ICC Men's T20 World Cup: Cricket’s tryst with America
cricket world has viewed the United States of America as its final frontier. Here was the last untouched market. A South Asian diaspora with a love of the game and dollars to spend, bolstered by significant others from around the Commonwealth.
Lok Sabha Exit Poll Results 2024 Live Updates
There are enough people of English, Irish, South African and Caribbean origin in the USA to take the bat and ball game from the Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans and Bangladeshis and run with it. And yet, it has never quite happened. Most cricket lovers don’t know this, but the first international match was played between America and Canada in Bloomingdale Park, Manhattan, a good 33 years before England and Australia met in 1877. That encounter was not even classed as an international match at the time, but history tells us that it happened. Now, the International Cricket Council, in all its wisdom, has taken the Twenty20 World Cup to the United States of America and the Caribbean.
“Honestly, I never thought we would be playing cricket in any form in the states (USA), but now it’s a reality. That tells you about the growing impact of the sport in the world and the United States is more than willing to accept the change and be probably the first ones on a global scale to accept it, in a way, with the World Cup,” Virat Kohli, India’s shining light and probably the biggest name in the game, said in a video shared on social media by the US consulate in Mumbai.
“It’s a great start. It’s the ideal way to begin and
