If You Listen to These Gents, Cricket’s the Ticket

Bill Dusting drove all the way from San Diego on Thursday to see his beloved Australian national cricket team take on India in the AXN American Challenge at Woodley Park.

The teams, among the world’s finest, are playing a best-of-five-games series through Monday in a stadium situated at the park’s southeast corner.

With a beer in one hand and wearing dark shades and a canvas fishing hat, Dusting cheered loudly for his team, dressed in bright green shirts and canary yellow pants.

It’s not often the Australian native, who grew up playing cricket, gets to see his favorite sport in a country where football, baseball and basketball are far more popular.

“I’m starved for this,” Dusting said. “Sometimes you can see cricket on satellite TV or on pay-per-view, but that’s about it. Live games like this, with all the stars of the game right there, just don’t exist.”

That’s because the upper-class British game with passing similarities to American baseball isn’t as popular as, well, baseball.

But in countries such as Australia and India, cricket is a favorite pastime, played in backyards and packed stadiums and televised live.

And top cricket players, unknown to most Americans, are as famous as basketball star Shaquille O’Neal and baseball home run king Mark McGwire.

“It really has to be hard for them, playing in front of so few people,” Dusting said of the small crowd of about 50 at Woodley Park on Thursday afternoon. “They’re used to playing in front of 90,000 people. Very rowdy people, drinking beer and cheering them on.”

Narinder Kumar Shastri liked the laid-back atmosphere Thursday, saying it was a treat to see the players up close without having to fight a big crowd.

A minister at a Northridge Hindu temple, Shastri arranged his schedule weeks ago so that he could attend every game, each potentially lasting seven hours--or longer.

“I started playing cricket in India when I was 7 years old, and I still play in a league here,” Shastri said. “I wish there were more matches like this to watch.”

Shastri, also an astrologer, was asked to predict which team would win the series.

“Well, India,” he said.

Barry Samuels, a native of Jamaica, said he didn’t care who won. He just wanted to see world-class cricket.

A resident of Los Angeles, Samuels plays in a local league but misses watching top-notch competition.

“This is a treat,” he said. “I came yesterday too, and I plan to come this weekend. You don’t see this often.”

The event’s organizers hope to change that by bringing more world-class cricket tournaments to the area. AXN, part of the Sony television group, is sponsoring this tournament and putting up $15,000 in prize money.

The games are also being televised live in India, Australia, Pakistan and the United Kingdom, with play-by-play analysis by well-known Australian announcer Ian Chappell.

“We want more American children to play cricket because it teaches discipline,” said Atul Rai, president of the Southern California Cricket Assn. “This isn’t like American sports where you can spit and yell at the referee. In cricket you can’t even look at the umpire, let alone say something.”

The tournament is tied 1-1, with play continuing Saturday, Sunday and Monday.