Transcript
Neel: Welcome back to The American Over, a podcast on cricket in the USA. My name is Neil.
American Over: And I'm Dhruv. Neil, I see you're an L .A. fan back there. I got to say, there's a better team out there.
Neel: Oh my. Okay. So, so yes, that for all of our video viewers, that's the LA Knight writers flag that I got from our. trip to the major league cricket finals. uh they were handing it out so i got it but listen Nobody is happier to watch the LA Dodgers lose. And nobody's happier to see the LA Rams and the Chargers lose. Listen, this is just a placeholder. Until Philadelphia gets a team, this is it. I do like your flag, though. It's very on brand for you.
Neel: So.
American Over: We could have won.
Neel: Amen.
American Over: It kind of worked. Shuttle on.
Neel: So, Dhruv, what was that thing that was going viral on social media? Surya Kumar Yadav was doing baseball, is that right?
American Over: Twitter has been on fire the last few days, dude. I don't even know how to explain this to you, man. There's been so much. completely unnecessary drama going on. So, okay. So what's happening is that the MLB is doing these, you know, exposure events like, you know.
American Over: out around the world. They did one in Mumbai where they had Sky Suryakumar Yadav.
American Over: Honestly, just batting against some real lobs, some real underhand pitches, and just smoking them. kind of smoking him. And, you know, it looked really like easy batting practice, I guess. But... Twitter went insane. Indian Twitter in particular was like, oh, my God, cricket is so much harder. Like, look at this guy, like, destroying a baseball. This guy is not even. No offense to Sky, but he's not even in that great form anymore. fanatics on both sides, posting videos of Glenn Phillips taking some incredible catches or some crazy fielding in baseball as well, or Virat Kohli's shot of the century, making some headlines with baseball players being completely unimpressed. It's been...
American Over: It's been... It's been a ride over the last one week, let's say.
Neel: Okay, so all these people were saying like baseball is super easy, and you know, I have my thoughts. We'll get into that. right But if you look at that video, right? And so this video, you just look it up. It's MLBX with Surya Kumar already out of the sky, right? This guy's just toss him easy batting practice and this guy's this guy's hitting it, right? Listen, I think everyone was like, oh, this guy is smoking those balls. Listen, he was not.
Neel: tearing the leather off these things that was he was hitting like foul outs And like. pop outs to short honestly that that's being generous he was hitting a pop out to the pitcher or maybe even the catcher, right? Like this is not like. i'm sure he wasn't trying his hardest right i'm sure he's not a train train guy, right?
Neel: He was not destroying the ball. I will say his form was actually pretty decent. But... I don't think that they deserve to go as far as like, oh my God, baseball is trivial, right? This guy can kill it, right? It's not it's not like that. His swing wasn't bad. His swing wasn't bad. I would have...
Neel: I've seen people who aren't trading, including myself, take hacks. Does that look good? He actually... He kind of knew what he was doing. And then who else? Did John Boy, right? And some of these other American guys chimed in too?
American Over: Yeah, you had some really interesting people with some big takes, right? Like, folks that know both games. I think Johnboy is one of the most qualified people to have a comment here. And he jumped in with, I think, a pretty, like...
American Over: a pretty nuanced take. His take was very simple. It was These are different sports. They both have a bat and ball. They both require hand -eye coordination, but they're different sports. Cricket in particular requires a ton of breadth of skill. The way that you're running around, the types of shots that you're playing, the risks that you're trying to calculate are drastically different from the more focused baseball. And I think this gels with my opinion too. Baseball is a...
American Over: There's a much lower margin of error. And as you can imagine, like things like strike rate are measured, drastically different in baseball. And as a result, like.
American Over: The strategy becomes totally different. The kinds of shots that you're playing are totally different. And the things that you strategize towards practice and respect are very different. Like we were talking about the difference between how successful and important line drives are relative to flat sixes in cricket or bunts versus defending in cricket, right? Like the value of those is totally different. Like the value of a line drive in cricket is a lot lower than smoking a high six, right? Because you actually change.
American Over: You change what's possible and what's not. Pitching, bowling are completely different, right? Pitching sliders is drastically different in value from bowling Yorkers at the feet or seam bowling or whatnot.
