🌵 Cricket Stay Making Wave Inside Da Texas Land Wea Soccer Stay King 👑🏏
⬇️ Pidgin | ⬇️ ⬇️ English
Da game of cricket stay find footing inside da biggest city of Texas, as da sports competition culture meet up wit da growing South Asian population. Drive going northwest out from Houston, an’ as cow pastures take back da flat space from da city’s sprawling reach, all kine cricket fields pop up along da road, no kidding, plenny plenny cricket fields. 🐮🌵🏏🏙️
Head south fo’ find one small cricket stadium tuck away in da suburbs, or go west fo’ find fields growing in da county parks. 🏟️🌳🏏
Da game of cricket — one bat, ball, an’ wicket contest of patience an’ athleticism born in Britain an’ mostly no make sense to Americans — oddly enough, stay making big in da land of Friday night football. Da growing population of South Asian immigrants around Houston an’ Dallas bring their favorite sport to their new home, wea it stay grow among da Lone Star culture of competition in all things, especially sports. 🇬🇧🇺🇸🏏🏈
Cricket’s quick rise in Houston stay getting international attention an’ help make Texas da launching pad fo’ da sport’s first American professional league, da Major League Cricket, whose first season just kick off outside Dallas. 🚀🏏🌎
“One thing plenty people no know about Houston is da diversity of da population from plenny cricket-playing countries,” say Tim Cork, one deputy consul general at da British consulate in Houston. “Get Indians, Pakistanis, an’ of course, one big number of Brits here, Australian accents wherever you go.” 🌍🇮🇳🇵🇰🇬🇧🇦🇺
Da number of people of Indian heritage in Texas stay double over da last decade to half a million, according to estimates from da Census Bureau’s annual survey, including 73,000 in Harris County, which include Houston, and 64,000 in suburban Fort Bend County. 📈🇮🇳🌆
“When I first came to dis country, da only sport I knew was cricket,” KP George, da county judge in Fort Bend, who immigrated to da U.S. from India in 1993, say. When he was elected in 2018, none of da county parks had one cricket field, he say. Now get seven, and each one stay reserved fo’ play months in advance. 🏏🏞️📅
“Get one huge demand,” he say. “We stay working on couple more fields.” 🏏🌳🔨
Da pace of da sport’s development in Houston stay surprising even those who been working fo’ make um happen. Houston was da host to one player draft fo’ da new professional league in March at da Johnson Space Center, one of da biggest tourist sites in da city. In da fields to da northwest of Houston, da league’s newly minted teams came together dis month fo’ training camps. 🚀🏏🏞️🏙️
“We always thought we would be building it slowly,” say Mangesh Chaudhari, 38, one owner of da Prairie View Cricket Complex who, starting in 2018, was in charge of da task of flattening one part of farmland about 50 miles northwest of da city into six oval cricket fields. “Suddenly, cricket picked up.” 🚜🏏🌳
Da location, along one major highway in Prairie View, Texas, was good both for da right kine of clay soil fo’ da grass pitch wea cricketers bowl an’ bat, an’ free advertising to passing cars on U.S. Route 290. 🚗🏏🛣️🌱
Da project, thought up an’ funded by one Houston businessman, Tanweer Ahmed, was one Field-of-Dreams gamble dat if they build um, people would come. It worked better an’ faster than they had expected, Mr. Chaudhari say, adding dat da complex still stay one work in progress. Fo’ example, still no get lights or permanent restrooms. 💡🚽🌙🚧
One weekday in June, dozens of cars streamed into da cricket complex. Young players arrived from Atlanta and Dallas fo’ one youth tournament, lugging large bags of bats and pads in da gathering heat. 🚗🏏🌞
“Good luck, boys! Good luck! Play hard!” Golam Nowsher, 61, yelled to his teenage players from da Houston area as they took da field.
Mr. Nowsher immigrated from Bangladesh, wea he had been one star player, and has been coaching young cricketers around Houston. He watched as his team batted at da start of what would be a roughly five-hour match, talking story about cricket and careers with da players, who huddled on bleachers under one small square of shade. 🇧🇩🏏🗣️🌞
“Who are da guys going to study A.I.?” he asked.
“I’m studying computer science,” one player said.
“I thought you were going to be a doctor?” Mr. Nowsher replied. 💻👨⚕️🧠🤷♂️
As da 17-year-old captain of da team, Arya Kannantha, waited for his turn to bat, he said he had been thinking about college, and also about trying to make a U.S. national team. Despite the growth of cricket around Houston, few of his classmates in suburban Katy — home to one of the largest and most expensive high school football stadiums in the country — were familiar with cricket.
“Not many people at my school play it,” Arya said. He added, laughing: “They just think it’s baseball, but weird.” 🏏⚾🤔🎓
NOW IN ENGLISH
🏏🌵 Cricket’s Big Come Up In Da Land Of Soccer – Houston, Texas
About eight years back, with customers worried about the possible health risks linked with the artificial sweetener aspartame, PepsiCo decided to yank out the ingredient from their popular diet soda.
