The T20 World Cup will spread much-needed awareness about cricket in the US, but eventually it is the lure of competing in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics that will draw local Americans to the game that is mostly played by expats, the president believes of USA Cricket, Venu Pisike. . The USA co-hosts the event alongside the West Indies and the USA team will also make their World Cup debut when they face neighbors Canada in the tournament opener on June 1.
The team is mainly made up of semi-professional cricketers of South Asian heritage, with former New Zealand star Corey Anderson also switching allegiance to his adopted homeland of the USA. Former Indian first-class cricketer Milind Kumar and former India under-19 player Harmeet Singh are also part of the team.
Speaking to PTI, Pisike agreed that it is a big challenge to take cricket to the masses in the US.
“Until now, cricket is predominantly an expatriate game, but with the marketing and promotional activities during the World Cup, there is some momentum and the World Cup will certainly increase opportunities for expanding the game in the US,” said Pisike.
“Definitely the World Cup is bringing a lot of awareness and then the opportunity for cricket to be in the Olympics, which will certainly attract the community because the US is a big sporting country.
“The Olympics is the main area where all the sporting bodies are focusing as cricket goes to the Olympics, which will actually give more opportunities for the sport to expand between the World Cup and the Olympics.”
New York will be ready in a week
The World Cup will be played at three venues in the US, but the venue under surveillance is New York, where India and Pakistan face each other on June 9.
India will also face Ireland and USA in the 34,000-capacity makeshift stadium at Eisenhower Park. The drop-in pitches were imported from Australia.
The stadium will be ready within a few weeks, Pisike said.
“So the new stadium being built in New York will open within a week. It will be a marvel of cricket infrastructure to be installed in a very short time,” he said, referring to work that only began in January.
“The pitches were recently brought in and thrown at the stadium. So we expect decent pitches in terms of balance between bat and ball.”
Looking at long-term collaboration with BCCI after the World Cup
The USA has not trained in India with the World Cup being held at home, but Pisiki is seeking help from the BCCI for training and exposure of its players after the mega event.
“Yes, definitely (we are in talks with the BCCI). In the past, we have sent our men’s team to Karnataka before they participate in the CWC qualifiers in 2022. And there has been some alliance with the associations, Tamil Nadu Cricket Association and Andhra Cricket Association to send our boys under-19 teams before the World Cup, which will be held in Sri Lanka.
“There are a number of discussions going on with the various cricket associations and we definitely want to partner and use the resources available. And that’s something we definitely look at in the future.” The BCCI recently made it clear that associated nations cannot directly contact state units and all requests must be routed through the controlling entity.
Stable governance is a challenge, but we are now compliant
The previous US cricket body was suspended by the ICC due to governance issues and the current regime was recognized in 2019. Pisike acknowledged the challenges on that front.
“Governance will be simplified with the opportunity to become an Olympic National Governing Body because the US Olympics requires certain guidelines to be followed and certain policies to be adopted.
“In terms of financial management and other related activities, we are in full compliance with the previous regime”, he added.
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