CWI HAS NOW GIVEN UP THE AMERICAN MARKET

Right under our nose, NZ cricket, like the BCCI are the boards that will influence and perhaps run cricket in America. It use to be the domain of WICBC








NZ CRICKET ADMINISTRATION- CRICKETERS ARE PARTNERS, NO PLANTATION SYSTEM

Good. Put out the fire in your own house before tackling your neighbour's

In reply to Emir

i dont think cricket in america has that much of a future. and i know it has no future with regards to the wet indies. Guyanese and Trinis will support wi cricket if its played in florida, nyc etc. but that number is limited and decreasing as the struggles of the WI continue apace. SA, india and NZ have a better chance. one of the not widely known features of nz is that new zealand has a serious youth unemployment problem, and many young people are leaving the country. SA ditto. and there has always been a sizeable indian/sub continental population in the states. fact is those groups will not be motivated to support tkr, or gaw or any other WI franchise or team. if cricket had blown up 35 or 40 years ago, maybe but not now

In reply to Jumpstart

If MLS is struggling in the North American market then cricket has very little chance.

The big 4 (NBA, MLB, NFL and NHL) dominate the North American sporting landscape. Those four leagues have support from all demographics and don't rely on expats or immigrants for their survival or popularity.

The only silver lining for MLS, women's professional leagues, and eventually cricket will be the sports betting market which has grown exponentially in the past few years.

In reply to Jumpstart

Agree for the most part as USA cricket always seem to self destruct even when given
support from other countries and the ICC too.
But all is not lost. Maybe their last chance for a significant future is hosting the
Olympics which will be represented by the 6 best International teams.
The wish is that it will be a huge success that will translate into acceptance of the game
by American boys and girls leading to some High Schools /Colleges embracing it and
having programs.
It is a steep hill to climb. But if anyone can do it will be the Indian/Asian expertise
as they are the groups that have been keeping the game alive in the entire
United States.
West Indian participation in Leagues has been down significantly as the youngsters
are not really engaged and the older generation that were at the forefront in
places like New York and Philadelphia ,are gone and they unlike the Asian Countries
were not able to entice their children to take up the sport.
Very few of Caribbean are in the mix on most USA teams nowadays too. And that
is not a good sign.
When you visit Club games, the entire Indian family is there and even little ones with
toy bats have their own little action ,even if only to twiddle their bats.
I still have hope that the game will make progress but cannot be too optimistic.
Similar to the Caribbean, the game has to built from ground level and grow to
keep the youngsters for sustainability.
Not very easy with so much distractions and interests that youngsters are
gravitating to. It's tough but to quote Jesse Jackson ' Keep hope alive'

In reply to hubert

Some excellent points.

Cricket has been very popular in the expat/immigrant/diaspora communities for a long time in Canada and the US.

The problem I saw when I was involved in Canadian cricket was the national team hardly ever picked players who were born in Canada and learned the game in here or were immigrants but still learned the game here in our system.

The Canadian selectors almost always chose to select players who played international or first class cricket for other countries and were recent immigrants to Canada. This selection strategy discouraged a lot of young Canadians who basically knew that even if they played well in our domestic tournament they would get overlooked for some has-been who played a few Ranji trophy games in India.

So I agree with you that cricket has to take root in schools and universities and become part of the sporting culture for everyone (not just children of immigrants) if it is to stand a chance at the North American market.

In reply to SnoopDog


yeah.

exactly

Once there is betting MLC will survive.

In reply to natty_forever


Never thought of that ,Right angle.

The MLS is gaining on the big four other leagues, it might overtake the hockey league eventually as more people play the sport in high schools and colleges than play hockey. Cricket needs to be exposed to more people in the interior of America to gain interest.

In reply to hubert

I believe that in the rural areas of the Caribbean, cricket will always be the next big thing, albeit soccer is gaining momentum.

Cricket is a tradition among country folks!

In reply to Jumpstart

The reason why the USA is arguably the biggest market for cricket growth in the future is the large and growing number of fans. Take these stats:
More people follow cricket in the USA than the entire WI territories combined.
More people follow cricket in the USA than the entire NZ population combined.
American cricket fans have much deeper pockets than fans from almost all the countries combined.
More and more American cricket players will be born and bred in the USA (Euro Americans are not the only Americans you know)
Proper infrastructure spending is approaching the billion mark in the next 10 years as many states are getting involved.
Grass root cricket is taking deep shape and many Americans whose ancestry are not from so called cricketing nations are getting excited about this sport. Elementary school cricket is happening in 19 states already.

You cannot measure success against the MLB, NFL NBA etc. These leagues took 100 years plus in the making. Remember just 60 years ago, cricket occupied side by side headline in the NY Times.

And one more thing, cricket success may not have anything to do with the USA cricket body, as private enterprise, rich foreign investors and very bright people in mega corporations such as Microsoft, Google and others are involved.

In reply to XDFIX

It was always like that and still is. There was no football where I grew up. Only cricket.
Got involved with football only when we relocated to Kingston and at Elementary school
at that. The game is still alive in most rural areas but played at a level that
does not garner an inch of publicity.
But like all things the the level of participation has dropped and football is now
everywhere and offers more;not the least,fun,,costs ,enjoyment and in less time.

....

It raises the question of what CWI has continuously excelled at over the past thirty years.

This is therefore not surprising. CWI lacks marketing the game in the Caribbean

In Houston we have 3 indoor facilities for training that are always occupied. Over 30 pitches including turf. Cricket is huge in Texas. It will only continue to grow bigger than it already is around the USA. It may not have mainstream popularity like baseball or football but it will thrive as more investors pump money into the market. Major League Rugby and Lacrosse all co-exist successfully with a niche fan base. Importing players is not the solution, develop homegrown talent and the people will come.

The Oakland baseball stadium is being converted to a cricket stadium. In years to come, I predict the USA mens team will be the strongest team in the Western Hemisphere surpassing the West Indies if we don't get our act together. They have more and better training facilities already.

In reply to WIForever
rubbisH. the wt20 matches were poorly attended for games not including india. four days before the tournament started, the organizers were offering discounted tickets(25% discounts which is unusual) and virtually begging people to come to the games. if you had a lacrosse world series in texas, there would be better attendance for that than cricket. The entire affair is subsidized by indian nationals(professional and otherwise) who are cricket fanatics. of india, no other team. You can argue that these people may have children who might become cricketers. I would not bet on that. Indians and West Indians have been migrating to the US for decades and cricket still has made virtually no impact on the American market. Its the 6th most popular sport in a six sport market. What is is a cash cow for potential shadiness. The ICC demanded an explanation why USA cricket needed 20 million more dollars after budgeting 45 million dollars to them.


there is no base for cricket in the united states. And there is no team that is universally popular to market the sport in the USA. India is worshipped in india and largely loathed everywhere else. Australia, which is probably pound for pound the best red ball unit is loathed by everybody, including some Australians for poor sportsmanship. England does not even enter the conversation. The best chance cricket had in the USA was with two absolutely iconic sides, WI and Pakistan with iconic players....and even then, there still wasn't a base for the sport. Even football, where every Brazil side from 1970 to 1982 was marketed to the USA as the team to follow made little impact.