Cricket’s big American dream

Bengaluru: Cricket is trying to sneak a sliver of a slice of The Big Apple. 

Cricket is trying to put on an improved show for those in The Magic City.

Cricket is trying to find love in the City of Hate. 

New York (nearly 50-km from city proper). Miami (nearly 36-km from city proper). Dallas (nearly 21-km from city proper).

Suppose these cities aren’t synonymous with the New York Yankees, Miami Marlins and Texas Rangers for their legacy as baseball strongholds. In that case, they assume significance as centres of basketball excellence through the New York Knicks, the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks. If not, also have the prestige endowed by the New York Giants, Miami Dolphins or the Dallas Cowboys in American football. 

Cricket then does not feature in the lexicon of the average American, but the South Asian diaspora, which according to a 2021 survey stands at six million and climbing quicker than any other community, wants it to become so. 

The International Cricket Council has been cognisant of this demand for a long time, but couldn’t find good enough reason to enter American shores with a big-ticket event. 

In 2015, they rolled out the Cricket All Star Series. It was an exhibition series held in New York, Houston and Los Angeles with Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne captaining the sides. 

The interest was high as some of the game’s yesteryear greats showed up and pandered to the pangs of nostalgia. 

In 2022, it was announced that the maiden edition of Major League Cricket will be held in California, New York and in Washington with six teams in attendance. That tournament eventually turned out to be quite a success. 

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, each of the six teams was either owned fully or in part by Indians, and this brought a level of credibility which, surely, played a part in coaxing a fair few contemporary T20 big-wigs to their windowsills and beyond. 

Sandwiched between these years (in 2021) came the biggest news of all: America was going to co-host the 2024 T20 World Cup with the West Indies.

For far too long, South Asians had lived on replays and re-runs to get their fix, they had travelled to the Caribbean when they needed a dose. Some even made annual trips to England and India to get in on the action. Now, they will consume it - at a somewhat reasonable time - in the comfort of their own backyard. 

The ICC might, as originally advertised, be in the business of making the sport accessible to a greater audience, but to assume that this move is purely out of a desire to appease a parched fanbase, would be naive. 

North America is one of the biggest sports markets in the world, estimated in 2023 to be close to $100 billion industry, and the ICC is looking to capitalise on what capitalism’s poster child has to offer. 

The zeal with which they have orchestrated their latest venture only gained traction after it was announced that the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is going to put an end to cricket’s 128-year exile from the Games. 

The pattern isn’t dissimilar to what unfolded when America pushed itself to hold the 1994 FIFA World Cup. 

Did it change the course of everything American? Not really, but football (sorry, ‘soccer’) did see a tangible spike in interest. 

In fact, their national teams are widely followed, and a new generation of players have cropped up on the posts and posters of their predecessors. With that, there is a level of awareness which has led to more and more investors taking stock of the sport. 

This, however, doesn’t mean the likes of American football or baseball or basketball are losing pieces of the rather massive pie. They continue to rule the roost, while sports such as ‘soccer’ offer reprieve to those jaded by traditional pastimes. Cricket intends to do the same. 

“As you know, with America being the world’s largest sports market, you always wanted to get into the market to grow the game. This was an opportune moment. We didn’t know about Los Angeles at this point (when the T20 WC was confirmed), but we knew we had to have cricket in America,” said former USCA chief Atul Rai. 

“We are not looking to compete against baseball. That’s the biggest misconception doing the rounds. Cricket is an entirely different entity, it’s very nuanced, but it’s so easy for people to get hooked on to it. It’s not even about the complicated rules, it’s about the feeling it brings.

“Cricket was in America before baseball! That’s what people fail to understand, but the version of cricket that was, was too slow for America. This, the T20, is ideal. This will not only appeal to the South Asian diaspora, it will also excite the Americans. That was our vision all along.”

The United States has always been at the forefront of accepting new sports and marketing them well enough to rake in the moolah. 

The ICC was not going to lose out on such pedigree. More poignantly, Indians in the business of cricket, having acquired enough data from the Indian Premier League and other such franchise-based leagues, realised that they were not tapping into the market enough. Thus, the American dream returned.  

This move does have another benefit though. 

Cricket has often been condemned for calling itself a ‘world’ sport when in actuality it is predominantly only practiced by those of the Commonwealth variety. 

Insular as it was, and it was, the sport itself is attempting to rid itself of the old notion by moving into newer territories. The ICC went so far as making this a 20-team tournament - the biggest cricket World Cup of any kind to date. 

“This is big for cricket in America,” says  Nosthush Kenjige, a Bengalurean who moved to the States a few years ago and is now part of the US national team. “We have always had dreams of playing in a World Cup, but we didn’t think it would happen like this. The Indian diaspora in America deserves more than just catching glimpses of the IPL. We needed the real deal, and this is as big as it gets.”

Surely, the ICC is going to dive into cricket’s version of the Old Testament and look to resurrect interest among those who have barely gotten over the IPL hangover. 

But, once cricketers wear their national flags on their chests and get onto the field, neither the broadcaster nor the organiser will have to strive to have people express their allegiances. They won’t even need to force patriotism down people’s throats. It will happen organically, and at some point, it will be forgotten - for seconds at a time - that these matches are going on in America. 

Fact is, it’s very likely that USA Cricket won’t get much cricket coming its way after this event, owing to their lackadaisical approach to promoting the sport in the country. 

This World Cup is almost entirely ICC’s venture. None of USAC’s members have been involved in the planning or implementation of the event. If anything, they have been kept away from T20 World Cup activities. Even when the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium was unveiled, no USAC member was quoted. Instead, it was all ICC officials and their perspectives. 

The USAC needs to get its house in order because should they, they will find a willing ally in the ICC. If they don’t, the ICC might just resort to barging in and settling the house themselves.