American Over: So it's just not the same game. And I don't think that comparison is very fair, but it is fun though. It is fun to see Hardik Pandya with Mr.
American Over: Beast.
Neel: It's funny, it's something they did not have. Uh, these bowlers trying to pitch, right? It was all just batsmen.
American Over: Hmm.
Neel: trying to bat, right? So yes, as you said. There's definitely... you know. It's a little more similar to the batting side. Right. uh but even then right the strategy is very different uh the kind of swings you take are different but yes i think the core physical skills like are still So please have a look.
Neel: But yeah, the Harlequin, Mr. Beast, that's another one, right? they went to bangalore right and they took over some cricket field and then mr beast did some was it some challenge where he'll give away like one whack or whatever or a hundred thousand or whatever right
American Over: Yeah.
Neel: uh you give money away to i think hardly some guys if they manage to i don't know hit a home run or something like that Like another one where it was just batting. right but that one so
American Over: Yep.
Neel: You can look it up. The one we saw was dubbed into Hindi, which is very strange to see Mr. Beast speaking Hindi. Hmm. He's even more uncanny in Hindi. But anyway.
American Over: Yeah.
Neel: Basically, what happened was I think Hardik and Mr. B said he played baseball at some point in his life, maybe in middle school, high school. And he got a couple shots. Harvick got one that was a home run. So he hit it basically past the boundary. There's a little ring road for some reason around that stadium. around the field so He hit it out.
Neel: And people were losing their minds like oh this guy hit a home run and all that right However, you tell me what you think. i i went on google maps right so i found this stadium it's like it's like uh it's a size something stadium right in bangalore
Neel: So. I found the stadium and then I looked at kind of how they set it up. From basically, they set up HomePlate. at the center of the pitch and then We had the boundary right was where the home run fence was so that was about 220 feet 225 feet, So that's that's the the radius And so this guy hit a home run onto the street.
Neel: uh and of course indians are losing their mind right So he had maybe 250 feet. The bad news, Dhruv, I've got to give you bad news. In a major league ballpark, that is a lazy fly ball to center field.
American Over: Okay.
Neel: Right.
American Over: No, I'm a big Hardik fan, dude. Don't do this to me.
Neel: I know. I know. Uh, like. look it was it was impressive it was impressive but just just to give you context just give context right so In a major league baseball. stadium.
Neel: Dead center field is 400 feet. That's the farthest distance, right? uh and then the outfield so right field left field is like minimum 300 about 330 feet So. that ball was not clearing the fence anywhere.
Neel: Also, also he was being tossed very easy kind of batting practice pitches like we'll just like underhand very easy lobs right So high schools also tear their feet. His home run, I have good news. would maybe, maybe be a home run in a little league. field.
Neel: So... So Little League is 175 feet to the corners. I think roughly, I don't know if it's standardized, but roughly. And then dead center field is 225. So like that shot.
Neel: would have just cleared the fences so if he was eight years old is it a you know a little bit very not to not to not to rag on it right my point is My point is the standards are very different. Right. Like. hitting a baseball going... imagine that what he was doing going three times faster with crazy thousands of rpm spin on it And I haven't hit it twice as well.
Neel: Yeah. That's the thing, right? It's literally a different ballgame. And I think Hardwick's swing worked actually pretty good. I was pretty impressed. But again, you can't just say.
Neel: you know, cricket player could kill up in a baseball, right?
American Over: Yeah, and like... You know, you've got You've got players that have done it, right? Like Harry Brooke trained with the Cardinals for a while, right? Mostly as part of this MLB ambassador thing to learn a little bit more about how to get better at cricket and also share a little bit more. these kinds of things. And look, he's hit like.
American Over: It sounds like he's hit a couple of big home runs and he's been successful, right? Like a lot of those skills definitely translate. And I think that's a really fun video to watch.
American Over: Or Liam Plunkett. is pitching now in the minor league, right? Like as we kind of talked about.
Neel: That's cool. Yeah.
American Over: It's so cool. It's so cool. Batting is one thing, right? Pitching and bowling are so different, right? Because you can't bend your arm in cricket, the arm speed and the speed out of the hand that you can generate is drastically different because you can't flick your...
