As UNC considers new cricket stadium, Morrisville talks being the sport’s hub
Ask most cricket fans, and they’ll likely tell you Morrisville is a driving force behind the sport’s rapid growth across the United States.
The sport’s popularity in the Triangle surged after Morrisville’s Church Street Park opened in 2015 with Wake County’s first dedicated cricket pitch.
Since then, the park has attracted thousands of recreational players, hosted Minor League Cricket and Major League Cricket, and welcomed international teams like the Sri Lankan Lions, who trained there ahead of the Cricket World Cup.
“The U.S. hosted the [World Cup] along with the West Indies because of what Morrisville did, because of the groundwork we laid all those years ago,” said former Mayor Mark Stohlman.
The town in western Wake County is also home to the Morrisville Raptors, one of 27 teams in Minor League Cricket. And for the first time, the sport will be played at the Olympics, in Los Angeles in 2028, exciting fans worldwide.
Despite its history, the town was not selected for Major League Cricket matches season. As a planned 25,000-seat cricket stadium at UNC Chapel Hill gains traction, Morrisville leaders are reflecting on how far the sport has come in the Triangle, and what the future might hold.
Cricket in Morrisville
The southern end of Church Street Park, at 5800 Cricket Pitch Way, has two cricket pitches, one with artificial turf and the other with natural turf.
In 2023, the park was renovated to seat 3,500 people in the bleachers for cricket games, with new broadcast infrastructure to televise matches, more cricket pitch lanes, safety netting, and LED-lit practice pitches and nets.
Cricket was not part of the original idea for the park.
“The plan was to have four baseball fields configured like a pinwheel at Church Street Park; we called it Pinwheel Park,” Stohlman said. “But what we found as that park was being developed, more and more people were playing cricket on the [empty] fields. There was less emphasis on baseball.”
Morrisville is home to nearly 32,000 residents, and nearly half of them have ties to Southeast Asia and India, where cricket originated.
The park grounds happened to be “in good shape for cricket,” Stohlman said. At the same time, the Triangle Cricket League was gaining hold. It now has over 2,500 players and over 250 teams, including the Rare HT team, which Stohlman plays on.
“The thing about cricket is that it’s very hard to get fields, so when this idea came, that was met with a lot of enthusiasm,” Stohlman said. Later that year, the International Cricket Council (ICC), the governing body for the sport, was brought to Morrisville by Alvin Kallicharran, a former cricketer who lived in the town and coached kids. The Guyanese player played for the West Indies between 1972 and 1981 and won the Cricket World Cup twice.
“For the next couple of years, we worked like crazy to get the field up to ICC standards,” Stohlman said. “When they awarded Morrisville a World Cup qualifying set of matches in 2018, there were some very competitive matches, very well attended. It really put us on the map.”
A big deal
Steve Rao, a Morrisville council member, “never envisioned” the town creating a recreational cricket field to become what it has today.
“[If we had] known that it was going to be at that scale, we might have looked back and actually made a bigger place,” he said. While the town was disappointed Morrisville was not selected to host the MLC games, there are still improvements to be made to the cricket fields.
“We didn’t have international standards for drainage,” Rao said. “When it rains, it’ll flood the field for the entire day and we have people that are coming from all over the country and they’re broadcasting. So that’s one of the reasons why we lost.”
Rao said Morrisville wants to bring Major League Cricket back to the town with better fields and amenities.
Cricket is the second-most-watched sport in the world, according to a UNC report. In 2023, MLC games generated over $3 millon in revenue for Morrisville.
“People are eating at restaurants, coming to buy tickets, stay at hotels,” Rao said. “It’s really a big deal.”
Morrisville Town Manager Brandon Zuidema said the impact of cricket games and practices also impacts the Triangle region, with fans staying at hotels around Wake and Durham counties, and spending in the area. He said a cricket arena in Chapel Hill would be a chance for the town to share its “knowledge and experience” and develop a regional partnership.
“We’re excited to see others excited about cricket,” Zuidema said. “We’ll certainly be reaching out to (Chapel Hill) at some point and seeing what they intended to do because there’s always partnership oppotunities.”
Cricket in Chapel Hill
The UNC Board of Trustees was scheduled to hear more Wednesday about plans for the Colosseum, which will host cricket, rugby and soccer games before the 2028 Olympics.
The Colosseum, with a playing field that can become a concert venue, will also have a gym, courts, pools and a mixed-use district with shops and hotels. In all, it could create $6 billion in economic impact in its first decade.
Morrisville Mayor TJ Cawley said, even if the Colosseum is built, Morrisville would still benefit.
“Whenever we have more cricket, it’s going to help all of us succeed,” he said. “It’s really incredible to bring that kind of talent to our residents who really love it. It’s like having an NFL star right next to you; it’s pretty wonderful.”
Zuidema said that the town will plan to reach out to Chapel Hill for partnership opportunities to “support the growth of the sport and to promote economic development in the region.”
Satish Garimella, Morrisville’s mayor pro tem, agreed.
“Having two venues in the region would be a major advantage, as tournaments often span weekends and could be hosted in close proximity,” he said. “Having high-quality facilities could position the Triangle as a potential host for major events, something that would be a tremendous boost for our region.”
Regardless of what happens in Chapel Hill, Stohlman said Morrisville will remain committed to cricket.
“You have to be careful using taxpayer money for that, and not everyone loves cricket,” he said. “If they develop a bigger venue in Chapel Hill, that’s wonderful. We just want to keep it going and keep this momentum that we started in a positive direction.”
“Church Street Park will always be kind of the grandparent of this,” he said, “and it’s done a really good job of promoting the sport.”
This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 1:32 PM.