But sales went kapakahi. A year later, aspartame was back in Diet Pepsi. 🥤🔄💸
Today, the top three ingredients you see in small kine print on the backs of cans and bottles of Diet Pepsi — and even on its competitor Diet Coke — are water, caramel color, and aspartame.
If you take one stroll through the grocery store, you going find the ingredient on the labels of not just diet sodas but also diet teas, sugar-free gums, sugar-free energy drinks and even diet lemonade drink mix. Some people estimate, thousands of products get aspartame inside. 🛒🏷️🍵🍬⚡🍋
Da use of aspartame, which plenty people know by the brand name Equal, in food and beverage products has been under the microscope for a long time. The latest update came on Thursday, when one agency of the World Health Organization announced that aspartame might cause cancer and suggested that people who drink plenty beverages with aspartame switch to water or other drinks without sweetener. 🥤🔍🌍🦠🚰
But even with plenty new artificial sweeteners coming up, as well as those that come from plants and fruits, Big Food no can quit aspartame, and analysts don’t think it’s going to this time. That’s because the ingredient is one of the cheapest sugar alternatives to use, it works real good in beverages and mixes, and people like the way it tastes. 🌿🍓🍔💰🥤🍹😋
Some people even pushing back against the urgency of the W.H.O.’s announcement. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration quickly disagreed with the findings, sticking with their view that aspartame is safe. And one second W.H.O. committee said one 150-pound person would have to drink more than a dozen cans of Diet Coke a day to go over the safe limit for the sweetener. 📢🥤⚖️👥💪🏽
“The big beverage companies have been planning for months, experimenting with different sweeteners, with the goal of having the taste and quality of the diet beverages as close as can to the existing products,” said Garrett Nelson, who covers the beverage industry at CFRA Research. But they not going to change the recipe unless they see a big drop in consumer demand because of the W.H.O. report, he said. 🏭🔬🍹🍬📉📜
“If consumers really stop buying Diet Coke because of this report, if sales start to go down, it might be time to go to Plan B,” Mr. Nelson said. 🛍️📊🔄🅱️
Coca-Cola forwarded questions to the American Beverage Association, the lobbying group for the industry. “Aspartame is safe,” Kevin Keane, the temporary president of the organization, said in one statement. PepsiCo didn’t answer questions for comment, but in one interview with Bloomberg Markets that aired on Thursday, Hugh F. Johnston, the chief financial officer of PepsiCo, said he doesn’t expect a big reaction from consumers. 📧🗣️📻🎙️
“I do believe that, in fact, this is not going to be a significant issue with consumers based on just the preponderance of evidence that suggests aspartame is safe,” Mr. Johnston said. 🤔📚🔒
The assessment of the W.H.O. agency adds to the confusion around aspartame, but it’s also the latest in a string of recent research focusing on the potential risks and questioning the real benefits of artificial sweeteners. Just a few weeks ago, the W.H.O. advised against using artificial sweeteners for weight control, saying a review of studies didn’t show long-term benefit in reducing body fat in children or adults. The review also suggested that the sweeteners were tied to an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart diseases. 🌐📋💡🍭🏋️♂️👦👧💔💊
This year, researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill released a study that found a chemical formed after digesting another sweetener, sucralose, breaks up DNA and may contribute to health problems. 🧪💥🧬😷
For years, food and beverage companies and regulators have typically shot down research that raises questions about artificial sweeteners, broadly arguing that the studies were flawed or inconclusive or that the health risks were minuscule. 🏭🏛️👩🔬👨🔬📚🚫🐜
“A big body of scientific evidence shows that low- and no-calorie sweeteners provide effective and safe options to reduce sugar and calorie consumption,” Robert Rankin, president of the Calorie Control Council, the lobbying association for manufacturers and suppliers of nearly two dozen alternative sweeteners, said in an emailed statement on Thursday. 📚🥤🍬📧🏛️
For real, most food and beverage companies that use aspartame are reluctant to switch partly because aspartame is cheaper than other alternatives and is 200 times as sweet as sugar, meaning a little goes a long way. 🍔🥤🍬💰🍭🍬🥄
“One of the benefits of aspartame is that it’s been made for so long that manufacturers have really refined the costs and processing of it so well and they get a superior product,” said Glenn Roy, one adjunct organic chemistry professor at Vassar College who spent more than three decades working at food companies, including NutraSweet, General Foods, and PepsiCo. 🍬🎓🧪⏳💼🏭
On top of that, the F.D.A. approved aspartame in 1974, giving companies decades of data and information on what aspartame can and cannot do in products. For instance, it can enhance and extend certain fruit flavors, like cherry and orange, making it a preferred sweetener for beverages and chewing gum. But when heated, aspartame loses its sweetness, making it less desirable for baked or cooked products. 📜⏳🍊🍒🍬🔥🍪
Food and beverage companies are releasing new no- or low-sugar products in response to consumer demand, but many are being made with newer sweeteners, or a blend of sweeteners. Each new product goes through a whole bunch of sensory and flavor tests before it is released. 🏭🍭🍬🍫🍪🍩🥤
But for products that have been around for decades, like diet sodas, loyal customers are used to a specific taste, and they could be turned off by changes in ingredients, scientists warn. 🕰️🥤🍬🍏🍎🚫
