Laurie Paolicelli, Orange County Tourism Dept.
In July 2025, a proposal for a 25,000-seat multi-sport stadium landed before the UNC Board of Trustees—campus-level leadership—and immediately sparked curiosity. Nicknamed the “NC Colosseum,” the concept envisioned a venue at Carolina North capable of hosting soccer, rugby, football, cricket and major concerts. For many in Chapel Hill, one question arose: cricket?
The idea was presented by Trustee Vimal Kolappa alongside Vijay Nandakumar, a part-owner of Minor League Cricket. Their pitch framed the stadium as a way to position UNC as a future-facing, globally connected institution.
Chancellor Lee Roberts acknowledged interest in a broader mixed-use outdoor facility as part of Carolina North, while emphasizing that the concept may or may not advance. Still, the proposal ignited a larger local conversation, which was essentially: cricket?
First, a quick explanation of the game itself. Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played on a large oval field. Two teams of eleven take turns batting and bowling. The batting side scores runs by hitting the ball and running between two sets of wooden stumps—called wickets—while the fielding side tries to limit runs and get batters out, like baseball with a flat-fronted bat, no gloves, and a match that could last for days. A fast-paced version Twenty20 (T20) format lasts about three hours and has helped introduce the sport to new audiences. Like all sports in the U.S., cricket’s rise is shaped by both athletes and influential business leaders. Money follows money. Members of the U.S. national team—including Saurabh Netravalkar, Steven Taylor, Ali Khan, and Monank Patel—have elevated the sport through international competition. At the same time, figures such as Mark Cuban and tech executives Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai pitch the sport’s growing cultural and economic relevance.
No one is a more passionate supporter of the sport than Sam Vadgama of Cary, longtime North Carolina hotelier and general manager of the Residence Inn in Chapel Hill. Originally from the United Kingdom, Vadgama played competitive county cricket—the club system that feeds England’s professional ranks. “In the U.K. I played with one of the county teams and alongside players who went on to turn pro,” he recalls. “I might have had the opportunity myself. But in the late 1990s, there just wasn’t money in the game. So I turned my attention to business.”
Vadgama says everything changed with the rise of the Indian Premier League (IPL). “The IPL transformed cricket by turning it into a fast-paced, global entertainment product,” he says. “The three-hour T20 format made the sport accessible to modern audiences, blending athletics with music, spectacle and prime-time television.” That transformation reshaped cricket worldwide—boosting player salaries through auctions and endorsements, creating international stars, and inspiring leagues across continents.
England’s professional women’s league, The Hundred, was launched in 2021, and features city-based teams playing a fast, fan-friendly format—an important signal for cricket’s inclusive future.
For those who can’t wait for a Cricket Coliseum, cricket is already nearby. Church Street Park—often called the Morrisville Cricket Ground—serves as the Triangle’s de facto cricket stadium. The facility has hosted Minor League Cricket and Major League Cricket matches, with recent upgrades expanding seating to roughly 3,500 and adding broadcast and practice infrastructure.
Nationally, other U.S. cricket venues in New York, Florida, and Texas have drawn impressive crowds. So there’s excitement, certainly. Still, Vadgama offers a measured perspective. “Cricket will never reach the level it has in India,” he says. “There, it doesn’t compete with as many professional sports. In the U.S., cricket is up against football, basketball, baseball—everything.”
He also wonders about the next generation. “Will American-born kids of expatriates take up cricket? I’m not sure. It’s not a collegiate sport, there are no scholarships. It will attract people here, absolutely—but whether it becomes truly huge 50 years from now remains to be seen.”
Cricket returns to the Olympics at the 2028 Summer Olympics, marking just its second Olympic appearance after the 1900 Summer Olympics. The sport will be played in the fast-paced Twenty20 (T20) format, with each team limited to 20 overs. An over consists of six pitches of the ball, meaning each team has 120 pitches total to score as many runs as possible—creating a shorter, faster, and more spectator-friendly game.
For now, UNC’s exploration of cricket at Carolina North reflects a broader truth: Chapel Hill sits at the intersection of tradition and global change. A coliseum aside, the conversation itself signals how international culture, sports, and community are reshaping the future of Orange County—one sticky wicket at a time.