American Over: You can't flick your elbow.
Neel: Yeah.
American Over: And a lot of that action comes out of just like the biomechanics of the movement. or the flick of the wrist, which obviously is not as strong as your elbow. And so you create this like drastically different, you create this like drastically different.
American Over: style of play. And I personally think like... Not to besmirch batting. Batting is obviously very complicated. But bowling and pitching are just two different sports, two different strategies. And it's not...
American Over: It makes this game, this comparison, just very flimsy in my mind, to be honest with you.
Neel: You know, it's funny, right? so The thing about pitching, so I tried pitching in the cages once or twice, right? Just at these kind of events.
American Over: Okay.
Neel: Uh, You realize that so much of it is in the core, right? Because basically, unlike cricket, obviously, you don't get a run -up, You don't get the arm kind of... swivel.
American Over: Mm.
Neel: You have to stand still and deliver something a hundred miles an hour, right? With like thousands of RPM, as I said, right? It's all in the core. But I don't think I appreciated that. You're not like, I mean, obviously, it's using your arm, right? But like, you got to get crazy rotation. in your in your core right you gotta be able to snap and get tons and tons of force coming out so very different biomechanics, which means i think Plunkett pitching the minor leagues, I think actually was even more impressive than all these kind of batting feats to me.
Neel: Speaking of pitching, right? You remember that movie? It was like a decade ago. It was 2014. There was a movie called Million Dollar Arm. right so it was fun i watched it today
American Over: Okay.
Neel: But basically... they went to these baseball scouts. went to India and I think they did some competition and they recruited a couple of... cricket players to come play baseball.
American Over: No, interesting.
Neel: in the minor league so there's two dudes here One guy called Rinku Singh. and then another guy called dinesh patel So both these guys played in the minor leagues for the Pirates, the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Neel: And. I think Dinesh didn't do too well. He was in this like rookie league. uh the gulf coast league he played a couple games 527 era not that not really that good Uh, he was 20 21 was about the average age there so like you're getting a lot of like high school kids right you're getting some international players come in so not I mean... impressive that he made it right but he was not he's not you know destroying it he was like four or five steps from the majors other guy called rinku singh so he actually made it to single a which is I would say.
Neel: They changed how the minors were, but he was still three or four steps removed from the majors, but it was pretty good. He played like four or five weeks. He played like five seasons. He actually played in Australia too. they have a professional baseball league out there
American Over: Oh wow.
Neel: yeah yeah so he played all over and he did uh gulf coast rookie league single a high like the whole minor leagues this was a mess it was even more of a mess back then but point is he did okay but He topped out at single A and then never made it much farther.
Neel: And then I think you researched him, right? Like this guy had a wacko career. What happened to him?
American Over: Yeah. Okay. So it's super weird. So, okay, so... Both of these guys, Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh Rajput, not to be confused with the Rinku Singh who's hit six sixes in and over. Or maybe it was five sixes in and over. Regardless, not the IPL Rinku Singh. But these guys both went to the same college. They're both on this, like the way they got picked up is because they had this reality TV show where Rinku Singh won $100 ,000, like a crore, which is a ton of money for him and his family. So they all got lifted out of poverty. And then...
American Over: You know. Maybe it got to his head a little bit. So he... After the minor leagues, he then went to be a WWE star and he was wrestling.
Neel: He was a wrestler?
American Over: I don't know.
Neel: No way. Oh, my God.
American Over: I don't know, dude. I don't know. He was wrestling for years. And, you know, eventually, I guess there was a reorg or something like that. They kind of cut some of the teams he was part of.
American Over: And then he ended up becoming a monk. So he's like a sanyasi in Premanand Maharaj's... uh you know, Ashram, I guess, which is the same when Virat Kohli goes to all the time.
American Over: So maybe, you know, maybe they're trading some batting tips. Maybe that's the real reason he ends up over there. But that's what's going on now. Good for him, you know?
American Over: Good for him. He made his bank and now he's...
Neel: May we all have such a career.
American Over: But look,
American Over: Here's what I propose. What I propose. is that Look, I know cricket better. You know baseball better. Let's swap for a week. Maybe I'll watch some baseball over the next week or so. You watch some cricket over the next week or so. And then we can trade notes at the end of it. What do you think?
