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U.S. Twenty20 cricket league planned to launch in 2013


Viper

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Move over, soccer... you may soon be getting some competition in the "worldwide-popular-sport-belatedly-breaking-into-the-U.S.-market" market.

For those in the U.S. who have had an interest in cricket piqued over the past two weeks by catching a glimpse of the World Twenty20, the three-hour Twenty20 cricket spectacle may be coming live and in person to a ground near you next summer. The USA Cricket Association and New Zealand Cricket have partnered to form Cricket Holdings America LLC, a business entity that holds the commercial rights to establish a professional Twenty20 league in the U.S. with the goal from both parties to get play underway next summer.

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Good move on their part. I can't see how the longer forms of the sport would have any chance of gaining any significant foothold on this side of the pond.

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Cricket in your summer season is a great idea, as Cricket made followers in their winter South africa, Australia and New Zealand would be keen for watching it on tele.

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RICHMOND TIGERS

 

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Nice. If i understand correctly than Americans don't know anything about cricket, so finding investors that love the game and are willing to suffer losses for the game's development will be the key to its success.

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I can't see this working. You'd have rank amateurs playing alongside genuine stars, it would look ridiculous.

Neither do I. I just think that most americans (myself included) have no clue how the game of cricket works at all. I commend these guys for trying to get the sport going in the States, but this may be a bad investment.

 

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Yeah this is bound to end badly for them. Soccer at the very least is a very simple sport to pick up, and even then it's taken 20 years and guys with literally billions to make it work. And even then the teams are just starting to make money in the last few years. Cricket is much more nuanced and has even less exposure in the US than soccer did, even in the ESPN3/internet era. I wish them luck, but won't be shocked when they close up shop in a year or two.

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Yeah this is bound to end badly for them. Soccer at the very least is a very simple sport to pick up, and even then it's taken 20 years and guys with literally billions to make it work. And even then the teams are just starting to make money in the last few years. Cricket is much more nuanced and has even less exposure in the US than soccer did, even in the ESPN3/internet era. I wish them luck, but won't be shocked when they close up shop in a year or two.

I think it'll fail, too. At least with soccer, it has some similarities with already popular North American sports like Basketball or Hockey. Cricket is pretty unique, so it will be a bit harder to learn the intericacies of the game, which makes it hard to succeed in America, as American don't like to put any effort into doing anything.

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Plus soccer is a sport played by and beloved by millions of kids, even when there was no professional league. A pro league is a much easier sell when people already love the sport.

Not to mention that soccer's popularity is boosted by the changing demographics in the US - more Hispanics immigrating means more Americans were raised on the sport in their original countries, and they brought that love with them to the States.

I love cricket (grumble grumble not allowed in Prospect Park) but can't see a way in which this works.

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The only way cricket in the US does well is if tge large Indian-American population and Indian immigrants get behind it. To a lesser extent the Aussie/English/Caribbean population.

If they are smart they'd attempt to market it that way. The MLS learned their lesson early enough that the league survived. You can't turn on fans to a new sport easily so you have to have that base of diehards first.

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The only way cricket in the US does well is if tge large Indian-American population and Indian immigrants get behind it.

Large? Right around an even 1% of the nation's population, according to the last census.

Well I would have thought it was higher than that.

Nevermind this has no shot.

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The only way cricket in the US does well is if tge large Indian-American population and Indian immigrants get behind it.

Large? Right around an even 1% of the nation's population, according to the last census.

The only way cricket in the US does well is if tge large Indian-American population and Indian immigrants get behind it.

Large? Right around an even 1% of the nation's population, according to the last census.

Well I would have thought it was higher than that.

Nevermind this has no shot.

But populations cluster... that 1% is not spread out evenly through the country. African Americans made up 12% of the national population, but 40% of the population in my city. There are seven metro areas with at least 100,000 Indian Americans and two more with 90,000 (based on here). And there are people from other cricket-loving countries; that's just one. That being said, it seems like most minor sports leagues we see on here fail.

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The only way cricket in the US does well is if tge large Indian-American population and Indian immigrants get behind it.

Large? Right around an even 1% of the nation's population, according to the last census.

The only way cricket in the US does well is if tge large Indian-American population and Indian immigrants get behind it.

Large? Right around an even 1% of the nation's population, according to the last census.

Well I would have thought it was higher than that.

Nevermind this has no shot.

But populations cluster... that 1% is not spread out evenly through the country. African Americans made up 12% of the national population, but 40% of the population in my city. There are seven metro areas with at least 100,000 Indian Americans and two more with 90,000 (based on here). And there are people from other cricket-loving countries; that's just one. That being said, it seems like most minor sports leagues we see on here fail.

From what I gather, the closest thing the U.S. has to a cricket "hotbed" is the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area due to its large Caribbean population. In that way it's like my chosen niche sport, indoor lacrosse, whose prime territory is western New York state and southern Ontario. Everywhere else the NLL has tried to grow the game has been like throwing darts at a map of North America and seeing which ones stick. I suspect this new cricket league will have the same problem. (And yet, keep in mind that the NLL has survived for 26 seasons now.)

Another significant problem they'll have is finding suitable facilities. Neither baseball nor football (or even soccer-specific) stadia are well-suited for cricket which is played on an oval-shaped pitch that's larger than the typical field for any of those sports.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty20 Link for explanation.

They do play some games on smaller grounds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide_Oval Though ot looks big it is only 125 metres across the short side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden_Park They have to play on a weird angle here and it is only about 125 metres long and around 90 metres wide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangabandhu_National_Stadium Not used anymore but they had played twenty20 matches on a normal size Soccer field.

There are a few more i know off by hand including one in Durban South Africa and another in Ireland.

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RICHMOND TIGERS

 

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