The U.S. Tries Its Hand at Cricket

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: The United States co-hosts the Cricket World Cup for the first time, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina singles out sectors ready for more U.S. investment, and the region grapples with extreme weather, from floods to cyclones.

U.S. Co-Hosts Cricket World Cup

This year, for the first time, the United States will co-host the annual Men’s Cricket World Cup, which begins on Friday. Matches will be held in Florida, New York, and Texas, in addition to those played in the West Indies. Of the 20 participating teams, six are from cricket-crazy South Asia; only Bhutan and the Maldives will miss the event.

U.S. cricket officials hope that the World Cup can spark more interest in the sport within the United States. It’s admittedly a hard sell—but the United States’ growing South Asian diaspora can potentially help move the needle forward.

In general, Americans are famously uninterested in cricket. Despite its role in earlier U.S. history and the fact that some people still play the sport recreationally across the country, it was eclipsed by baseball after the U.S. Civil War. However,  a professional U.S. cricket league, known as Major League Cricket, launched last year with six teams.

Cricket boosters in the United States envision this year’s World Cup, coupled with the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 2028 (which will feature the return of cricket after a 128-year hiatus), as putting cricket back on the map in the United States. For inspiration, they can look to soccer, which took off in a big way in the United States after it hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Americans with South Asian ancestry will be some of the greatest allies to the cause. The South Asian community in the United States grew by 40 percent between 2010 and 2017, making it one of the fastest-growing diasporas in the country. Indian Americans are the largest South Asian group, now numbering around 4.4 million people. Meanwhile, there are less than 700,000 Pakistani Americans, but the group has more than tripled since 2000.

All this said, the South Asian diaspora in the United States still amounts to less than 2 percent of the total population. But many play cricket, including some on the U.S. World Cup team. Ten players of the 15-member squad (and two of its three reserves) are of South Asian origin. And if there is a growing number of people willing to play and market the sport, that can help transform it into a bigger industry.

Another effective way to drum up more widespread interest is to create success on the field. The U.S. team isn’t favored to go far in the World Cup. But it did upset Bangladesh in a warmup match earlier this month, and it boasts a few stars, including Ali Khan, who was born in Pakistan before moving to Ohio at age 19. The International Cricket Council once called him one of the sport’s “breakout stars.”

If cricket can gain a wider following in the United States, it could have positive effects for U.S. foreign policy by boosting the role of sports in cultural diplomacy in South Asia. No major sport is wildly popular in both places; soccer is the closest candidate. Basketball has generated some interest in South Asia, and a new baseball league inaugurated last year features Pakistani and Indian teams (as well as two from the United Arab Emirates), but their impacts have been modest.

Even if cricket catches on in the United States, it is unlikely to drive U.S. cultural relations in South Asia as much as baseball does in Japan or South Korea, or basketball in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Still, cricket diplomacy—such as having teams play friendly matches on each other’s turf—could serve U.S. interests in South Asia, especially where mistrust of the United States remains rife.

When U.S. ambassadors in South Asia try their hands at cricket or meet cricket stars in the countries where they serve, it may produce a laugh and some goodwill. But more substantive and sustained collaborations can produce longer-lasting camaraderie.

What We’re Following

Hasina makes pitch for U.S. investment. In recent months, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has periodically lashed out about U.S. policy, from accusing Washington of attempting regime change in Dhaka to lambasting crackdowns on U.S. university campuses. Such comments are in part rooted in long-standing grievances toward U.S. actions in Bangladesh.

However, Hasina has always strongly backed commercial partnership with Washington, and on Monday she made a strong pitch for greater investment to a visiting delegation of the U.S.-Bangladesh Business Council. Hasina called on U.S. business leaders to help make Bangladesh a “smart nation” by 2041, referring to a developed country driven by innovation and competition. (The year will commemorate 70 years since Bangladesh’s independence.)

Hasina seeks to expand Bangladesh’s export base, and she singled out investment-ready “high-potential sectors,” including renewable energy, shipbuilding, pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment. Such appeals have both economic and political motivations. One of South Asia’s economic success stories, Bangladesh has suffered a slowdown in the past few years, and economists warn that it’s not sustainable to rely so heavily on garment exports.

