Meet the U.S. cricket team, 1000-1 underdogs

LONDON (AP) -- They come from places like Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Pakistan.

Meet the United States cricket team, a ragtag bunch of weekend players who are 1,000-1 underdogs going into one of the sport's elite events -- the two-week long Champions Trophy.

Imagine a team of semipro baseball players from South Korea or Puerto Rico taking on the New York Yankees.

That's what the Americans will be up against when they face New Zealand on Friday -- ranked No. 2 in the world -- and world champion Australia on Monday.

"A victory over either one of those teams would be one of the greatest days in American sports history because of the underdog status we have," said team manager Hubert Miller, a former national player in Guyana who has lived for 35 years in New York.

Peering over his sunglasses on a warm morning at London's Finchley Cricket Club, the 66-year-old Miller offered a wink.

"I'll tell you, with something like that we would be on national TV with the president, especially in an election year."

Maybe nobody else is, but the Americans are taking themselves seriously in the 10-team tournament being played at three venues in England. They beat favored clubs like Scotland in a tournament in the United Arab Emirates six months ago to qualify.

Since arriving in England, they've been at it again.

They upset Zimbabwe -- one of crickets' top 10 nations -- on Wednesday in a practice game. Though Zimbabwe played a weakened side, the victory was probably the most important in recent U.S. cricket history.

"I cried, honestly I did," said Masood Chik, the former president of the USA Cricket Association, who was born in India and immigrated to Chicago more than 30 years ago.

"After all the time I have spent with American cricket, it felt like it was a mission accomplished."

Leon Romero is the only native-born American on the team. He grew up in New York, moved to Barbados, learned his cricket in Trinidad and now lives in Atlanta.

The Americans have only one well-known player -- former West Indies star Clayton Lambert.

"We are the pioneers," the 42-year-old Lambert said. "I think that my experience can lend something to the team. Cricket has given me a lot, and I want to give something back to the game."

"Growing up (in Guyana), I didn't even know baseball existed. Now I love it. I'm a real Braves fan. Cricket is an acquired taste, too."

Pakistan-born teammate Naseer Islam, who has lived 15 years in the Washington, D.C. area, said he once tried out for an American college baseball team, but found the national pastime boring.

"To me, baseball lacks the physics and chemistry of cricket," he said. "Baseball is more power. Cricket is more finesse."

The cricket being played in the Champions Trophy is the one-day version -- a quick moving, free-swinging game that features high scoring. This is radically different from the five-day game, a slower, tactical version favored by purists.

"Americans thought cricket was too slow, and they needed something that was short and exciting. That was baseball," said Steve Massiah, a Guyana-born batsman who scored a winning 142 runs against Zimbabwe.

"The one-day game is a bit like baseball, I guess you could say."

Massiah is one of four players on the U.S. team yet to gain a passport, though all four have the paperwork in process, Miller said.

Though they can't count on much else, the Americans do have some cricket history on their side.

In 1844, New York was the site of the world's first international cricket match, in which Canada defeated the United States. The Guinness book of "Cricket Firsts" says the first mention of cricket in America dates from 1709.

It hasn't moved on much in the last century.

The governing body of the game -- USACA -- operates on an annual budget of about US$200,000, it has no major sponsor, and all the players are amateurs. In a country of almost 300 million, there are only 15,000 players -- most based in New York, Chicago, California and Florida.

The United States probably has only a half-dozen full-fledged cricket fields -- all in California and Florida. In other places, the game is played on coconut matting.

Despite the handicaps, English semipro player Johan Thisanayagan, 21, was surprised when he came Thursday to work out with the Americans.

"The picture I had in my head was some baseball player, holding a cricket bat awkwardly above his head -- maybe having been semi-coached in cricket," he said. "I didn't even know they played cricket in America. They looked better than I expected."

(scw)