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How cricket has exploded in popularity in the U.S.
Bowie, Maryland — In a field in Bowie, Maryland, a group of kids are playing a game unfamiliar to most Americans, cricket.
“When I first started playing, my mom was like, ‘girl what are you doing?'” said 13-year-old Jordyn Hinkle-Walker.
Hinkle-Walker had never even heard of the game until three years ago, when coach Sham Chotoo brought cricket to her classroom.
“I called up the principal and said, ‘Hey, I would like to come to the school and do a cricket demo,'” Chotoo told CBS News.
And the reaction from the students was immediate.
“It was crazy,” Chotoo said. “You see they would get so excited, and you see their whole faces would light up.”
Chotoo grew up playing the game in Trinidad and Tobago, and has made it his mission to share the sport in the U.S. since moving here 30 years ago.
“Back then, it was mainly the immigrant population playing cricket,” Chotoo said. “It was a fun way to get together.”
Then, when he had children, Chotoo wanted to share this piece of his culture with them.
“And I said, well, why don’t I start a cricket program here,” Chotoo said.
That program became the first elementary school cricket league in the U.S. Now, over a decade later, his program has 86 teams and more than 1,000 children playing cricket.
Nationwide, the sport is exploding from coast-to-coast. According to USA Cricket, the sport’s governing body, more than 400 leagues have opened in America, with over 200,000 players and counting.
“It’s truly a watershed moment for cricket in this country,” cricket reporter Smit Patel said.
Patel predicts more aggressive growth of the sport in the U.S. Last year, Major League Cricket debuted in the U.S. And cricket will be featured at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“It’s the second most played sport in the world,” Patel said. “The potential is immense.”
This month, for the first time, the U.S. is co-hosting and competing in the International Cricket Council’s Men’s T20 World Cup.
“I believe the World Cup is going to act as a catalyst, the same way the FIFA World Cup acted as a catalyst in 1994,” Patel said.
And on Thursday, the U.S. made major headlines when it pulled off a stunning upset defeat of Pakistan. And on Sunday, India and Pakistan will square off in the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, a 34,000-seat, $30 million temporary stadium built for the T20 World Cup.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
So now, with the world watching and a pathway to go pro here in America, young cricketers can dream bigger than ever before.
“Now I can say, you know what, you can be a professional cricket player, you can earn a living by playing in the Major League Cricket program here in the U.S.,” Chotoo said.
There were no injuries after a Southwest flight carrying passengers was struck by gunfire on the tarmac of Dallas Love Field Friday night, authorities said.
Southwest Airlines Flight 2494 was preparing for departure to Indianapolis when “a bullet apparently struck the right side of the aircraft under the flight deck,” a Southwest spokesperson told CBS News in a statement.
The airline said no one was hurt. A spokesperson for Dallas Love Field said in an email that the aircraft returned to its gate after sustaining damage from a “security incident” and the passengers deplaned. The runway was also temporarily closed, but has since reopened.
Dallas police confirmed the incident, saying that officers responded to reports of gunfire at 9:48 p.m. local time, arriving to find that the aircraft had been struck.
No further details were provided on the circumstances of the incident or what was the potential source of the gunfire. It’s unclear how many people were aboard the jet at the time, or how much damage the aircraft sustained.
In its own statement provided to CBS News, the Federal Aviation Administration said that the plane “was reportedly struck by gunfire near the cockpit.”
Dallas police are leading the investigation into the incident.
Earlier this week, gunfire amid ongoing gang violence struck three planes that were either landing or departing Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince. The shootings prompted the FAA to issue a 30-day ban on U.S. airlines flying to Haiti.
Social media star Jake Paul defeated boxing legend Mike Tyson in a highly anticipated fight with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders. The Friday night win for the YouTuber-turned-pro-boxer was streamed on Netflix from the home of the Dallas Cowboys in Texas.
Paul defeated Tyson by an unanimous decision after the two fighters went eight full rounds.
Fight night for the 58-year-old Tyson and 27-year-old Paul came following doubts over whether it would happen at all. The fight was originally scheduled for July, but was postponed after the former heavyweight champion experienced an ulcer flare-up on a plane in May.
A different kind of flare-up happened during the official weigh-in Thursday with Tyson slapping Paul in the face. Tyson later told the New York Post that Paul had stepped on his toe when the two were toe to toe onstage.
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What is Jake Paul’s fight record?
With the win, Paul’s record improved to 11-1.
Was Jake Paul predicted to win?
Oddsmakers had Paul as the slight favorite to win. Former heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua also went with Paul.
How much prize money does Jake Paul win?
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, according to DraftKings Network and other online sources.
Promoters didn’t reveal the payouts ahead of the bout. Paul is a co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, which produced the fight.
Does Mike Tyson still get paid?
Tyson was expected to take home around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
Tyson entered professional boxing in 1985 and became the youngest heavyweight champion in history a year later. After serving time for a rape conviction in the 1990s, Tyson won the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association titles.
He retired from boxing in 2005 and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2011. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“He like put on another 20 pounds from when I fought him, so he’s more bigger and he’s more dangerous because more size, more power, so it’s going to be a tough one for Jake to climb,” Jones told CBS News ahead of the fight.
Anne Marie Lee and
contributed to this report.
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