SAN JOSE – The San Francisco Unicorns cricket team held its third annual family day on Sunday at Kathleen MacDonald High School, and just like the last two years, hundreds of kids played on the football field and longtime fans of the sport met members of the team.
The difference this year was that instead of traveling out of state to play Major League Cricket matches, the Unicorns were just days away from opening their season 30 miles away at the Oakland Coliseum.
“We’ve had family days in past years,” Unicorns CEO David White said. “But now to actually, physically play games here in front of our fan base is very exciting.”
After spending their first two seasons playing matches in North Carolina and Texas, the Unicorns open their third year in MLC on Thursday against the Washington Freedom, the same team they lost to in last year’s final.
MLC matches will be taking place every day at the Coliseum until June 18, with each of the league’s six teams playing three times. San Francisco also faces the Los Angeles Knight Riders on Saturday and MI New York on Sunday.
“I think the Bay Area has always been a place where there has been such a thirst for cricket, and we’re finally able to give them that product,” Unicorns captain Corey Anderson said. “I know the guys are looking forward to playing at the Coliseum. It’s going to be a bit of a historic moment.”
White was given a directive by Unicorns co-owners Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan last year to find a way to play at the Coliseum, which was set to become more widely available after the Athletics left the aging facility after 57 years to temporarily relocate to Sacramento.
At first, the idea was a long shot. Not only did the Unicorns have to work out a deal with the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority, but they also needed a wicket, the meticulous construction of which, White said, can take a year to 18 months.
With those obstacles, White told Rajaraman and Harinarayan last August that the team had about a 10% chance of playing at the Coliseum. But by December, those chances increased to about 90%.
The Unicorns quickly worked out a deal with the Coliseum authority and secured the wicket that was used at the World Cup in New York last year, which was being installed at the Coliseum on Sunday.
“My owners sort of looked me in the eye and said, ‘Look, we need to find a way to get games to the Bay Area,’” White said. “We want to grow a team, we want to grow a fan base, and I took that challenge on myself. We obviously pushed the Coliseum very hard and pursued that and worked with the Oakland Roots to find that window and to make it happen.”
Roughly 1,500 fans showed up at Kathleen MacDonald High School for the family day event. Parents who grew up with the sport in their respective countries looked on as a sea of children enthusiastically took part in cricket activities.
Some of the fans who arrived on Sunday grew up with the sport in cricket-loving countries like India and Australia before they moved to the U.S.
Pleasanton’s Anup Shah, who moved to the Bay Area from India 24 years ago, said he and over a dozen friends and family members will be at Thursday’s season-opener and possibly the Father’s Day game as well.
“Finally glad to see that actual games are being played here,” said Shah, who brought his two boys, ages 11 and 14, to the event. ”What gets me really excited is that cricket is also included in the (2028 Los Angeles) Olympics, so it sort of sets that tone for the cricket in the region, which is fantastic.”
Anderson stood on the MacDonald football field and was quickly approached by a young autograph seeker. After a couple of minutes, the Unicorns’ captain was surrounded by similarly aged kids looking to get a signature from the longtime player whose international career has spanned over a dozen years, longer than some of those young fans have been alive.
“The cricketing culture and the cricketing fan base is huge all over the world,” said the 34-year-old Anderson, who has represented his native New Zealand and the United States in international play. “It’s awesome to see kids here still know who you are.”
