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Despite not being the biggest sport in the United States, cricket is the second most popular worldwide, with over 2.5 billion fans.
Soccer, or European football, still sits at the top, and cricket is followed by basketball, which is also popular in the country.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has a vision that cricket will eventually be the world’s favorite sport, and to do that, it will definitely need the following from big countries like the US.
That’s why they have an official Global Growth Strategy (2024-2030), and they’ve been putting billions of dollars into making it happen. That’s especially the case in the US with their recent efforts.
The Forgotten King: Crickets Reign in the US
Before baseball became America’s Pastime, cricket was the undisputed king of American sports. In the mid-1800s, the game flourished with over 1,000 clubs across 22 states.
Its roots were presidential as George Washington’s troops reportedly played a version of the game at Valley Forge to boost morale, and Benjamin Franklin even brought a copy of the official cricket laws back from England.
The sport’s crown jewel was Philadelphia, home to the Philadelphian cricket team and Bart King, a legendary bowler widely considered one of the best in the world at the time.
However, the Civil War changed everything. While cricket required a perfectly manicured grass pitch, baseball could be played on any rough field. Soldiers in army camps pivoted to baseball for its simplicity.
After the war, a wave of nationalism swept the country. Baseball was marketed as the gritty, all-American game, while cricket was unfairly painted as a slow, British hobby for the elite.
The final blow came in 1909 when the Imperial Cricket Conference (now the ICC) was formed. It originally restricted membership to parts of the British Empire, which effectively left the United States out of international competition for over 50 years.
Cricket Throughout the Years
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For decades after the 1909 snub, cricket in the US didn’t really disappear. It pretty much just went underground. It survived primarily within immigrant communities from the Caribbean and South Asia, who brought their passion for the game to local parks in New York, Florida, and California.
These players kept the sport alive, but it lacked a professional structure or national spotlight.
The real turning point came with the birth of Twenty20 (T20) cricket in the early 2000s. Since a cricket match was shortened from several days to just three hours, the sport finally matched the fast-paced nature of American media.
Recognizing this potential, the ICC began investing heavily in Project USA. In the 2010s, we saw the rise of minor leagues and better academies, but the biggest leap happened recently. With massive Silicon Valley investment and the launch of Major League Cricket (MLC) in 2023, the sport finally moved from public parks to professional stadiums.
Memorable US vs Pakistan Match in 2024
The last few years have seen an unprecedented gold rush for American cricket. This peaked in 2024 when the US co-hosted the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. It was when the Prairie Stadium in Dallas, Texas, opened.
What happened was something even the best cricket betting odds – 10CRIC and other platforms offered didn’t see. The match became monumental and even came as a shock because the US national team was able to defeat Pakistan.
Pakistan, a global powerhouse and former World Cup champion, set a competitive target of 159 runs. Most experts expected the US, a team of mostly part-time professionals, to crumble under the pressure of Pakistan’s world-class fast bowlers.
But they actually didn’t, and the team’s captain that time, Monank Patel, led from the front with a brilliant 50. The game came down to the final over, where the US needed 15 runs. On the final ball, Nitish Kumar smashed a boundary to tie the score and force a Super Over.
The US batted first in the Super Over and scored 18 runs, benefiting from Pakistan’s nerves and several wides (penalty runs).
Then came the hero of the night: Saurabh Netravalkar. An Oracle software engineer by day, Netravalkar held his nerve against some of the world’s best batters, giving up only 13 runs and sealing a historic 5-run victory.
Wrap Up: The Recent Pushes for Cricket to Make it Big in the US
The sport’s infrastructure has expanded even further after that. The Major League Cricket has expanded its schedule and venues, and they even moved into historic locations like the Oakland Coliseum.
This growth is backed by over $120 million in Series A funding from major tech companies.
Also, cricket is now officially set for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, so it’s safe to say that it’s making quite a comeback in the country.
Whether things will go further is still something we can only wait and see.
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