American Over: Okay.
Neel: Great World Series win for the Brewers, by the way.
Neel: They were a very fun team to watch. And
Neel: we're not getting baseball for another two years so basically what's what's happening is Uh, there's going to be a lockout. So every five years they have to renegotiate. the the players association has to renegotiate some contracts with the owners, with the league.
Neel: and usually you know they usually get over it but this time what's happening is among other things the owners and the league to an extent are pushing a salary cap right to kind of bring them in line with other other leagues and also cap how much they have to spend.
Neel: And the players were like, no way, absolutely not. I think a lot of people would have hoped for a compromise of salary cap, salary floor, because I think most leagues have. They all have a cap. I think most of them have a 4.
Neel: Point is, the two sides are very far apart. in contract negotiations. And most people believe that... there's going to be a lockout, like a work stoppage in December.
Neel: and basically if they don't resolve it until like I think by...
American Over: mm -hmm
Neel: I'm april they don't resolve we're going to miss some games and By June, if they don't resolve it, the whole season is going to be lost, basically.
American Over: No way.
Neel: And. It's not looking good. It's really not looking good. I think they're gonna... I don't think we're going to have baseball next year. And that's what most people think. Not MLB. You will get an independent ball.
Neel: You'll have minor leagues. I'm going to go watch the Savannah Bananas. You should look that up at some point.
American Over: Oh fun?
Neel: You and our viewers.
American Over: Fun.
Neel: Look up the Savannah Bananas. It's very fun. Go watch them next year. But yeah, it's not looking very good for MLB. So, you know, we're going to have a year off probably of no baseball.
American Over: Wow.
Neel: However, I will say that might kind of be a good thing for cricket. to get back to the cricket conversation. You know. Next year, right? You're not going to have baseball in the summer, right? And there's this period basically between when hockey and basketball end.
Neel: And when, you know. football really begins in like, let's say, June, July, August. that baseball usually does dominate. You're not going to have that. right uh and then you know. Thinking about just, you know, MLC, right?
Neel: You're not going to have the World Cup. Right? the olympics still aren't aren't gonna be here. I think MLS is changing formats, so the summer is not going to be as busy with that.
American Over: Mm -hmm.
Neel: There's basically going to be Nothing. There's really no pro sports on. The entire summer, besides MLC. which could be an interesting opportunity for them
American Over: Wow. Wow. So much about the MLC is just lack of getting people into the stadiums and lack of excitement around it, right? Like you can't have viewership around
American Over: a league that nobody wants to actually watch or that isn't entertaining to watch when folks are in the ground. You remember watching pro sports during COVID? Was not as fun, man. It was cool.
American Over: But the... the cheer of the crowd energizes the players and honestly energizes the TV viewers too. And if you don't have people watching in person, it's hard to get people to watch on TV.
American Over: I mean, even I'm just thinking about like our fan experience, right? When we went there, can you imagine if there was something like the Savannah bananas for cricket in general? Can you imagine if there's something like that?
American Over: Like that would be.
Neel: Oh, that'd been so cool, man.
American Over: That's like.
Neel: Yeah.
American Over: Exactly. That would be so cool. That's a way to get people to watch the sport. You don't need to do that in places where people already watch the sport. You don't need to do that in England. You don't need to do that in Australia, places where you don't. you want it to be entertaining you want it to be fun and i think the fan experience when we went was fine right like it was it was good they had some merch they had some things going on There wasn't a whole lot to engage the community that wasn't already there.
American Over: or that wasn't bought in. And I think that's pretty substantially missing in that fan experience. I think tickets are too expensive. The frustration around.
American Over: you know the monetization of the game relative to the growth of the game is always going to start to create this like Uh, dilemma, this trade -off. Whereas We don't have to.
American Over: do that like the fastest way to monetize the game is to grow the game and next year will be the perfect opportunity to do that given the timing of everything else that's going on i mean we have the we have the freaking olympics here in the US.
American Over: Just a year later, you have to build an audience for that.
Neel: Yeah.
Neel: Yeah, like... we had a good time at the mlc finals is like 10 15 000 people but again that's the finals And the average game going on early in the season.
