International cricket is coming to America. The ICC Men's T20 World Cup comes at a time when cricket's popularity is soaring around the world. Major League Cricket, which launched last year, is aimed at promoting cricket to a U.S. audience more familiar with American football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey.
Selling cricket to Americans has not been easy – the sport is played only by those with ties to the subcontinent in the US – but the World Cup could help popularise cricket there and fit with the sport's highest body, the International Cricket Council's, plans to take the game beyond the traditional powerhouses.
The World Cup, co-hosted by the United States and the West Indies, will be the biggest ever with 20 nations taking part, and the 55-match tournament will feature a host of high-profile matches, including Australia v England in Barbados on June 8 and India v Pakistan in New York on June 9.
The biennial event will mark cricket's return to one of its oldest strongholds, the United States, when it gets underway in Dallas, Texas, on June 1.
Indian players are currently training ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup opener against Ireland (June 5) to be played in New York on June 29, 2024. The tournament begins on June 1 with the USA taking on Canada in Dallas, Texas.
Image Credit: ANI
How cricket came to America
According to the ICC website, the first recorded mention of cricket is believed to have been invented in 1611 during Saxon or Norman times in southeast England. As the sport developed in England, it spread to the British colonies and was brought to the United States by colonial sailors in the early 1700s.
Cricket initially spread across the country, but its popularity waned as clubs were not open to the working class. The decline was accelerated by the rise of baseball in the 1800s. “The sport of cricket was not as popular then as it is today. Today the country has a ball game that is fast-playing and offers an exciting, lively match,” the paper's report said. The New York Times In 1868 he said:
Over time, cricket changed. When it returned to the U.S. for the World Cup, it was no longer a boring, slow game played over several days by men in white flannels with a red ball. In the popular version, cricketers in colorful uniforms batted a white ball back and forth in a four-hour, 20-over match.
West Indies batsman Brandon King in action during the first T20 International against South Africa in Kingston, Jamaica, on May 23, 2024. Co-hosts West Indies will be hoping to erase bitter memories of the last World Cup with a better showing at home.
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Unlike the US, co-hosts the West Indies have a long tradition of producing great cricketers. With their breathtaking strokeplay, fierce fast bowling and forceful fielding, the cricketers from the sun-soaked palm-fringed islands of the Caribbean brought a Cariso flavour to cricket, a favourite flavour in the 80s and early 90s when Clive Lloyd's “Invincibles” dominated the cricket world.
After a golden era, West Indies cricket went into a period of decline, but Darren Sammy led them to win T20 World titles in 2012 and 2016. Caribbean cricket continues to struggle, having missed out on qualification for the 2022 T20 World Cup and the 2023 ODI World Cup, and they will be hoping to put that nightmare behind them.
Like the West Indies, most cricket-playing countries were British colonies. Cricket was introduced to Canada in the late 1700s and spread quickly: “By the 1890s, 25 years after it was declared the national game, cricket was being played across the country,” said one Canadian politician. ESPN Click Info According to the report:
Worrell, Weeks and Walcott in the stands ahead of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados on May 24, 2024. West Indies will face Papua New Guinea on June 1, 2024.
Image courtesy of AFP
How the teams for the T20 World Cup are selected
The ninth T20 World Cup will feature a record 20 teams. The hosts, West Indies and the United States, have qualified automatically. The top eight teams in the 2022 tournament (England, Pakistan, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Australia and the Netherlands) will qualify directly. Afghanistan and Bangladesh will also qualify directly based on their position in the Men's T20 International Rankings.
Canada topped the Americas qualifier, Ireland and Scotland won the European qualifier, Nepal and Oman qualified through the Asian qualifier, Namibia and Uganda won the African qualifier, and Papua New Guinea won the East Asia Pacific qualifier.
According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, Canada and the United States played their first ever international match in September 1844 in New York, long before the first cricket Test was played between England and Australia in 1892. The Canadian Cricket Association (now Cricket Canada), founded in 1892, remains the governing body of cricket today.
Poor weather conditions hampered their popularity, but Canada are regulars on the ICC circuit and have played in several World Cups, starting with the Prudential World Cup (50-over) in 1975. Oddly enough, this is their first appearance in a T20 World Cup.
The Netherlands, the standout among the associate countries, automatically qualified for the tournament. Having played in five T20 World Cups since 2009, the Netherlands finished in the top eight in 2022 and are the only associate country in the 2023 ODI World Cup. The Netherlands have been a thorn in South Africa's side, eliminating them in the 2022 T20 World Cup and beating them again in the 2023 ODI World Cup.
A former South African protectorate, Namibia has a cricket history dating back to the early 1900s. An ICC member since 1992, the desert nation is competing in the T20 World Cups in 2021 and 2022.
Nepal have qualified for the T20 World Cup for the first time in a decade, while Papua New Guinea will be competing for the second time. Oman, who played their first T20 International in 2015, will be competing in the tournament for the third time.
Past winners
2007 — India
2009 — Pakistan
■ 2010 — England
■ 2012 — West Indies
■ 2014 — Sri Lanka
■ 2016 — West Indies
■ 2021 — Australia
■ 2022 — England
Uganda has a large South Asian population who brought cricket to the African country, and while migrants support the sport, school cricket has produced home-grown talent, and this is their first time competing in a World Cup.
For the associate member countries (USA, Namibia, Scotland, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Nepal and Netherlands), the World Cup is a chance to test themselves against the big players. Namibia, Ireland, Scotland and Netherlands are regulars in ICC tournaments, showing their growing status. Cricket is still an amateur sport in these countries. With the right domestic organisation and enough international exposure, the playing field can be levelled. There is no better exposure than the World Cup with the big boys playing.
