Cricket is a sport that has long time been associated with countries like India, England, Australia,… The game is continually expanding and attracts many new countries to play and compete with each other in every cricket tournament. The most exact proof of the expansion of cricket is the appearance of the United States of America, USA National Cricket Team.
History of the USA National Cricket Team
The USA National Cricket Team was formerly organized by the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA). In fact, the USA is one of the very first countries to participate in the International cricket tournament. However, they started to minimize their participation in International Cricket after the first match against Canada in 1844. In 1965, the USACA became a member of the International Cricket Council (ICC), starting the international journey marked by challenges and success.
Until 2004, the USA national cricket team claimed their first-ever achievement, when they won the Six Nations Challenge to qualify for the ICC Champion Trophy in England that year. Those 2 games in the Champion Trophy were the first official match in international cricket.
The USACA has 2 times being suspended by the ICC over financial and governance issues from the next tournaments. The first time was in the WCL Americas Division One in 2006 and the second was in 2015. Despite the suspension, USA national cricket team still played stunning performances, finished second in WCL Americas Division One in 2006 and earned the promotion to Division Three in 2017. The replacement of USACA, USA Cricket was founded in 2019 until the present.
The Challenges of USA Cricket
Despite the Triumphs that the USA national team has achieved, cricket is still not popular in this nation. There are so many challenges for USA Cricket to develop a cricket community in the USA. Here are some of the challenges that they are facing:
Lack of Awareness and Understanding of Cricket
Although the USA achieved some achievements, cricket is still an “underground sport” in this nation. Most Americans do not have any idea about the victories that the USA National cricket team has secured. Some even don’t know the T20 World Cup 2024 is hosted by the USA, their nation. The lack of awareness and understanding about cricket is the biggest challenge.
The USA Cricket needs to build an American Identity instead of immigrant communities so cricket can be more popular. This will be a hard job because most Americans do not have a good look at immigrant communities.
Infrastructure Development
Due to the lack of the popularity of cricket in the USA, there are not many cricket stadiums here. The new bright spot in the cricket stadiums hosting the T20 World Cup 2024, the Nassau County International Cricket is the newest cricket stadium built in the USA. In fact, there are not many stadiums for cricket here, the USA national cricket team played their match at the synthetic stadium. The lack of infrastructure has made the game, which already lacks players even less.
Small Fanbase
Both the USA Cricket and ICC are trying to get a place in the world’s biggest sports market for cricket, the purpose is to expand the size of the sport’s fanbase.
The USA Cricket and the USA National Cricket team are together trying to surpass the challenges and make cricket more popular in their nation. The T20 World Cup 2024 can be their trampoline for cricket to reach a new level.
Performance on The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024
The USA is the co-host of the T20 World Cup 2024, besides West Indie. To prepare for this event, ICC and the USA Cricket founded the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in early 2024.
The USA National Cricket team played well in this edition, creating a new wave in the sport. Up to 14 June, the team has won 2 of the 4 matches in the tournament, in the last encounter they lost against India by 7 wickets. Despite the loss, the USA’s men have shocked the world with their performance. Bowler Saurabh Netravalkar became the hot search after he dismissed the Indian star Virat Kohli with a golden duck and sent Rohit Sharma out with just 3 runs scored, successfully stopping 2 big guns of India. Netravalkar had played a crucial role in the team’s win in the match against Pakistan.
Conclusion
The USA Cricket still has a long way ahead. But with unwavering dedication and a strong passion for cricket, the USA national cricket team‘s men still play with all their heart and are dedicated to their nations, hoping one day the game becomes one of the biggest sports in their country and the world.