American Over: Yeah.
Neel: Not that it's a long season, but early in the season in, like, Texas. Not many people are going to watch it, right? I think if you watched MLC on TV, they had that one dude who'd go around and interview people who like...
American Over: No.
Neel: uh, you know,
American Over: Yep.
Neel: let's say we're not a south asian extraction right and ask hey what are you doing here right how'd you find us right But it was more pitches like a curiosity. right uh and and you could also tell from the fan experience as well if you weren't already cricket fan it was kind of hard to understand like just understand what the vibe was right like what is this what's going on And to be fair, you go to a baseball game, they're not educating you what baseball is. But they have the benefit. of you know people know about the sport already i'm not sure what they would do to bridge that gap. Right.
Neel: Exactly. Maybe you could have kids learn how to play cricket before the game or whatever. Yeah. bring a little league team in or something right I'm not sure what you would do. I get your point, though. If we could get that same kind of a fan group. base.
Neel: for all the games. One, that would be great.
American Over: Yep.
Neel: Two, I think if they kind of made TV easier. people love watching random sports put it on youtube and minor league cricket did that put it on youtube Right?
American Over: Yeah.
Neel: And I think, dude, that would be great. And as you said, I think you got to also. Besides just that. Yep. the here and now of making more fans come in, grow the sport.
Neel: and use these venues as an opportunity to do that. Again, I don't have a good answer. for what that would look like because it's tough right like most sports don't have to do this kind of educational thing Right.
American Over: yeah using the venues is like a good point right like the traveling circus model i think helps grow teams based on that And as much as we rag on not having home and away, that is a good way to start to get more people, more viewership, even if it doesn't build as much local community.
American Over: But as you were saying, you were just about to talk about the Olympics.
Neel: Yes, the Olympics. that's going to come in 28. And so between that and presumably baseball being back. MLC, you know, is going to... BIM.
Neel: even farther down the depth chart, so to speak, in terms of sports. So next year is really that core window, right? Like we really want to see.
American Over: Yep.
Neel: Major league cricket. balloon the fan base. That's the golden opportunity. That's the whole point here. you know never let a crisis go to waste right american sports will be in crisis of some sort Use that as an opportunity for Major League Cricket.
Neel: uh to kind of blow up and you know maybe we can do a dedicated video on what's going on for the olympics but cricket will be there for you Right.
American Over: Yep.
Neel: My understanding is I think it's six teams, right? What do you know about that?
American Over: Yeah, I mean, I think It's going to be a good time. I've got tickets for a couple of the games already. which I'm really excited about.
Neel: Already.
American Over: And as teams start to qualify for it, I think we'll have a better idea of who's playing and how it grows. USA hopefully qualifies, but you'll have some, because it's so small, I think you're going to have some really interesting mashups, right?
American Over: And hopefully that gets more than just the local grounds. And it's going to be at the permanent stadium that the LA Knight Riders, shout out to the flag back there, have built, right?
Neel: Wow.
American Over: So that like... I think that... could end up being an excellent experience the the risk is just it's a small ground and We'll see if these matches are really just for the international South Asian audience as opposed to for locals. And I have a good guess based on the type of music that they play at MLC games. I have a good guess as to what they're going to do.
Neel: no man they gotta pull in like i think in new york they do that they did that to an extent right when we went to watch the 24 uh t20 world cup you saw a lot of folks you saw a lot of like you know white folks who are from Australia, South Africa, right, or New York.
American Over: Yep. Yep.
American Over: Yep.
Neel: uh Caribbean folks, Indo -Guyanans birds.
American Over: Mm -hmm.
Neel: We're really into the sport, you know? even as other folks in the Caribbean. It's a huge opportunity. LA is a super diverse city. you know they should make a plan this next year let's get more folks besides south asians involved right uh because there's so many it's such a diverse sport right bring them in And 28 really just let that.
Neel: It's really to show that off. Uh, Speaking of the fan experience, Dhruv, You watched the minor league cricket finals, right? You followed the...
Neel: the playoffs, So that thing just wrapped up. Do you want to talk about that?
American Over: Just wrapped up. What a crazy final match, dude. Okay, so first of all, it was happening at a place called the Kingsman Arena.
