Aftab Ahmed: It's time to embrace cricket, North Americans

Don't worry, it's easy to figure out the rules.

By: Aftab Ahmed

You may not know it, but one of cricket's marquee events is happening right now in North America. An ambitious American cricket experiment kicked off on June 1, with the U.S. defeating Canada by seven wickets in the opening match of the T20 World Cup at the Grand Prairie ground in Texas. The U.S., along with several cricket-savvy Caribbean countries, is hosting 20 teams across 55 matches for a major international event, which will run until the end of the month.

A crowd of around 5,000 — mostly newcomers and immigrants from the Indian subcontinent and the Caribbean nations — witnessed a spectacular innings by Aaron Jones, an American batsman born in Queens and raised in Barbados. Canada, where cricket is hailed as one of the fastest-growing sports by Premier Doug Ford and Mayor Olivia Chow, put up a great fight. 

Immigrants from former British colonies have brought their love of cricket to North America. Originally introduced by the British Empire and embraced throughout its colonies as a form of leisure, cricket was initially restricted to British officials stationed in the colonies and a handful of local elites in cahoots with them. Perceived as a pompous pastime for the privileged, it was referred to as the gentleman's game. 

Cricket has evolved over the years from being an imperial pastime to a more democratized sport. The once-colonized nations have excelled in both playing and commercializing cricket. Cricket's global appeal is immense, second only to soccer, with an estimated 2.5 billion fans, primarily in South Asia, Australia, the U.K., and South Africa. The current World Cup features T20 cricket, the shortest format of the game, which lasts about three to four hours. 

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on a field with a 22-yard pitch at the centre, featuring a wicket at each end. The batting team aims to score runs by hitting the ball and either running to exchange places with the non-striker or by hitting the ball out of the field for automatic runs dubbed as fours and sixes. The fielding team tries to dismiss the batters through various methods, such as catching the ball, hitting the stumps with the ball or running out the batters.

Undeniably, this description has confused you a lot more than informed you of how the game is actually played. It gets worse! I should mention a couple of other important points: there are two other formats of the game — Test cricket, which is the oldest format going back to the 19th century and lasts five days, and One-Day International cricket, which takes about eight hours to complete. Trust me, it is way easier to understand if you watch a match.

The story goes that cricket was brought to America by the British but lost prominence around the time of the Civil War, with baseball rising to become the country’s preferred bat-and-ball game. That might be changing. The rise of T20 cricket has opened new commercial opportunities for the sport, with the U.S. viewed as the next major economic market to conquer for cricketing investors. This vision has already led to progress, thanks to the U.S.-based Major League Cricket (MLC), a T20 league inspired by the successful Indian Premier League (IPL). These leagues operate independently of national teams and international tournaments, focusing instead on club-based competitions that attract top talent from around the world. They offer lucrative financial contracts and media exposure. This franchise-based model has proven effective in engaging fans and driving revenue, setting a precedent for cricket’s growth in new markets. 

Cricket commands a whopping international viewership and generates impressive economic value. The IPL, for instance, has a brand value of over $10.7 billion USD and attracts the very best players from across the world — in addition to commercial sponsors, fans, celebrities, and public sector stakeholders. Major events like World Cups and the IPL draw millions of viewers worldwide, with the 2019 One Day International World Cup amassing 13.7 billion viewing hours. 

Cricket officials understand that their best entry into the American market, at least initially, will come through the large diaspora from cricket-loving countries rather than converting American fans of baseball, ice hockey or the NFL. Over five million people in the U.S. have roots in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, or Pakistan. The success and profitability of MLC and cricket at large in the U.S. will hinge on filling stadiums and securing lucrative TV rights deals in India.

Analyzing the composition of the U.S. and Canada teams from the inaugural match of the World Cup reveals a lot of what I have been blabbering about. Players hailing from 10 different countries donned the American and Canadian colours with an unwavering sense of pride. The U.S. team was composed of 27 per cent U.S.-born players, 36 per cent India-born players, 18 per cent South Africa-born players, and one player each from New Zealand, Canada and Pakistan, making up the remaining nine per cent. Even among the U.S.-born players, most have immigrant ancestry from South Asia. Similarly, the Canadian team included 45 per cent India-born players, 27 per cent players from the West Indies, and 18 per cent Pakistan-born players.

A recent poll by YouGov found that only 10 per cent of Americans were aware of MLC, with only six per cent aware of the ongoing T20 World Cup. However, one in five expressed interest in the current tournament, with the highest interest among young adults in the 18 to 34 category. That only 62 per cent of those interested in cricket will support the American team indicates the influence of the cricket-loving diaspora. 

Hosting this major international tournament marks a notable milestone for the U.S. As mentioned previously, the nation is co-hosting the T20 World Cup with Caribbean nations, staging 16 matches across temporary venues in Florida, New York, and the converted baseball field in Texas, which has become the de facto home of cricket in America. 

U.S. stunned the cricketing world by winning their second World Cup game against Pakistan. Pakistan, a cricketing powerhouse with a storied history, including a One Day International World Cup victory in 1992 under the captaincy of their now jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, and a T20 World Cup triumph in 2009, was taken by complete surprise.

Associate teams like the U.S., who often only get to play higher-ranked teams during World Cups, are here to stay and should play more bilateral matches with big guns like India and Australia. It is even more impressive that most players from associate nations play cricket part-time — the player who won them the game against Pakistan, for example, works at Oracle as an engineer! Cricket in North America is on fire, and it is high time North Americans outside the diasporic bubble took an interest in the sport. You won’t regret it.

Aftab Ahmed completed his Master of Public Policy degree from McGill University's Max Bell School of Public Policy and is a Policy Development Officer with the City of Toronto. With more than 100 published articles, he serves as a regular columnist for Canadian and Bangladeshi media outlets and policy publications. He can be reached at mir.ahmed@mail.mcgill.ca. The views expressed in this article are his personal opinions and do not reflect those of any organization, institution, or entity with which the author is associated.

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