Embassy of the United States of America

Cricket in the USA

By Brian Murgatroyd

New Zealand’s Rob Nicol, right, bats as West Indies wicket keeper Denesh Ramdin stands behind him during a

I
Twenty20 cricket match played at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium in 2012. The Lauderhill, Florida,
f you had to guess which stadium’s cricket pitch is accredited for international cricket play by the ICC. © AP Images/Lynne Sladk
country hosted the first-ever
international cricket match,
the United States of America Since the mid-19th century, membership to the United States
might not be your first answer. cricket has slipped from being a since it was not part of the British
But it is widely recognized to mainstream sport in the United Empire.
have done just that in September States. Baseball overtook cricket
But cricket has a special place in
1844, when teams from the as the country’s summer sport
U.S. history. The game was so well
United States and Canada played of choice, thanks to baseball’s
known in the early days of the
each other at Bloomingdale Park simplicity — cricket requires a
American republic that the sec-
in Manhattan. Canada won the specially prepared pitch, among
ond U.S. president, John Adams,
two-day match by 23 runs. The other things — and the fact
registered his disapproval of so
contest is regarded as the first that America could claim it as
ordinary a title as “president” for
international cricket match and its own. It didn’t help that the
the head of state by noting that
the world’s oldest international Imperial Cricket Conference,
there are “presidents of fire com-
sporting contest. when it formed in 1909, denied
panies and cricket clubs.”

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 Cricket in the USA

Today cricket is regaining a U.S. following. There are

currently 49 leagues across the United States with
1,100 registered clubs and around 35,000 active par­
ticipants, all under the country’s governing body
for the sport, the United States of America Cricket
Association (USACA). The United States, together
with Fiji, was the first new country to be admitted
when the Imperial Cricket Conference changed its
name to the International Cricket Council (ICC) in
1965 and opened membership to non-Commonwealth
countries.
Although the United States is yet to appear in an
ICC Cricket World Cup, the sport’s elite global tour­
nament, it holds the distinction of being one of only
five countries — along with Bermuda, Canada, the
Netherlands and Papua New Guinea — to participate
in every qualifying tournament until 2014, for which
it failed to qualify. It played in another elite event,
the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004, where it lost to
New Zealand and Australia, two of the sport’s major
powers.
Women’s cricket and development of world-class
cricket venues are potential growth areas. Lauderhill,
Florida’s accredited venue for international matches
has hosted four Twenty20 Internationals, two between
New Zealand and Sri Lanka in 2010 and two more
between New Zealand and the West Indies two years
later. Twenty20 is a much shorter match format.
An 11-year-old student practices cricket skills she learned in her gym class at Maple Crest
Middle School in Kokomo, Indiana. Cricket is played in some schools and colleges across
United States of America Cricket Association Chief Executive Darren Beazley wants to the United States. © AP Images/Kokomo Tribune/Kelly Laffert
bring cricket to American youth. Courtesy of Darren Beazley

The USACA and New Zealand are among the prime

movers of a plan to develop a franchise-based
Twenty20 league in the United States. They see the
shortest form of the game — with each match lasting
just three hours — as the best way to take the game to
the masses.
USACA Chief Executive Darren Beazley said, “My
goal is to make cricket a game for all Americans.”
“The challenge is to move from amateurism to pro­
fessionalism,” he said. Given the uptick in U.S. par­
ticipation, he believes that “with a professional and
strategic approach we can become a very stable and
competitive cricketing nation.”