Neel: That's pretty neat.
American Over: Cannot come up with a more badass name than that outside Houston. And this is the same team ownership group that owns the Hyderabad Kingsmen in the PSL in Pakistan and the Jamaica Kingsmen new team in the CPL.
American Over: They've been in the finals three times in the last three years, actually. I don't know if you knew this, Neil. And they've won twice. And one of them, the most recent, was the Chicago Kingsmen are our minor league cricket champions for this past year.
Neel: Wow.
Neel: Wow.
American Over: Crazy game. Tajinder Singh Dhillon from Rajasthan, played Vijay Hazare, played from the Mumbai Indians and now plays for MI New York, but actually is now based in the US.
American Over: man of the match incredible incredible figures three from 29 and then 69 off 33 just Crazy, crazy batting from him. but I'm getting a little ahead of myself. We'll start with the Baltimore innings. it's Decent?
American Over: like decent innings right like ultimately they ended up uh getting to a decent score 179 off uh eight off eight excuse me out of their 20 overs Not too bad, but, you know, not some crazy high strike rates, you had this guy, Chetty Palem, who, you know, had... 46 off 29. And then Jessica and Mahutra, 44 off 28. Nope. bad right like decent 150 strike rate give or take and uh but after their big power play, just a complete collapse.
American Over: mostly like driven by the didn't just sing dillon and so you ended up with you know These huge overs right up at the front, but then kind of came down. down to earth in that first innings. The second innings, I think, was a lot more interesting.
Neel: so yeah, it's interesting. So he put he He had a hell of a match, right? 69, not out of 33. Syed Sad Ali, 51. or half century for him.
Neel: So this is interesting, right? you're you know, They were cruising for the most part. uh 18th over so tajinder singh puts up uh three boundaries six six and a four and then i think he chips in a couple more so it's 20 runs So they're sitting at 171 for five.
American Over: Yeah.
Neel: with two overs left so they need seven to tie eight to win plenty of time right pretty pretty trivial so they were doing they were doing great But then. Then, let me read you what happened in the 19th century. Wicked Falls.
American Over: Okay.
Neel: uh i think some i forget who but someone hits a four Another wicket falls.
American Over: Okay.
Neel: another wicked ball so now all of a sudden you are uh what is like 175 for like
American Over: My god.
Neel: seven or something like that, right? uh and then they get a leg bind again and then they get one more so now it's 177 for seven So they just lost three wickets in an over.
American Over: Wow.
Neel: 177 for seven, you need one to tie, two to win. uh in the last hour and they do it but they just get two singles no drama Right. They get it. So in the end, they had four balls left. They had three wickets to spare. Pretty close, pretty tight. pretty tense in the end. And I'm sure all the viewers on YouTube probably enjoyed that.
Neel: you know given this situation they were in like they weren't realistically gonna lose right like You know, you have five books in hand, eight runs. in two overs pretty easy. but they Baltimore did their darndest right to keep it close.
American Over: And look, Dajinder Singh. not out throughout that entire inning. So he's just watching wickets go down in front of him while trying to keep the pace up.
Neel: Yep. Oh yeah.
American Over: So just very interesting, very interesting match. And I think what I find like interesting about this is the format. Like it's the, developmental league under the MLC,
American Over: You have your regional regular season. But it's not actually that long of a season. And it had that break for those international, the WCL2 qualifiers that we were talking about from last time.
American Over: went into like a super eight super league playoff format which i thought was really interesting and then turned into this overall like. post -season, so to speak, over the last... week or a couple weeks.
American Over: I think it's just like a really fun. uh format to to kind of get like the top teams from all of these groups have them play off against each other Chicago actually the Chicago Kingsmen actually won all of their playoff group games and then ultimately beat Baltimore in the final so You sort of ended up with this. Like.
American Over: the best winner you know the best team kind of did win the whole thing.
Neel: that's fantastic right and we talked about this last time right Uh, Kind of creative playoff formats are always fun. I thought the Super 8 was pretty neat. So you have the...
American Over: Mm hmm.
Neel: two groups of four right and then there would be a round robin of some sort where you play every other team in your group and then the top one of those moves on so It's not a knockout.