Economic stress can also have political implications. In late 2022, amid rising inflation, the opposition staged protests against the government despite facing harsh crackdowns.

Extreme weather hits the region. Severe weather is wreaking havoc across South Asia. In northern Afghanistan, floods have killed hundreds of people and destroyed thousands of homes. The U.N. World Food Program warns that the flooding could also exacerbate food insecurity in a country already dealing with the risk of starvation. According to the U.N. , more than 15 million Afghans are severely food insecure.

Meanwhile, India and Pakistan are experiencing scorching heat, with some parts of India registering temperatures as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists in India attribute the heat wave to the effects of climate change, as well as El Niño.

Then, last Sunday, Cyclone Remal hit Bangladesh and eastern India, killing at least 23 people and leaving millions without power. The damage was greatest in Bangladesh, with 3.5 million people affected. Weather experts in Bangladesh warn that the cyclone reflects a new pattern of coastal storms that linger at sea before making landfall, resulting in more rain and greater damage—another pattern attributed to a warming atmosphere.

Fresh crackdowns in Pakistan. Government critics in Pakistan are facing a new rash of threats. Last Tuesday, Raoof Hasan, a top spokesperson in the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, suffered serious injuries when an assailant stabbed him in the face in an Islamabad parking lot. Then, on Thursday, local authorities demolished part of PTI’s central secretariat building, citing violations of building bylaws.

These developments followed the abduction of a known critic of the state, journalist Ahmad Farhad, who was taken from his home in Islamabad, and the temporary shutdown by police of the Quetta Press Club in the province of Balochistan to prevent a meeting from taking place.

It’s unclear why this new round of repression is happening now. Pakistan’s military and civilian leadership have been waging a crackdown on the opposition and other government critics since former Prime Minister Imran Khan blamed the military for his April 2022 ouster. But after taking office this year, the coalition government pledged to focus its energies on economic recovery.

The recent incidents—which have elicited an angry response from PTI, including a message posted on the jailed Khan’s X account last week threatening “street agitation”—risk distracting Pakistan’s leaders at the worst possible time.

Under the Radar

On May 15, a senior Sri Lankan defense official revealed that Colombo and New Delhi are discussing establishing a joint venture focused on small arms production. In comments to local media, Premitha Bandara Tennakoon said that talks about a potential initiative are “ongoing,” and that it should be seen as part of broader bilateral defense cooperation.

A few weeks earlier, Santosh Jha—India’s high commissioner to Sri Lanka —said that India hopes to expand security collaborations with Colombo, including through providing weapons. Tennakoon said that Sri Lanka is interested in the project because it wants to develop the capacity to produce weaponry at a larger scale.

India likely has a few motivations. One is its desire to strengthen cooperation with its South Asian neighbors, excluding Pakistan, and reduce their incentives for doing business with China. Another is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on national self-reliance, which includes reducing dependence on external support for its manufacturing sector.

In this case, New Delhi likely wants to showcase its capacity not only to produce its own weapons, but also to do so alongside like-minded partners.

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Regional Voices

Writer Madiha Athar Khan reflects on the struggles of Bangladesh’s national cricket team. “Coming to terms with the current state of the men’s national team is reminiscent of detangling an intricately knotted web,” she writes in the Daily Star. “All the possible factors that led the team to its current state are deeply intertwined with each other.”

A Dawn editorial discusses Pakistan’s difficulties curbing Afghanistan-based terrorists. “While the Taliban should do more to prevent cross-border terrorism, Pakistan must also ensure that internally, no space is available to the militants and their sympathisers,” it argues. “Unless these elements are neutralised, it will not be possible to have the upper hand over terrorist groups.”

Reporter Nootan Sharma decries how commentators are discussing a rumored divorce between Indian cricketer Hardik Pandya and model Natasa Stankovic. “It’s Stankovic’s name being dragged through the mud,” she writes in the Print. “It’s always the women who are blamed or painted as money-grabbing spouses.”