By Louis Fernandez, WRAL Sports

In the middle of a hot Wednesday afternoon in Morrisville, Asif Parekh stands under a pavilion doing what he loves to do: watch cricket.

“We eat, sleep, work, and on the weekend we play cricket, that’s the life, you know?” Parekh laughed.

In partnership with Major League Cricket, the town of Morrisville is hosting several matches for the second year. On Wednesday, it was the Texas Super Kings and the San Francisco Unicorns clashing.

Town of Morrisville Athletics Manager Bryan Rhea said it’s all part of the plan.

“The hopes and dreams of Morrisville overall is to become a hub for cricket in the United States,” Rhea said.

Morrisville’s actions seem to be in sync with that message. The town and MLC announced a multi-million dollar partnership expanding the Church Street Park to become of international-quality. They even put in a bid to be one of the host venues for the 2024 T20 Men’s World Cup.

“Understanding that my community does enjoy cricket, providing opportunities for them to continue to enjoy it, in our own back yard,” Rhea said.

Dhruv Nair, an 18-year-old who grew up in the Triangle, says the big international names astound him.

“I grew up watching the IPL which is always in India and I never expected the same players to come to Morrisville which is like 10 minutes from my house.”

People have ventured from out of town to watch July’s matches, like Robyn Hobbs, grew up in South Africa, but currently lives in Atlanta.

“When I first moved here, you had to watch it on some streaming somewhere, you were very lucky to get it,” she said.

Even if you don’t know what a wicket, a round or bowling means, some fans, like Navya Mingu, said there’s an opportunity to learn.

“My (work) team is an example of it, they haven’t heard the word cricket before, but they’re out here watching with us.”

The Triangle Cricket League hosts hundreds of teams encompassing Raleigh, Durham, Cary and Chapel Hill. The league played its first T20 tournament in 2009, but some of the founding members go back to 1997. Parekh is treasurer of the league. He’s seen the growth in the area first hand.

“Six years back when they started building this ground, we never thought that it was going to be that kind of a standard,” Parekh said.

Part of the investment from Morrisville and MLC includes an addition of more than 2,000 permanent seats to the Church Street Park, pushing its capacity to over 3,500.

Nithish Singa, who plays in the Triangle Cricket League, sees younger players taking up the mantle.

“Even small kids, they are going for training, TCL providing lots of training for kids,” Singa said.

“Locally, it means the town invests a lot of money in this, so you can see the different shade between what we had five years back and now what we see right now,” Parekh said.

There are five more matches in Morrisville this month:

• Friday, July 12 at 3 p.m. Texas Super Kings vs. MI New York
• Saturday, July 13 at 3 p.m. San Francisco Unicorns vs. Los Angeles Knight Riders
• Sunday, July 14 at 3 p.m. Los Angeles Knight Riders vs. Washington Freedom
• Monday, July 15 at 3:30 p.m. San Francisco Unicorns vs. Seattle Orcas
• Wednesday, July 17 at 3:00 p.m. Los Angeles Knight riders vs. Seattle Orcas

Click HERE more information of the matches, Church Street Park and how to attend.

Source: wralsportsfan.com