Constable: March Madness for cricket fans

For Shiraz Najam of Streamwood, March Madness began way back on Valentine's Day, when impressive bowlers propelled New Zealand to a commanding 98-run victory over Sri Lanka in the opening match of the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

College basketball might dominate today's sports news for millions of Americans, but more than 2 billion (yes, with a B) people worldwide are focused on the quadrennial international cricket tourney, which heats up Wednesday when the knockout phase begins and lasts until only the top two teams square off in Australia's Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 29, the sport's Super Sunday.

“It's bigger than soccer, American football, baseball, basketball,” says Najam, 37, who plays cricket all summer and also serves as president of the Midwest Cricket Conference, which boasts 52 teams playing in 560 games during the 20-week season.

Often compared to baseball, cricket features a bowler who throws a ball about the size of a baseball toward a wicket, which is similar to vertical home plate. A batsman uses a cricket bat, which looks like a paddle, to hit the ball into play and score runs without the fielders recording an out. A ball hit over the boundary is worth six runs, and a player bats until he makes an out. Retired “God of cricket” Sachin Tendulkar of India scored more than 30,000 runs and is the only player to record 100 centuries (scoring 100 runs or more in a single at-bat). In India, Michael Jordan is known as the Sachin Tendulkar of basketball.

The suburbs boast a cricket legend in Waseem Khan of Glendale Heights, who set a world record during an official match in Hanover Park by recording the fastest century, accumulating 100 runs in only 33 balls. A perennial Most Valuable Player in his league, the 43-year-old Khan was born in Pakistan, where he played on elite teams but just missed the cut for making Pakistan's national team.

“I used to go watch him play because he was famous in the community,” says Najam, who, as did Khan, spent his childhood in Karachi, Pakistan.

Khan played on club teams in the United State. “I got paid. I got sponsors,” says Khan, who says he made between $10,000 and $15,000 some summers. He was on the U.S. national cricket team for several years, including the team that qualified for the 2004 International Cricket Council Intercontinental Cup.

“We lost badly to Australia and North Zealand,” remembers Khan, who says the U.S. team still depends on immigrant players and didn't make the cut for this year's World Cup.

Najam says local cricket advocates are hoping to change that, having established cricket club teams at Prospect, Palatine, Maine East, Rolling Meadows and Niles North high schools.

“We're seeing a bunch of American-born kids exploring the game. It's very promising,” Najam says.

In addition to agreements with park districts such as the one in Hanover Park, where the Midwest Cricket Conference (midwestcricket.org) plays two six-hour games a day on summer weekends, the Naperville Park District started its own cricket league program in 2007.

“The initial year, we had five teams. Now, we've been as high as 13,” says Gary Foiles, program manager for the Naperville Park District. “We added a second field, or pitch. On weekends, those pitches are pretty full.”

Cricket now boasts twice as many teams as the traditional 16-inch softball league, Foiles says.

“I still don't really understand cricket, but I've come to appreciate it,” he says.

“The conventional game, when it started, lasted five days and sometimes it ended in a draw,” says Najam, whose league still keeps the traditional red-colored ball favored in that era. The one-day format for games in the World Cup is shortened to less than six hours for the suburban version, allowing the league to play two games in a day on one pitch. Other leagues play a version called 20/20 that takes less than four hours.

There is no television coverage of the Cricket World Cup in the United States, but fans can buy coverage online.

“All the cricket channels I have bought, and I do watch,” says Khan, adding that fans are fanatical about their national teams. In Forbes magazine's 2015 list of the world's highest-paid athletes, India's cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni made $26 million in endorsements last year, more than basketball's Derrick Rose, soccer's Lionel Messi, football's Peyton Manning or baseball's Derek Jeter.

While the traditional uniform was made of modest white flannel, today's cricket players sport brightly-colored synthetic jerseys, such as the new bright green Pakistan jersey Khan wears.

Pakistan, which hasn't won the Cup since 1992, plays Ireland today. While Khan and Najam both root for their native land, they say other teams are more deserving and more likely to win the cup. Khan says he likes the way South Africa plays. Naham says New Zealand is his choice to win it all.

Suburban teams generally are dominated by immigrants from India and Pakistan, but that national rivalry is put aside here, even when India, the defending Cup champion, beat Pakistan in earlier World Cup play.

“I'm an American cricketer. I have no nationality,” Najam says. “We're crazy about our teams, but we want to be respectful to our game.”

The modern game was refined by England in the 17th century and exported around the world with a high standard of sportsmanship.

“My life is changed because of cricket. I'm a good guy,” says Khan, who, with his wife, Tayyaba, takes care of their daughters Lamisah, 14, and Rabah, 12, and sons Aayan, 5½, and Zayn, 1½. “Cricket is a temperate game. No fighting. No bad words. The best thing I learned is that a cricketer is supposed to be a gentleman.”

Najam, like Khan and many of their cricket teammates, makes his living in the information technology field. Najam says his wife, Monaza, is a “cricket widow” on summer weekends, taking care of their son Mahad, 6, and daughter, Isra, 4.

“I have a 6-year-old who runs around with a bat all the time and asks his sister to bowl to him,” says Najam. Recognizing that soccer's World Cup was ignored by most Americans a generation ago, Najam says he hopes cricket follows a similar growth pattern. Khan says suburban kids might one day prefer cricket over our current national pastime.

“Baseball, to me,” Khan says with a broad smile, “is a slow game.”