USA Cricket Vice-Captain Aaron Jones poses next to a giant cricket ball, installed at a marketplace to mark 100 days to go for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, in Miami, Florida, on Feb. 22, 2024.
But the sport has boomed in India, the world's most populous country, as well as some other former British colonies.
And now, the U.S. men's national cricket team will represent the home country in this year's International Cricket Council Men's T20 World Cup.
While traditional cricket matches can last as long as five days, a T20 match typically lasts around three hours.
The early June world cup matchups will bring some of that star power to the U.S., with a high-profile India-Pakistan competition and culminating in a U.S.-India match.
USA Cricket Vice-Captain Aaron Jones poses next to a giant cricket ball, installed at a marketplace to mark 100 days to go for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, in Miami, Florida, on Feb. 22, 2024. Chandan Khanna | Afp | Getty Images
A major cricket world cup is coming to U.S. soil for the first time in June as the sport sets out to chart its future in the U.S. Cricket, a game similar to baseball, originated in England and has long been popular there. But the sport has boomed in India, the world's most populous country, as well as some other former British colonies. In the U.S., it is mostly immigrants and their children who enjoy cricket. But in 2023, the sport got a boost as Major League Cricket debuted in the U.S. with six teams: the Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom. And now, the U.S. men's national cricket team will represent the home country in this year's International Cricket Council Men's T20 World Cup. The teams play in the Twenty20, or T20, format, the shortest and most popular form of the sport. While traditional cricket matches can last as long as five days, a T20 match typically lasts around three hours. This year's world cup is co-hosted by the U.S. and the West Indies and will take place in three U.S. stadiums — in Texas, Florida and New York — as well as several locations in the West Indies. "This is a historic opportunity for the U.S.," said former ESPN cricket writer Peter Della Penna.
Success in India
While it hasn't broken through in the U.S., cricket has seen success in such countries as Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and the West Indies. But it's arguably made the biggest mark in India, where it's the most popular sport in a country of more than 1.4 billion people, according to research firm Statista. Cricket is already a big business in the Asian subcontinent. In 2022, it accounted for 85% of India's national spending on sports, according to ISPO, which hosts trade shows for the sports business. And viewership continues to break records. Disney said its Disney Star Network broadcast of the professional Indian Premier League, or IPL, tournament in 2023 saw a record 505 million viewers in India, making it the first one to draw more than half a billion viewers. The average value of an IPL team has exceeded $1 billion, according to Forbes, and investors are taking notice. In June 2021, private equity firm RedBird took a 15% stake in IPL team Rajasthan Royals for $37.5 million. A year later, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the country's governing body for the sport, sold television and digital broadcasting rights for a record $6.2 billion. That gave the IPL the second-highest per-match value for a sporting league in the world, behind the NFL, according to Jay Shah, honorary secretary of the BCCI. The early June world cup matchups will bring some of that star power to the U.S., with a high-profile India-Pakistan competition and culminating in a U.S.-India match. "[The U.S.-India] match has already been sold out with 34,000 seats at the venue in New York," Della Penna said. "That just gives you a sense of the magnitude of the opportunity that [the U.S. is] going to have during the world cup — with a television audience that's unprecedented for any match that the U.S. has ever been involved with before — when you consider the Indian market and other markets like England or Australia." The ICC's decision to host part of the world cup in the U.S. — and especially the highly anticipated India-Pakistan match — was a strategic move to take advantage of the potential for growth in the country, according to USA Cricket. The U.S. will host the tournament a few years before cricket comes to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Della Penna, who has covered cricket for nearly two decades, also said the move is financially motivated. "[The ICC] made sure to put the India and Pakistan match on U.S. soil because they know there's a couple million people in the [South Asian] diaspora who are massive cricket fans," Della Penna said.
Cricketers Liam Plunkett, center left, and Dwayne Bravo, center right, pose for pictures with children during a media day to mark 100 days to go until the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 co-hosted in the West Indies and the U.S., at Times Square in New York City, Feb. 22, 2024. Mike Stobe | Icc | Getty Images
Tasmai Krishnan, a teenage cricket enthusiast in India and host of podcast "Cricstatic," said the sport is an "integral part" of Indian culture. With new sports such as pickleball gathering popularity, Tasmai said he hopes cricket will also grow in the U.S. and he's interested to see how the U.S. will fit into the global cricket circuit after the world cup. "Coming from an Indian perspective, this opens another range of cricket here because it unlocks another country that is going to be a fierce competitor in the future," Tasmai said. "This is a great learning opportunity for the U.S. team, and to see a nation like the U.S. participating, it really fills my heart with joy."
'A dream come true'
