Magazine - Can America Catch the Cricket Bug?

By Editor in Cricket on 29th May 2010 6:00

For a team sport to succeed in the United States, it usually needs to have been born there. A sport that can last for ages; sometimes doesn't produce a winner; and looks to many American eyes like a deeply weird version of baseball where the ball bounces, nothing much happens if a batter misses it, and you're never quite sure who's winning? It's a longshot.

But for cricket, like many other nonnative sports such as soccer and rugby, cracking the U.S. market has long been a holy grail. The potential benefits are clear: It's a wealthy, sports-mad country of 300 million people. Even if the baseball-loving majority is unlikely ever to be convinced, there are still the millions of Americans who were either born in or have recent family history in the formerly British parts of South Asia, the Caribbean and elsewhere where cricket is king.

In the latest attempt, America finally hosted its first modern, top-level international cricket last weekend. Sri Lanka played New Zealand in a pair of internationals at Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, South Florida. The games were the result of a partnership between New Zealand Cricket and the USA Cricket Association.

It should have been a great showcase for the sport. Nearly one-quarter of the residents of the host city were born in the Caribbean, a cricket hotspot. The Main Event Field of the $70 million park, which opened in 2007, was built specifically for cricket and has hosted previous tournaments involving international players, although not international teams. A groundsman was shipped in from New Zealand to ensure the pitch was in tip-top shape.

See the rest of the article on the following link:-Wall Street Journal

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