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 Cricket in the USA

Pakistan-born Muhammad Yousaf bowls in a club match at the Poinciana, Florida, YMCA
cricket field. Adeela Siddiqui@ powerplay photography
Beazley envisions cricket being played in schools
across the country and national teams that provide
role models for the next generations. He also wants to firm Boom Boom and that brought me into contact
promote the United States as an attractive venue for with league presidents.”
international matches.
Yousaf, now 38, is Boom Boom’s main U.S. distributor.
“One of the things I love most about our great game He is also youth coordinator for grass-roots cricket
is that it is accessible to everyone — boys, girls, all across five states in the southeast region, covering
peoples regardless of where they originally hail from, North Carolina to Puerto Rico. Four of those states
regardless of ability. There is a role for everyone.” have active leagues and there are plans to constitute
one in the state that does not: South Carolina.
MUHAMMAD YOUSAF
“I am an opening bowler and I grew up idolizing
Muhammad Yousaf’s story is typical of many who Imran Khan,” he said. Khan is the former Pakistan
play and follow cricket in the United States. Born and captain who led the country to victory in the 1992
brought up in a cricket-playing country, he moved to Cricket World Cup.
Florida to study at the University of South Florida in
1997. He earned an MBA and has been in the United “The biggest challenge is to introduce the sport to
States ever since. young white Americans who have been brought up on
baseball and American football at an early age, so that
“I come from the city of Peshawar in the north of cricket does not depend on the immigrant population
Pakistan and so cricket is in my blood,” he explains. to prosper.”
He started playing cricket in the United States in
Orlando in 2002 after completing his studies. “I also “I am very optimistic because the numbers [of players
started working for cricket equipment and clothing and clubs] are growing all the time.” He adds, “More
than half are under 15.”

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 Cricket in the USA

NADIA GRUNY
Nadia Gruny’s pathway to become one
of the United States’ leading women’s
cricketers could never be described as
straightforward.
She was named player of the tournament
in the ICC Americas Women’s Twenty20
Championship in the Cayman Islands in
April 2012, just three years after she took
up the game on a regular basis.
“I come from Trinidad and Tobago
where cricket is part of the culture,” the
28-year-old said. “I did not consider play­
ing seriously but enjoyed many casual
back-yard and street cricket games with
my brothers.”
Gruny moved to the United States to study
in 2002. She eventually started working
for IT company Oracle in California’s San
Francisco Bay Area, managing its global
employee volunteer program. In 2009 she
started playing hard-ball cricket.
“I heard the USA Cricket Association
were organizing a first women’s tourna­
ment and friends encouraged me to get
involved, even though I had never played
hard-ball cricket, just in the streets with
my brothers.
“I aligned with a men’s cricket club before
moving to California and starting at
Oracle. The guys at the club encouraged
me to get involved in the women’s cricket
movement,” she said. The first USACA
women’s tournament was well underway.
At Oracle, she said, “My manager recog­
nized my interest in cricket and encour­
aged me to start a women’s team in the
Bay Area, and I did.
“I have now become involved work­
ing with the Bay Area Women’s Sports
Initiative to try and get the sport taken up
in schools and they like the idea of that.” Nadia Gruny, originally from Trinidad and Tobago, has become one of the leading U.S.
women cricketers. Bryan Vandenburg/ICC
Gruny became the second woman in history to score
a century in U.S. women’s cricket in June 2011. She
believes the future is bright for the sport, although
there are plenty of challenges ahead.

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 Cricket in the USA

Gruny works on building American women’s inter­

est in cricket. “The key is to get schools and colleges
involved,” she said.
“There are not a large number of countries playing the
[women’s] game globally so it is quite feasible for us to
get to the top.”
Asked if she would go back to play in her native West
Indies, which reached the final of the ICC Women’s
Cricket World Cup in 2013 she said, “The West Indies
has crossed my mind,” she said. “But now my life is
in the USA.”

KEITH GILL
Keith Gill is a person who brought not only himself
but his love of cricket with him to the United States. Keith Gill channels his love of cricket into youth outreach. Courtesy of Keith Gill

“I was born in Trinidad and Tobago and migrated in

1974, and when I came here cricket was not very pop­ time passed Gill’s involvement in the sport switched
ular at all,” said the 56-year-old IT professional in the from playing to administration, and now he is a USA
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Cricket Association board member.

“The Washington Cricket League had just started

and I joined as a player. There were only about eight
to 10 teams back then, but numerically it really has Members of the Sunnyvale Cricket Club huddle during a match in El Sobrante, California.
grown in popularity and now there are 45 teams.” As The San Francisco Bay area is a center for cricket’s resurgence in the United States,
thanks to high-tech workers from cricket-loving countries. © AP Images/Noah Berger

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 Cricket in the USA

Above: The Compton Cricket Club, known as “the

Homies and the Popz,” began in 1995 to provide young
men in Compton, California — a gang-ridden suburb
of Los Angeles — an alternative to gang membership.
Now a successful American cricket team, they have
toured Britain and Australia. Here they prepare to play
another local team, the Simi Sloggers, in Los Angeles.
Both clubs are members of the Los Angeles Cricket
Social Alliance cricket league, which boasts eight teams.
Cricket’s code of conduct and civility offers a positive
model for street kids. ©AP Images/David McNew
Left: Scoreboard at a cricket match between the
Compton Cricket Club and the Simi Sloggers. ©AP
Images/David McNew

