Sheikh was drafted in March by the Los Angeles Knight Riders, one of Major League Cricket’s six teams. Next week, the burgeoning sports league will launch its inaugural season with a kick-off match in Grand Prairie.
When Sheikh moved to North Texas in 2015, he said there weren’t many cricket athletes, coaches or facilities to speak of. But as time went on, more and more folks started to catch the cricket bug.
“I feel like where it is today is what I never imagined, with the stadium being built and all the international players that are going to be coming to Dallas,” he told the Observer. “It's a great opportunity for people like me, that have been raised in the U.S., especially in Dallas. I feel like cricket itself was never expected to be this popular.”
These days, the country seems to have a serious thirst for less-traditional sports.
There’s pickleball, of course. That pastime boasts some 36.5 million U.S. participants and has seen an average growth rate of nearly 160% over the past three years, according to the website Pickleheads.
But American cricket is giving pickleball a run for its money. In the U.S., millions of dollars are being poured into the sport, which ranks No. 2 in popularity worldwide, just behind soccer — or as the rest of the world calls it, football. The baseball-esque bat-and-ball game is adored by some 2.5 billion fans around the globe, especially in Asia, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Plenty of big names are investing in MLC, too, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Ross Perot Jr., the Dallas real estate developer, UT Dallas noted in a news release.
Sheikh has big plans for when he graduates next year.
“Once I get my undergrad degree, then I'll basically be full-time cricket and hopefully see how far that takes me,” he said. “And then, worst-case scenario — or at the end of my cricket career — I can always fall back into my accounting degree.”
That cricket career could take him overseas to play in far-flung places like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Caribbean, he said.
Sheikh, who was drafted in the MLC’s sixth round, is apparently quite good, too.“It's only going to grow from here on out.” – Ali Sheikh, Major League Cricket player
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“There was an ‘Under-23’ category, which is the ninth round, so every player that was under 23 got drafted in that round,” he said. “But I was the only one to get drafted in the first eight rounds that was under 23, so that was kind of cool.”
Sheikh started playing cricket in Qatar, where he was born and raised. In Dallas, he has benefited from the guidance of a coach who’s a former international player from Pakistan.
The UT Dallas student will now get the chance to play with some of the biggest names in cricket, some of whom he watched growing up.
“It's a great opportunity for me and great exposure to be playing at the highest level,” Sheikh said. “I feel like there's a lot to learn from and a lot to take out of this experience.”
On top of the physical demands, cricket players need to have plenty of mental stamina. Sheikh estimates that cricket is up to 85% a mental game thanks to how much strategy is involved.
Matches are intense and can last for several hours, he said, and there are plenty of emotions arising throughout.
In fact, one of the longest sporting events in history was a cricket match that lasted 43 hours over the span of 12 days, according to Discover Magazine.
Looking ahead, Sheikh believes that the future of cricket in the U.S. is bright.
“This is just the start, with the [Grand Prairie] stadium being built and all the international players moving here,” he said. “I feel like it's going to skyrocket, with all the money and investments … and interest being shown.
“It's only going to grow from here on out.”
Catch the Los Angeles Knight Riders’ match against the Dallas-based Texas Super Kings at Grand Prairie Stadium next Thursday, July 13.
