SANO, Japan (AFP) — Legend has it that death threats from disgruntled samurai warriors were behind Japan’s first cricket match in 1863 and the sport has battled for recognition in the baseball-mad country ever since.

But Japan’s cricket association, which operates out of a disused school near a wooded mountain, says the sport is slowly gaining popularity and hopes next year’s home Asian Games and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics can take it to a new level.

“My whole 11 years here have been about trying to provide people with opportunities to play,” said Englishman Alan Curr, Japan Cricket Association’s chief operations officer.

“That’s a lot easier if they know the sport exists. Ultimately, you can’t be what you can’t see.”

Curr says cricket is growing annually in Japan with more than 5,000 adults and children playing the game regularly and about three times as many having tried it in some form.

That is still a drop in the ocean compared to Japanese baseball, which is played by millions and produces global superstars such as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani.

The two sports arrived in Japan at roughly the same time, although cricket’s origins were slightly less auspicious.

A samurai threat to kill all foreigners who refused to leave Japan prompted a group of European residents to seek protection from the British navy in Yokohama.

They had a game of cricket to pass the time, playing with loaded guns tucked into their belts to guard against possible attack.

A Scottish tea merchant founded the first cricket club in Japan five years later but it failed to catch on beyond expatriate circles.