I never imagined I would ever watch a cricket match, let alone attend one, let alone join tens of thousands of others at a venue 20 minutes from my house.
I left for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup with an open mind. The work required as much.
Just blocks from the entrance at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, there was no hint that one of the biggest sporting events in the world was taking place. Traffic was minimal. Promotional material fell through the cracks.
I arrived at the Nassau Coliseum parking lot for the first time since the Islanders said goodbye in the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals to find the concrete filled with blue and orange. Virtually every fan is adorned in the team colors of India, the tournament favorite, set to face Ireland, whose handful of fans look like they got off at the wrong station. The New York metropolitan area has the largest Indian population in the United States. Diversity brought the World Cup here, but it disappears in a venue where it appears roughly 97 percent of attendees have Indian heritage.
