Cricket, the quintessential English sport, was once more popular than baseball in the United States, a fact that is hard to believe or comprehend now. Today, cricket is the second most watched sport in the world, next only to soccer. While only around 10 countries play the sport at the highest level (Test matches), almost 100 countries play at associate or other leagues within the International Cricket Council (ICC) structure.
Baseball, though very similar to cricket since it is also a bat and ball sport, has only a limited footprint, being played at the highest level only in the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea and a few other countries. But one cannot deny that the sport has a huge following in these countries.
But interest in cricket in both US and Canada was rekindled with the arrival of immigrants from South Asia, where cricket reigns supreme. After all, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have all won the Cricket World Cup. This led to the formation of cricket clubs in the main cities of Canada and US. Gradually, the native population also began to note this intriguing sport. As these clubs blossomed to the point of having tournaments, another groundbreaking development was taking place in the cricket world.
Let’s face it, Test cricket, though undoubtedly the purest form of the sport, can be rather boring, compared to sports such as football and baseball, which generally run only for three or a maximum four hours. On the other hand, even a 50 overs cricket match runs for a full day. Most people do not have the time or the inclination to watch a match for one whole day, leave alone five days. Thus cricket administrators stuck upon the brilliant formula of Twenty20 cricket, whereby each team gets to bat for just 20 overs. If team A gets 200 runs in their allotted 20 overs, team B has to score 201 runs in 20 overs. The best thing is that it only takes around three hours. It has thus been described as “cricket on steroids”.
Now, international Twenty20 matches are included in all bilateral series and a T20 Cricket World Cup was also started. Sri Lanka won this tournament exactly 10 years ago, 18 years after their magnificent victory in the 50 Overs World Cup in Lahore, Pakistan. Cricket also received a big boost with the start of franchise leagues around the world, where teams are cobbled together from a smattering of foreign and local players. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is the biggest such franchise league in the world.
Although many say that these franchise leagues are “not just cricket” as the saying goes, there is no doubt that they have raised the profile of the sport globally and increased its visibility. In fact, the success of these franchise T20 leagues has spurred the establishment of a T20 cricket franchise tournament in the US itself. It is yet to reach the level of Major League Baseball (MLB), but given the South Asian Diaspora in North America, it could get there.
Even 10 years ago, if someone said a Cricket World Cup could be held in the US, he would have been laughed out of hand. But now, the boot is literally on the other foot as the US is hosting the T20 Cricket World Cup for the very first time, along with the more established West Indies. This is the biggest breakthrough for cricket in North America in recent memory.
Even more significantly, the US is getting two renovated and one all-new cricket stadia to host 16 matches of the tournament, which started yesterday. The stadia in New York, Texas and Florida will hopefully be dedicated to cricket once the tournament ends, helping to popularise the game in the Land of the Free, although the one in New York is modular and can easily be dismantled and refitted elsewhere. With more exposure, Americans and Canadians might get used to this beautiful game. Indeed, that other beautiful game – soccer – has gained a sizable following in the US after a franchise model was introduced. Cricket might have a similar trajectory.
The ICC was heavily criticised for limiting the previous recent editions of all World Cups to the elite cricket playing countries. This limits the opportunities of emerging nations to play against the top teams and also the broadest coverage. This simple theory was well understood by World Rugby, which has vastly expanded the number of nations in their most recent edition of the World Cup. Rugby, also played by a limited number of countries, faced the same challenge of taking it to more corners of the world. Since the expansion, rugby has gained traction in many more countries.
This time, sanity has prevailed at the ICC. They have expanded the tournament to cover 20 nations, including of course, the US. Among the other lesser known countries are Oman, Canada, Namibia, Uganda, PNG and Nepal. From the Test playing nations, only Zimbabwe has been left out, as it was unable to qualify.
Recent newcomers to the Test arena Ireland and Afghanistan are also in the fray, along with the Netherlands, which has been playing cricket at this level for almost two decades. Participating in the T20 World Cup will give cricket in these countries a tremendous boost, encouraging more youngsters to take up the sport in addition to or instead of soccer, the planet’s number one sport. The ICC must, however, keep the momentum going, by investing further in the cricket infrastructure of these emerging nations and giving them regular tournaments and tours.
