NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday highlighted the substantial contribution of Indian Americans in fostering the comprehensive progress of the country they reside in and fortifying the relationship between India and the United States.
Modi was addressing the State Dinner hosted in his honour by US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at the North Lawn of the White House.
More than 400 guests were invited for the dinner and they included big names in the tech world and billionaire industrialists such as Mukesh Ambani, Anand Mahindra, Google CEO Sunder Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
During his address at the State Dinner, Modi raised a toast for his "wonderful" hosts. He raised it for good health, prosperity and the pursuit of happiness to liberty, equality and fraternity, and to the ever-lasting bonds of friendship between India and the US.
Modi also spoke about cricket and how it is gaining popularity in the US while the American team is playing the ICC World Cup qualifiers.
"Americans love baseball, but cricket is also becoming popular in the US", Modi said.
"The American team is trying its best to qualify for the Cricket World Cup to be held in India later this year. I wish them good luck and success," the prime minister added.
The US team participating in the qualifiers for the ODI World Cup include a host of Indian and Pakistan-origin players.
While Sushant Modani, Saiteja Mukkamalla, Abhishek Paradkar, Jasdeep Singh, Monank Patel, Saurabh Netravalkar and Nisarg Patel have roots in India, Shayan Jahangir, Usman Rafiq and Ali Khan are of Pakistani origin.
The IPL's popularity, which has grown multifold since its inception in 2008, has played a big role in promoting the sport, especially the T20 format, in countries where cricket is not that big.
Players in the US, who mainly are of the Asian origin, have benefitted with that as the sport has gained popularity in the region.
