The increasing popularity of the sport is just one reason Adi Kattari wants to build a cricket facility in Frisco.
“This is for socialization and so that coaches will be able to have their academies,” Kattari told The Dallas Express.
“I’ve been trying to build one in Frisco because it’s getting quite popular. As far as the DFW region, there are around 10,000 players. We want to give them an opportunity to play and socialize,” Kattari explained.
Called the Frisco Batting Pointe Cricket Facility, a $4 million construction project is set to kick off in December and expected to be completed by November near Performance Indoor Training, located at 7200 Meadow Hill Drive near All Stars Ave. and N. County Rd.
“In the beginning, we will have around 1,000 people per day,” Kattari said. “We are trying to target folks from Plano, Frisco, Allen, McKinney, Prosper, and Celina. We have multiple levels of these cricket leagues, and we play from two hours to eight hours a day in multiple formats.”
Cricket, like baseball, includes two teams of 11 players, a bat, and a ball.
A “quaint and quirky pastime” that originated in England centuries ago and played on an oval-shaped pitch, it has become the second most popular team sport in the world behind soccer, Texas Highways reported. In cricket, two teams of 11 players compete with a ball and a bat with one player, the bowler, throwing ball to an opposing player, called the batsman, attempting to hit the ball.
In Frisco, there are some existing cricket pitches located at Independence Practice Fields and Northeast Community Park.
Grand Prairie is scheduled to host the Men’s T20 World Cup in June, according to a September report from Axios. The International Cricket Council has said Grand Prairie Stadium, with its capacity of 7,000, will be expanded in seating, hospitality areas, and media spaces for the matches, Axios reported.
