NEW DELHI: Alan Curr has stopped counting how many hats he’s worn this week.

On Sunday morning, with a typhoon on the horizon, the Japan Cricket Association (JCA) COO pulled covers off the wicket. Later, he was putting up hospitality tents, checking security plans and helping transform a quaint cricket ground with 500 permanent seats into a venue worthy of hosting the reigning T20I world champions. By Tuesday, weather permitting, India will walk out against Japan in the country’s first-ever men’s senior international against a Full Member.

For Japanese cricket, getting here is success in itself and the scoreline almost secondary.

“A lot of success has almost already happened,” Curr says. “The fact that India have agreed to come, the fact that I’m sitting here talking to you guys, the fact that Japanese media are coming to learn about cricket — we’re having successes already,” he told select media.

Cricket is not new to Japan, having been introduced in the 1870s. But adaptation is a different story. Baseball, Football, Sumo Wrestling, Basketball, Golf, Tennis, Boxing are some sports that are bigger. India’s arrival represents cricket’s loudest introduction in recent memory.

More than just another T20I match

Japan has played in Under-19 World Cups, faced India and Pakistan at youth level and competed in the Asian Games with its women’s team. But this is different gravy.

“It certainly helps to say that the reigning world champions, the No. 1 ranked team in the world, are coming to Japan,” Curr says. “It’s piquing interest, but we’ve still got a long way to go before cricket breaks into the mainstream sporting audience.”

That mainstream audience is precisely what the JCA hopes to reach. The timing is ideal: cricket returns to the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya just days later, allowing Japan to explain the sport through one of the country’s most recognisable sporting events.

“The Asian Games gives cricket legitimacy that it didn’t have before,” Curr says. “You can’t be what you can’t see.”

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Cricket’s quiet, but slow, growth in Japan

Behind the scenes, cricket has been expanding steadily in Japan. Registered players have risen from around 3,000 when Curr arrived in 2014 to 8,800 today. The Japan Cup — the T20 competition in the country — has grown from barely a dozen teams to more than 80, while the domestic 40-over league now spans four divisions.

“Kaizen is the word,” Curr says. “Continual improvement. That’s what we’re trying to do for the sport. But now and again there are moments like this where you can accelerate that,” he added.

Winning hearts and viewers, not necessarily the match

Japan harbour no illusions about the cricketing challenge ahead. “This India team is pretty good,” Curr said as a matter of fact. “It’s going to be an extremely difficult challenge for players who have never played at that level before.”

Instead, his measure of success is cultural.

He points to Japan’s women’s team, praised recently for staying back after their Asian Games fixture against India to thank supporters and mingle with fans. That’s the identity he wants the men’s side to showcase too.

“We want cricket to be played hard but also be accessible and friendly,” he says. “We want cricket to be fun.”

If thousands of first-time spectators leave Sano remembering more than just India’s star power, Japanese cricket may have achieved exactly what it came for.

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How India fixture came into being

The historic fixture was never part of Japan’s grand plan to expand the sport. It began with clay.

Eighteen months ago, the JCA set out to relay the turf square at Sano with help from Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), whose groundsman travelled to Japan to identify suitable clay. The same surface was eventually used to build the Asian Games venue in Nagoya, prompting a simple thought: if Japan had international-quality wickets, why not invite the world’s best teams to use them?

Once the pitches were completed in March, Japan prepared a proposal and sent it to every Full Member ahead of the ICC conference in Edinburgh. Conversations with the BCCI began there — and, to Curr’s surprise, moved quickly.

“The BCCI were really keen to have an opportunity to train. It’s huge credit to them that they’re excited about coming here and building this relationship with the JCA,” he said.

The timing made sense. With the Asian Games beginning days later, India men’s squad would otherwise spend nearly a week waiting for their knockout fixture without access to proper cricket facilities. Sano offered both a training base and, eventually, a match. Again, with fingers crossed that the weather doesn’t play spoilsport.

India vs Japan T20I will be broadcast LIVE on FanCode on September 22 at 9:30 am IST.

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OXFORD, Miss. — Maybe LSU can focus solely on football for a while.

The Tigers certainly hope so.

