The T20 World Cup is off to a great start with underdogs owning the day—especially the H1-B boys on Team USA. In part one, we look at the origin story of cricket in the US—and how it came to host the World Cup. Tomorrow, we will have everything you need to know about the tournament, the US team and their match against India—which is slated for tomorrow, IST.
Once upon a time…
The fine gentlemen of America played cricket. The nation’s connection to cricket goes back to the eighteenth century—and pre-dates the birth of the country:
- Newspapers in 1751 reported a match played between New Yorkers and Englishmen.
- During the American Revolution, George Washington reportedly “played a game at ‘wicket’ with a number of Gent of the Arty.”
- In 1844, the US played the very first international cricket match—with national squads rather than club teams—against Canada, and lost by 23 runs. Btw, the match preceded the first international football game by nearly 30 years.
- By 1850, there were around 20 clubs across the country—stretching from Baltimore to Savannah, Chicago, Milwaukee, and even San Francisco.
- The most famous US team belonged to the Philadelphia Cricket Club—which toured England a number of times.
- Its star player John Barton King decimated the opposition—and was described by English commentators as “one of the finest bowlers of all time.”
The decline of American cricket: The gentleman’s sport was eventually eclipsed by baseball because it remained just that—an amateur sport for the country club set. Professional baseball offered money and mass appeal. The first recognised professional baseball team—the Cincinnati Red Stockings—recruited a young bowler Harry Wright to both play for and manage the team. He was also responsible for making baseball an all-American sport:
Wright brought all the skills, tactics, and techniques he’d learned as a cricketer to his new team. Playing centerfield, Wright led the 1869 Red Stockings to the only perfect season in baseball history; going 65-0, they were the first team to play on both the East and West Coasts. That team essentially nationalised the sport of baseball, in effect, turning it into “the national pastime.”
The other nail in the coffin: The Imperial Cricket Conference—set up in 1909 as the governing body for world cricket—simply froze the US out of world cricket. And that spelled the end of the golden age of cricket in America. The big Q: can Major League Cricket bring those glory days back?
Stuff to see: Here’s a sketch of white plantation owners allegedly playing cricket in 1709. The bat is a bit odd—and there is not a slave in sight:
This illustration commemorates the 'Great Cricket Match' in 1844—between the United States and Canada at Hoboken in New Jersey:
This is a (terribly white) team of Philadelphians who toured England in 1884:
This is what team USA looks like today—which is one measure of progress:
Ok, but how did this World Cup end up in America?
Good question. Americans didn't show much interest in revisiting cricket—until immigrants—especially the Indian kind—showed up in strength. Today, around 200,000 people play cricket in 400 clubs across the country—and most are either Black or brown:
Today the American men’s, women’s and under-19s’ national teams are composed entirely of American South Asians and West Indians (and one Briton). Five players on the men’s squad share the Gujarati surname Patel.
The World Cup is the culmination of their dreams—especially for cricket-crazy, rich Indians.
Say hello to Major League Cricket: The nostalgia of these men for the home country—and fond memories of their own youthful cricketing antics—resulted in the creation of Major League Cricket. The IPL-style league held its first tournament last year (explained in this Big Story).
The league is operated by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE)—whose founders are Satyan Gajwani and Vineet Jain—of the Times Group. Investors include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Adobe chairman Shantanu Narayen. This is how The Economist describes the birth of MLC:
That afternoon, northwest of Dallas, a dozen multimillionaires gathered at a 2,500-acre ranch. Horses bobbed in their stalls before the main house. At the back, manicured gardens were framed by rows of trees receding into the distance. Inside, around a Putinesque conference table, the men discussed their plans to bring a new sport to this sports-saturated country… All the men were of Indian descent.
In other words, a well-oiled (and financed) desi operation is in charge of league cricket in Amreeka. But the path of the national board hasn’t been quite as smooth.
Say hello to USAC: The older United States of America Cricket Association—formed back in 1965—was kicked out from the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2017. It was replaced by USA Cricket (USAC) in 2019—which has an equally rocky record. It has had little or no staff—and still doesn’t have a CEO. The association often hasn’t paid its dues—and has faced multiple sanctions. Not exactly in the condition to organise a World Cup.
Enter the ICC: Like all good capitalist enterprises, the council has been searching for new markets—and decided the US looked the juiciest: “This was largely down to its size, economy, broadcast market and the existing cricket infrastructure and culture.” Major League Cricket co-founder Gajwani was far more blunt:
Cut to today, a rough estimate of cricket’s addressable “critical mass” audience in the US could be somewhere around 5-10 million (primarily those of South Asian descent). While that might sound small in a country of 335 million, it matters. “As per (US) Census data, Indians have a higher per capita income of any demographic — higher than Jewish and Japanese people, which has historically not been the case. You have a very elite audience that way,”
Basically, there are enough rich Indians to make it worth everyone’s while. That’s why the ICC decided to set up its own local organising committee—T20 USA Inc—to oversee the event.
Data point to note: A recent survey found that only 10% of Americans are aware of the MLC—and only 6% know about the World Cup. The most telling stat: only 62% of those interested in cricket will support the US—so not exactly an ‘American’ sport by any measure.
The bottomline: Up next, in part two, we profile the World Cup—and the highly unusual and talented US team. Stat to whet your interest:
USA [has] not played a T20 International since the World Cup qualifiers in July 2022. Since USA Cricket was admitted, the national men’s side has played just seven T20Is outside qualifying events. Since the start of 2022, they have played a total of twelve T20Is. By comparison, Nepal has played 36 in the same period.
Reading list
The Guardian has a detailed feature on cricket’s roots in the US. There are some lovely images dating back to 1709 on USA Cricket’s website. The Economist via Mint looks at how cricket could fit into the American imagination today. OTOH: Al Jazeera is sceptical about cricket succeeding in the US. Venkat Ananth in The Playbook looks at the role of big leagues in promoting cricket in the country. Our Big Story has all the details on the IPL-style league in the US held last year called Major League Cricket.