American Over: Mm hmm.
Neel: And in fact, you know, I was just reading. you know there's a lot of kind of people talking in theory about of the big four american sports leagues like what's up with their playoff formats one thing a lot of people thought in mlb and in this team the two teams that had the best regular season record they ended up going to the World Series, Brewers and Rays, and the best team, the Brewers, won.
Neel: That was good. That was like justice was served, right? But on the other hand, it's like, oh, well, you know, now you can sneak into the playoffs being like the 12th best team, right, in the league out of 30. And then if you just get hot at the right time. You can win, even if you weren't really that good at the end. the regular season. Right.
Neel: So. there's a whole i won't get too far into it there's there's conversations about how like If you watch... basketball. The players don't try at all during the regular season because the only thing that matters is the postseason. Everyone gets into the postseason.
Neel: So I don't want to go too up into a tangent, but the point is.
American Over: Yep.
Neel: I think there's a lot of room to innovate. uh in terms of like postseason formats right and the idea i think of like top teams going in It's not just knockouts. You can't just hope to get hot. You have to win multiple matches against everybody in the top ones.
American Over: Yep.
Neel: move on that's pretty neat i i like that i think that's a cool innovation and you know to our discussion right about how do you bring new fans in right how do you get people interested this is the kind of creativity things
American Over: Yeah.
Neel: that you would need to do. uh it's a very minor one obviously right but like this kind of thing of you know not just trying to be yet another sports league Do something different, I think, than putting it on YouTube. Terrific idea. We talked about this last time as well.
American Over: Yep.
Neel: uh and you said they had like food trucks free admission right like that's how you grow the game That's a great idea.
American Over: Yeah. That's how you grow the game. I think one thing that I also really like, going back to the teams a little bit, is that You have a lot of international level players.
Neel: Yeah.
American Over: playing in the milc right like you know people that play for usa people that play for canada van shalwick you know uh nitro vulcar like all of the all of those guys are on teams and whatnot One thing that I think is very interesting is that the Chicago Kingsmen don't really have any international, like U .S.
American Over: international players. They've got some, you know, older players from other countries like the Jinder Singh, right, who played in India. You've got some players like that. A lot of South Asian diaspora.
American Over: But that has to tell you something about the development of that team.
American Over: about the coaching style and about like the expertise that they bring from their other like teams and whatnot, because they don't have to have internationally capped players to have a ton of experience and a ton of depth on those teams.
American Over: I think That's the type of investment you need in teams to grow. players and the grow a depth of players around the country as opposed to just you know the top level teams are really good and then everything else kind of flows down from there and international players cover uh cover for the whole thing it's really interesting to kind of see that uh to see that growth from from this team
Neel: Yeah. And, you know, I think before we were kind of. you know, haven't been a fan of the fact that, oh, LA Knight Riders are owned by the Colt of the Knight Riders. Wombi Indians of New York. Right. in this case uh the kingsman owned by that you know multinational or group i guess right that also is in the Caribbean and the Pakistan League.
Neel: I actually kind of come around.
Neel: Because that's how you get the international players who may play for the other leagues to come out. to America and the same coaching staff and the same ownership, right? you know it helps kind of bring the american leagues kind of in line with kind of the state of the art right of what's going on in the other leagues.
American Over: Mm.
Neel: So you're not going to come around to that.
American Over: Hmm.
Neel: I think actually it could be a good thing, right? And maybe it's telling that this team with. international kind of partners. was the one that just keeps on winning.
Neel: Yep.
American Over: osmosing into the mlc is just great for the game
Neel: Absolutely. absolutely so who knows maybe we'll see hey promotion to mlc would that be me That'll be pretty cool if we can see that.
American Over: That would be so sick. That would be so sick.
Neel: Yeah.
American Over: In general, we should talk about promotion, relegation, and cricket, but maybe that's a later conversation.
Neel: That's a whole week. We should talk about that for sure.
American Over: That's right. Well, awesome, Neil. What a fun breath of conversation today. I'm going to go make fun of baseball. No, I'm kidding. Kidding. But this is a lot of fun.
Neel: This is great. Always a good conversation. Over and out.
American Over: Over and out.
