The T20 World Cup Aims To Put Cricket On The American Sports Map

Cricket, a staid bat and ball game that feels very British, never seemed to fit in across the Atlantic and felt out of kilter compared to the brashness of American sports.

Even though it was once more popular than baseball on the east coast of the U.S. But ever since cricket fell down the pecking order and into oblivion, cricket in the U.S was nothing but a punch line.

It has been sighted at local parks, where expats from British Commonwealth countries get their fix wielding a strange looking wooden bat around leading to baffled expressions from those passing by.

Efforts to grow and develop the game only led to never-ending power struggles. USA Cricket Association was expelled in 2017 capping a turbulent period marked by three suspensions. New governing body USA Cricket recently avoided calls for suspension and its funding is being ‘controlled’ by the International Cricket Council, as I first reported recently.

Attempts to get high-profile cricket there too often ended disastrously, such as the T20 professional league called Pro Cricket folded after just one season in 2004.

There were also manufactured efforts such as an All-Star series in 2015 comprising cricket legends, which was played on baseball fields – a bizarre sight for a sport played on oval shaped grounds – and was very much treated as an exhibition. It was supposedly a bid to spark an interest in cricket in the U.S. but seemed more like a junket for all involved.

But those ham-fisted attempts did not deter wide-eyed administrators looking for their pot of gold. And there is no country worth pursuing more than the world’s biggest sports market.

There had been many grandiose proposals over the years. Former long-time Australia chief executive James Sutherland endured plenty of chuckles when he once proposed the T20 World Cup be played at Central Park in New York.

Sutherland’s plan didn’t quite materialize, but he wasn’t far off the mark with some matches in the upcoming T20 World Cup held in Long Island. As I recently reported, the 34,000-seat modular Nassau County Stadium in Eisenhower Park, 30 miles east of Manhattan, is set to cost $30 million.

But officials are confident on a return of investment largely due to the astronomical ticket prices for the marquee fixture between bitter foes India and Pakistan.

It was a surprise to no one that cricket’s biggest rivalry and money-spinning contest – one that is milked endlessly at major events as the teams almost always slated together in the same group – was fixtured for New York.

India, cricket’s undisputed powerhouse, will be entirely based in the U.S and mostly in New York, where they will play three of their four group games. Dallas, with a growing South Asia populace and a developed cricket ground, has established itself as the heart of cricket in the U.S, will host four matches.

Lauderhill, Florida, which had until recently been the site of the only accredited international cricket venue, will also have four fixtures.

Such was the push for cricket administrators to get the World Cup to the U.S. that original plans to host in 2026 or 2030 was moved forward even though infrastructure was limited.

The upcoming T20 World Cup has obviously gained the attention of cricket-starved expats, but locals are hoped to at least be stirred too.

Administrators have resorted to star power to help fuel interest. Legendary sprinter Usain Bolt, who hails from cricket nation Jamaica, is an ambassador and helped with the promotion during public events in New York.

Ultimately, the sport itself will need to reel in the punters. And the three-hour T20 format might have the necessary bombast to hold attention spans and help lift cricket from irrelevancy in its target market.

There is hope that this tournament can represent a boon for cricket in the U.S. much like the effect of the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

That remains likely a pipedream, but after many false starts, amid continual tumult, a cricket World Cup has finally arrived in the U.S.

That is no laughing matter.