Albuquerque hosting its first-ever cricket tournament at Balloon Fiesta Park

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) –It’s not well-known in the United States despite being one of the most popular sports worldwide but cricket is making a breakthrough in Albuquerque this weekend with the city hosting a big tournament for the first time. 

The Sandias are the backdrop for this year’s Bhakta cricket tournament taking place at Balloon Fiesta Park for the first time in Albuquerque’s history. The city brought out two-time World Cup cricket winner Yuvraj Singh for this morning’s opening ceremony kicking off the Memorial Day weekend event. “The way Albuquerque has welcomed cricket is amazing,” said Singh. 

336 athletes from the United States, Panama, and India have made it to Balloon Fiesta Park to swing away at the competition for the next four days. It took six months to organize the event with the city spending $200,000 to build six cricket pitches at the park. “Albuquerque is going to tap into a massive market of enthusiastic fans and cricket players,” said Dave Simon, Albuquerque’s Parks and Recreation Director. 

“It brings a good economic impact on the city,” said Jyoti Bhakata, Cricket Club Southwest.

“Albuquerque has ideal weather which Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles don’t have when we play tournament over to those cities. We always got rained out or had some sort of disturbance,” said Bhakata. 

The city agrees saying it expects the tournament to infuse over $1 million in economic impact through visitors spending money across the city. “We can definitely going forward try to make it a cricket city,” said Bhakata. 

Organizers say they’re already in talks to bring other tournaments here in the near future. “Albuquerque is a cricket town now,” said Simon.  

The tournament is free to attend and will also overlap with the Albuquerque wine festival this weekend.