How to Develop Cricket in the USA

Discussion in 'Cricket' started by Master O, Jun 30, 2013.

  1. Master O

    Master O Member+

    Jul 7, 2006
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    How should the US go about doing it? Following something like MLS's model?

    I doubt this'll get an answer, since no one posts here anyway...
     
  2. guignol

    guignol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 28, 2005
    mermoz-les-boss
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    never happen; there's just no need for the sport except on a leisure level. and i've played the game and like it.
     
  3. Master O

    Master O Member+

    Jul 7, 2006
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I suppose by that rationale, there's no need for soccer in the USA, either....

    :D:D:D
     
  4. guignol

    guignol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 28, 2005
    mermoz-les-boss
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    there's a slight difference between the two sports in the absolute. soccer, while a minor discipline in the US, is after all the biggest sport on the planet, and not by a little. simple osmosis meant the sport had to catch on to some extent... and though i was long a doubter i'm forced to admit that it's doing very well now.

    cricket however is really practiced in only a handful of countries, all of them former parts of the empire. elsewhere it barely exists, and then only thanks to british, anzac and south asian expats.

    let's look at the case of cricket in france (not to be confused with french cricket). first of all france is a very sports-minded country which has always embraced games coming from elsewhere, not only soccer and rugby but also judo, ice hockey, baseball, sumo... and cricket; in fact the game was already played here in the 18th century, and there has been a continuous practice of the sport ever since the 1900 olympics.

    there are reasons today why why france can be considered a prime candidate for expanding the sport. every french child has played a game called theque at school; it's closer to rounders but is almost always played these days with a cricket bat (instead of the traditional rounders-style bat) because it's easier to make contact. and there are lots of english ex-pats here and french ex-pats in england that provide a means of transmission for the game to catch on.

    the results? the only functioning leagues are in paris and in dordogneshire, and are made up of 99% brits and south asians; even these struggle to make their schedule work and lots of matches are either forfeited or don't even go to 20 overs. outside of those two areas there are some clubs but they mostly just get tegether to knock balls around and when they have a match planned it's alays a mad search to make up the numbers with anyone who has ever played cricket or even baseball; that's how i got shanghaied into playing a couple of times here (i've also picked up a bat in the states and in israel under the same circumstances).

    some numbers? the Association Française de Cricket actually falls under the bailiwick of the french baseball association, and has between 600 and 800 registered players; there are 10,000 for baseball and even so most french people would tell you they know what baseball is but that it's not played at all in france. ice hockey by comparison has 20,000 licenciés, basketball a half a million, and all of these are considered minor sports. cricket is probably closer to sumo in popularity.

    i absolutely understand people's love of cricket; it's a fine game. but it is and will remain, outside those places where it's already a mainstay, a casual, confidential, leisure sport. to that veddy british question "indian or china?" the world has answered...

    "coffee".
     
  5. Caesar

    Caesar Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 3, 2004
    Oztraya
    It is hard to get traction in countries where it is not already established, primarily because it is very difficult to learn and requires a large, specially constructed playing surface.

    I would also suggest that it is also one of the most culturally-rooted games in the world. As a spectator sport it is hard to appreciate it unless you have grown up with it, and usually played it at some point. If you love the game you can sit through 2 hours where very little is actually happening, but find it entrancing on a technical level.

    In a lot of ways, the cultural attachment to cricket in Commonwealth countries is similar to the attachment of Americans to baseball. Both are games that are very technical and, to the unfamiliar watcher, quite boring for long stretches of the time.

    But I would say that cricket is even more difficult for the unschooled to appreciate than baseball. My foreign friends are incredulous at the idea that anybody could be interested in a game that goes for five days and almost half the time finishes in a draw. It is, in a lot of ways, a completely different way of looking at sport than most people are familiar with.
     
    guignol repped this.
  6. guignol

    guignol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 28, 2005
    mermoz-les-boss
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    well, for better or probably for worse it seems even most cricket fans have given up on games that go on five days, it's all limited overs these days innit? a pity because that different way of looking at sport is what gives both baseball and cricket their charm.

    and the facemasks, colored uniforms, sponsors and hoardings... that's not cricket!
     
  7. msilverstein47

    msilverstein47 Member+

    Jan 11, 1999
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

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