Because the first three weeks of “football” have been complicated by all kinds of non-football stuff. It all came to a climax Saturday night with a 32-24 loss to Ole Miss.

The game was preceded by a week-long buildup to Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin’s long-anticipated return to the place that he all but promised he’d never depart and then left less than 10 months ago as the Rebels team he built was heading to the CFP for the first time.

The battle between Kiffin’s current No. 7 team and his No. 8 former team was secondary to Kiffin’s return, just as the aftermath of LSU’s dominant 51-10 victory against Clemson two weeks earlier in its opener was complicated by the SEC’s flirtation with kicking the Tigers out of the conference because Kiffin was flirting with adding to his roster a couple of players who had gone to training camp with NFL teams before being released and enrolling at LSU.

The game Saturday was destined to be the most hyped game in recent memory as soon as the SEC released its schedule.

But the hype has been growing in recent weeks, partly because the two recruits in question that Kiffin brought in were former Rebels and partly because Ole Miss served another former Rebel, defensive end Princewill Umanmielen, with court papers related to the school’s lawsuit against him as the player was leaving the Tigers’ practice facility a few days ago.

Then LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt showed up on the Wednesday practice report out of the blue and was listed as doubtful before being upgraded to questionable on Thursday then removed from the list Friday and playing the entire game Saturday, all of which led to speculation that Kiffin was exaggerating if not fabricating any uncertainty about the quarterback’s availability.

Leavitt certainly played like a quarterback who was less than 100 percent as Ole Miss rolled to a 24-7 halftime lead, though he led a 17-0 second-half blitz before the Rebels took the lead back in the fourth quarter and the Tigers’ final drive ended when Leavitt was intercepted on a fourth-and-goal pass in the end zone in the final minute.

LSU shouldn’t fall more than a spot or two in the AP poll and it still controls its CFP hopes – if it can successfully navigate a remaining schedule that includes four teams that were ranked going into Saturday and games against Kentucky and Mississippi State that seem trickier than they did when the schedule was released.

That’s a lot of football that shouldn’t feature Kiffin complications – with the exception of the visit to Tennessee, where folks were no happier about Kiffin leaving after one season to coach USC than the folks in Oxford were about the coach leaving last December after six seasons.

But there is always time for new Kiffin stuff to develop along the way.

Manchester City fans on social media have called out Ruben Dias despite their 5-3 win over Sunderland on Sunday, September 20. The defender nearly scored an own goal and looked shaky in defence against Sunderland.

Enzo Fernandez gave the hosts an early lead after scoring a brilliant free kick from a difficult angle in the ninth minute. Three minutes later, Brian Brobbey finished from close range to level the scores.

Rayan Cherki produced a decent finish from inside the box to give Manchester City the lead in the 29th minute. Four minutes later, Brobbey scored to make the score 2-2.

In the 43rd minute, Antoine Semenyo rifled the ball into the back of the net to make the score 3-2, and Semenyo also extended the hosts’ lead before the hour mark. Brobbey went on to reduce Sunderland’s deficit, but another from Haaland sealed a 5-3 win for the hosts. Meanwhile, Dias’s performance was a subject of discussion after registering an abysmal shift in defense.

The defender failed to make a defensive interception, won three out of seven ground duels, and lost the ball four times (via Sofascore). Fans took to X to complain about Dias’s performance against Sunderland after the game, with one tweeting:

“Ruben Dias. Thank you. But it’s time to become an assistant coach.”

Other fans posted:

“It’s better to have three points more than less” – Enzo Maresca on Manchester City’s lead in the Premier League standings

Enzo Maresca revealed that it is better to be three points ahead of rival Premier League teams than to be three points behind in the title race. The Citizens manager added that it is too early to talk about the title race.

Maresca responded to a question regarding his side overtaking Arsenal in the Premier League standings following their 5-3 win over Sunderland. He said (via City Xtra on X):

“It’s better to have three points more than less – no doubt. But at the same time, we know that it’s quite early…”

Manchester City have registered a perfect start to their Premier League campaign after winning their first five games. The Citizens (15) are also three points ahead of second-placed Arsenal (12) in the standings.