like home runs. We love the long ball. Cricket has a lot of those. American sports fans just don\u2019t know they\u2019re cricket fans yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/ap-twir\">collaboration<\/a> with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 -->\n        <\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2026\/04\/24\/new-cricket-stadium-in-southern-california-heralds-the-sports-olympic-return-after-128-years\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 It\u2019s been 126 years since cricket \u2014 the second most watched sport in the world \u2014 made an appearance in the Olympics. That\u2019s about to change in 2028. On Wednesday, shovels hit the ground in Pomona, a city in the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, where construction has begun for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}