3

Jun

T20 World Cup Fascinates Sports  Enthusiasts in America

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Prabhjot Singh

New Delhi, 3 June 2024

 

Cricket begins a campaign for the hearts and wallets of American fans as the T20 World Cup kicks off on June 1 in Dallas, bringing the best of the sport to less familiar territory, was the screaming intro of a news story put up by an international news agency a few days.

It said everything. Cricket, alien to the Americans, has come to stay. After almost a month-long mega event, the game is all set for its return to the Olympic program in 2028 in Los Angeles. The last time the sport was played was in the 1900 Olympics in Paris. Though the 2024 Games are just some weeks away, cricket will not be part of the Paris Games.

Cricket appeals to the hearts of a strong South Asian, West Indian, and English community in the Americas. It now extends its holds to wallets as tickets for the T20 World Cup are elusive. For a ticket to the game between India and Pakistan on June 9, the asking rate could be around $5000. So that is the appeal the game-making debut in the US has.

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Article at a Glance

 

Cricket is making its debut in the United States with the T20 World Cup, kicking off on June 1 in Dallas. This marks a significant milestone for the sport, which has traditionally been popular in South Asia, the West Indies, and England.

The tournament is expected to draw large crowds, with tickets for the India-Pakistan match on June 9 selling for up to $5,000. The US is no stranger to hosting major sporting events, and the addition of cricket and the FIFA World Cup will bring glamour and prestige to the country's sports scene.

 With the Olympic Games returning to Los Angeles in 2028, cricket is poised to become a major player in American sports. The T20 World Cup will feature the top 20 teams from around the globe, including powerhouses like Australia, England, and India, as well as emerging nations like Afghanistan and Nepal.

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America has been a home to major sporting events. It has its own hectic sports schedule. Now addition of events like the T20 Cricket World Cup and FIFA World Cup will add both glamour and prestige to the US sport that has not held any major global sporting event since the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

Known for its baseball, basketball, ice hockey, and football high-tech professional leagues, the US has always successfully defended its supremacy in sports.

Cricket is roaring to go. It has done everything possible at its command to make a memorable debut in the US Sports. Choosing all its present-day stalwarts – batters, bowlers, and fielders – it will bring in the top 20 teams from around the globe to compete in its first-ever T20 World Cup which the US will jointly host with the West Indies.

Instead of watching New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge with a bat,  the Americans will now see India’s skipper Rohit Sharma doing the big-hitting.

Cricket is played on specially curated pitches. Since American soil is a little hard for making pitches, they will be importing pitches curated elsewhere. They have roped in  Damian Hough of Adelaide (Australia) for the job.

Hough has been making “drop-in” pitches since 2013. His specially crafted “drop-in” pitches in Florida will be used at Nassau County Cricket Stadium. He maintains that “drop[ in” pitches will exhibit great balance between bat and ball and provide some enjoyable cricket.

Drop-in pitches are now common the world over as some of the best cricket in the world, especially in Australia, is played on them.

It is not cricket alone. The US has chalked up a big plan to have several sporting events in the coming years. After the T20 World Cup with West Indies as co-host, the US will have Canada and Mexico as its partners in conducting the World’s biggest soccer event, FIFA 2026.

And in 2028, the Olympic Games will return to the US in general and Los Angeles in particular. The last time the USA held an event of this level was the FIFA World Cup in 2020 and the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games.

Starting with a game with its neighbor and arch-rival Canada at Dallas on June 2, the US will set in motion the biggest T20 cricket bonanza in motion.

Essentially a game of immigrants, mostly of South Asian and West Indian descent, this gentleman game of the British never enthused the Americans primarily because its oldest and traditional version – Test cricket – has a history of games ending without a result even after two teams compete each other five days in running.

The cricket authorities were quick to realize this drawback and started amending the rules. They first introduced a shorter version with each game limited to 100 overs, meaning thereby that each team had 50 overs at its disposal to bowl out its opponents and knock out the winning runs. It met with considerable success but still, it did not interest the world outside the Commonwealth.

Its last gamble of reducing the duration of the game to 20 overs each side, however, met with overwhelming success. Not only the Americas but even Europeans took fancy to this game. The result is before us. After several rounds of playoffs in different continents, a final selection of the top 20 teams is made to compete in the 2024 T20 World Cup.

Interestingly, some of the teams will have players of South Asian descent, some countries have adopted the game well and made rapid strides. Afghanistan, for example, is the country that has risen in the rankings of the World Cup to become a Test-playing nation.

The International Cricket Conference, which governs the game globally, has a well-defined graduation system on how teams qualify to play ODIs (One Day Internationals), T20, and Test cricket.

Other than Afghanistan, even Bangladesh had a rapid rise in cricket. There were times when the number of nations playing Test cricket was limited only to Australia, England, New Zealand, India, and Pakistan besides South Africa, it has now been extended to Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.

If the US and Canada continue to develop the game at its present pace, they may soon be the select band of Test-playing nations.

In the T20 World Cup, among the participating teams are all top-notch teams, including Australia, England, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan,  besides the emerging powers like the Netherlands, Nepal, Scotland, Ireland, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, and Uganda.

After the opening day games between Canada and USA and the West Indies-Papua New Guinea on June 2, June 8 is going to be the first big day of cricket with games scheduled between  Afghanistan and New Zealand,  Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,  Netherlands and South Africa, and Australia vs England.

India will play Ireland on June 5 at New York while Pakistan will travel to Dallas to take on the USA on June 6 in their respective openers. India then plays Pakistan on June 9, USA on June 15

Past winners

2007        India                Pakistan

2009        Pakistan          Sri Lanka

2010        England.         Australia

2012.       West Indies.  Sri Lanka

2014.       Sri Lanka.       India

2016.       West Indies.  England

2021.       Australia.       New Zealand

2022.       England.         Pakistan

 All said and done, cricket has found its new home in the USA. Canada is not far behind as Brampton in Ontario is close on heels by becoming the country’s major cricketing center.

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