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 Cricket in the USA

Based in Brandywine, Maryland, near Washington, “In the past these events were strictly available on a
he has thrown himself into grass-roots organization, pay-per-view basis on a limited distribution,” he said.
helping to set up an indoor cricket facility. He hopes “Now ICC events are available to more than 85 mil­
to reach children through summer camps. “Right now lion US households [and] viewer feedback has been
it is the Indian and Pakistani communities that are tremendous.”
most heavily involved.” The challenge, he said, “is to
Myers, who lives in Connecticut, where ESPN’s offices
get native youngsters engaged.”
are based, admits he is a late convert to the sport. “I
Gill’s love is test cricket, the longest form of the game had very limited knowledge of cricket before taking
that can last up to five days, but he accepts the way to the reins to strategically guide ESPN’s U.S. live cricket
get the current younger generation involved is through strategy,” he said.
short-form games. “Our main focus is to introduce
“I have become a fan and continue to learn more each
Twenty20 cricket to youngsters.”
and every day. The strategy involved and the incred­
ible athleticism the players exhibit makes it easy to
TODD MYERS quickly become a fan of the sport.” Myers has even
In the development of cricket as a mainstream sport started playing cricket himself.
within the United States, U.S.-born Todd Myers has a
He is in no doubt there is room for significant growth
pivotal role. The 40-year-old works as director of pro­
in the popularity of U.S. cricket. “The squad needs
gramming and acquisitions for ESPN Inc., the broad­
to be a regular contender,” he said. “There is no rea­
caster that has the rights to show major cricket events
son why Team USA cannot compete with squads from
such as the International Cricket Council World
Championships and the Champions League World
Twenty20 through 2015.
ESPN’s Todd Myers, center left, next to former India cricket captain Anil Kumble on a
float promoting ESPN3 coverage of the autumn 2012 ICC World Twenty20 tournament at
the India Day Parade in New York City, August 2012. ESPN/Peter Della Penna

Caption below 1 of 2 columns photo [Shift+7]

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 Cricket in the USA

Haverford College, near Philadelphia, has one of the oldest U.S.

Ireland and Afghanistan.” He would like to college cricket teams. It played the first U.S. collegiate varsity match
see a future ICC World Twenty20 tournament in 1864 against the University of Pennsylvania and has fielded its
in the United States. eleven ever since. Today’s team is enriched by players from all over
“No doubt there are some logistical hurdles,” the cricket-loving world, some of them women.
but FIFA bringing the World Cup to the Alisa Strayer (above), class of 2013, bowls while another player watches
United States in 1994 “sparked soccer in the during alumni matches at Haverford’s Cope Field in April 2012.
U.S.,” he said. Cricket has the same potential, Head coach Kamran Khan, who played for the U.S. national cricket
“especially if Team USA makes the tourna­ team from 1972 to 1992 and was its captain for 10 years says, “Cricket
ment field.” has grown so tremendously it is unbelievable.” A businessman who
gets satisfaction from working with young people, Khan has coached
at Haverford for decades.
Brian Murgatroyd has worked within cricket as a “We have more American-born on the team than overseas players —
writer, broadcaster and administrator for more than
at least 50 -50. Some students come to Haverford just because they
20 years. He spent three years as media manager
can play cricket,” he says.
for the England and Wales Cricket Board, four years
doing the same for the Australian Cricket Board Women’s skills match men’s on this co-ed team. “Alysa was best
and for another four years he headed media and bowler last year, she took the most wickets, and this year I think she is
communications for the International Cricket Council, very close, she has performed very well.”
the sport’s global governing body. He is based in Haverford is the only U.S. varsity-level team. They play intercollegiate
Dubai in the UAE. matches against club teams from other colleges. The team has toured
the U.K. twice in recent years, doing well against established teams in
England and Scotland, including Oxford and Cambridge.

U N I T E D S TAT E S D E PA R T M E N T O F S TAT E
May 2013 B U R E A U O F I N T E R N AT I O N A L I N F O R M AT I O N P R O G R A M S

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