US cricket team vice-captain Aaron Jones stands next to a giant cricket ball, installed in a market to mark the 100th anniversary of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, in Miami, Florida, on February 22, 2024.
Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images
Cricket's major World Cup will be held on American soil for the first time in June, as the sport sets out to chart its future in the United States.
Cricket, a game similar to baseball, originated in England and has long been popular there. But the sport flourished in India, the world's most populous country, as well as in some other former British colonies.
In the United States, it is mostly immigrants and their children who enjoy cricket. But in 2023, the sport got a boost with the debut of Major League Cricket in the United States with six teams: Los Angeles Knight Riders, New York MI, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom.
And now, the USA Men's National Cricket Team will represent the motherland in this year's ICC Men's T20 World Cup. Teams play in the Twenty20, or T20, format, which is the shortest and most popular format of the sport. While traditional cricket matches can last up to five days, a T20 match usually lasts around three hours.
The World Cup is co-hosted by the United States and the West Indies this year, and will be held in three American stadiums – in Texas, Florida and New York – in addition to several sites in the West Indies.
“This is a historic opportunity for the United States,” said former ESPN cricket writer Peter Della Penna.
Success in India
Although it has not had much success in the United States, cricket has seen success in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, and the West Indies. But it has arguably made the biggest mark in India, where it is the most popular sport in a country of more than 1.4 billion people, according to research firm Statista.
Cricket is already big business in the Asian subcontinent. In 2022, it accounted for 85% of India's national spending on sports, according to ISPO, which hosts sports business trade shows.
Viewership continues to break records. Disney The broadcast of the Indian Premier League, or IPL, in 2023 saw a record 505 million viewers in India, making it the first to attract more than half a billion viewers, Disney Star Network said.
The average value of an IPL team has crossed $1 billion, according to Forbes, and investors have taken notice. In June 2021, private equity firm RedBird acquired a 15% stake in IPL team Rajasthan Royals for $37.5 million.
A year later, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the sport's governing body in the country, sold the television and digital rights for a record $6.2 billion. This gave the Indian Premier League the second-highest value per match for a sports league in the world, after the NFL, according to Jay Shah, honorary secretary of the BCCI.
The World Cup matches scheduled for early June are expected to bring some star power to the United States, with a high-profile competition between India and Pakistan, which will culminate in a match between the United States and India.
“Tickets for the match (between the United States and India) have already been sold out, with 34,000 seats in New York,” Della Penna said. “It just gives you a sense of how big of an opportunity the United States will have during the World Cup — with a television audience unprecedented for any match the United States has been involved in before — when you think about the Indian market and other markets like England or Australia.”
The ICC's decision to host part of the World Cup in the United States – particularly the highly anticipated match between India and Pakistan – was a strategic move to tap into the country's growth potential, according to USA Cricket. The United States will host the tournament a few years before cricket makes it to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Della Penna, who has covered cricket for nearly two decades, said the move was financially motivated.
“(The ICC) was keen to hold the India-Pakistan match on American soil because it knows that there are two million people in the (South Asian) diaspora who are huge cricket fans,” Della Penna said.
Cricketers Liam Plunkett, center left, and Dwayne Bravo, center right, pose for photos with children during a media day to mark the 100th anniversary of the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup hosted by the ICC in the West Indies and the United States, at Times Square in New York City, February 22, 2024.
Mike Staub | International Criminal Court Getty Images
Tasmay Krishnan, a teenage cricket fan in India and host of the “Cricstatic” podcast, said the sport is an “integral part” of Indian culture. With the growing popularity of new sports like pickleball, Tasmay said he hopes cricket will also grow in the United States, and he is interested to see how the United States will fit into the global cricket circuit after the World Cup.
“From an Indian point of view, this opens up another scope for cricket here because it opens the way for another country that will be a fierce competitor in the future,” Tasmay said. “It's a great learning opportunity for Team USA, and to see a country like the United States participating, it truly fills my heart with joy.”
'A dream come true'
Della Penna said the match between the United States and India will strike an interesting balance for Indian Americans in choosing which country to support.
One such person is George Samuel, a resident of Nassau County, New York, where some of the World Cup matches will be held. Samuel is the Head Coach and Director of the Queens United Cricket Academy, which develops the cricket skills of children and teenagers. Although he immigrated to the United States from India in 1987, he has also coached cricket in England, Australia and South Africa. When he arrived in New York, he wanted to pass on the sport.
“I was very excited,” he said of knowing the World Cup would be held in his backyard. “I never thought this would happen when I came to this country – it's a dream come true.”
Samuel, who has already secured his tickets, said he believes this World Cup will be a launching pad for cricket in the United States – but he's not rooting for either side in the final.
“I like to see good cricket. I have no loyalty. I want to see the United States show good talent, and I want to see that good bat and ball and a lot of sixes,” he said. The “six” is the cricket equivalent of baseball's home run.
Samuel's teenage son, Jeremy, said that despite his family's Indian roots, he cheers for the United States, the country of his birth, because he wants to play cricket professionally and for the United States team.
Jeremy also has his World Cup tickets with his friends, none of whom have ever seen a major cricket match before.
“It's really exciting to be able to watch it here, it's 15 minutes from my house,” he said. “It's a big moment for us to finally see one. … It makes me feel happy that more people will now know about cricket and start playing it.”
Others are more interested in supporting the Indian team against its traditional rivals.
California-based Mythili Sankaran, who said she has watched every match India has played in the past 25 years, said she doesn't even watch the US-India match and travels to New York only for the Indo-Pakistan edition of the World Cup. .
“Growing up in India with the Indian team, we were always the underdogs. Now, India is one of the most promising and strongest teams, if not the most powerful, in world cricket,” said Sankaran, who said she played cricket at university. Level in India before immigrating to the United States
“To be able to watch all these international stars, and watch an India-Pakistan match in the United States, I never thought I would do that in my life,” she said. “I think the cricket audience in the US is maturing in large part because of Indian Americans, and it's about time.”
Ultimately, Sankaran said, she hopes the World Cup marks the beginning of a new era.
“What I hope is that people can see women’s cricket in the United States as well,” she said. “The US women’s cricket team is doing really well, so I hope there will be more awareness and visibility of that.”
