Pictured: President Obama learns how to defend himself if Hillary goes "Vince Foster" on him.
Posted on 04/22/2009 10:36:28 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Mumbai Indians vs New York Yankees, anyone? The oft-projected dream of big time cricket returning to the United States is being cranked up again with plans for an American Premier League (APL) on the lines of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).
If that happens, the game could even have a new celebrity fan - US President Barack Obama. On a visit to Trinidad this past weekend, Obama wielded the bat under the tutelage of the great Brian Lara, essaying a left-handed cover drive after dropping in at the stadium named after the country's national hero.
The US President, who is a southpaw, is an avid sports buff who keenly follows basketball and baseball and tunes into sports channels at every opportunity. He's also known to engage in an occasional pick-up game himself, often with a competitive edge. Tiger Woods was a guest at the White House this week.
Obama's introduction to cricket came even as an American entrepreneur unveiled plans over the weekend to launch a Twenty20 tournament in New York in October on the lines of the IPL. Promoted by Jay Mir, president and CEO of American Sports And Entertainment Group Inc, the ‘American Premier League’ will have six teams including Premium Pakistan, Premium India, Premium West Indies, Premium World and Premium America.
Seven Pakistani players - Inzamam ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir and Saqlain Mushtaq - are said to have signed up for the new league, which will be held twice a year. In fact, the proposal APL seems to be designed to rescue Pakistani cricketers from international isolation in the face of Indian clout.
Efforts by another American entrepreneur, Texan Allan Sanford, to promote a cricketing circus with West Indian and English stars to rival the Indian heft in the game went up in flames a few months back, so no one is holding his breath about APL.
But cricket has a longer history in America than in India, going even further back in the British colonial era. Historic references to cricket include games in Georgia in 1737 and in Baltimore in 1754, the same year Benjamin Franklin brought a printed copy of cricket rules of play to America, almost 100 years before the first book of baseball rules was published.
Indeed, many of America's Founding Fathers were known to be cricket aficionados. Cricket historians say there was even a reference to the game the 1776 debate in Independence Hall, when John Adams argued against the chief executive of the new country being called "President," saying "Fire brigades and cricket clubs have presidents."
In fact, the first ever international cricket match was played between the US and Canada in 1844 at the St George's Cricket Club in New York, watched by more than 10,000 spectators (Canada won by 24 runs). Some historians say the USA vs Canada cricket match is the oldest international sporting event in the modern world, predating even the Olympics by nearly 50 years.
Cricket flourished in the US in the 19th century. Founded in 1854, the Philadelphia Cricket Club godfathered the American Lawn Tennis Association in 1881 and even hosted the National Women's Tennis Championship till 1921 when it was moved to Forest Hills, New York. Similar clubs existed on the west coast, especially in the Pacific Northwest, where American colonial descendants often played against their cousins from Vancouver in Canada's British Columbia.
In fact, the game was so popular that the City of Seattle, fearing their residents were being ''Canadianized'' issued an ordinance in 1923 that explicitly forbade ''the playing of cricket in Seattle parks without the express permission of the City Council.''
But the game began to fade in America in the 20th century with the advent of baseball. It became so distant in later decades that the actor Robin Williams once sneered that ''cricket is baseball played on valium'' -- although cricket aficionados may believe the opposite.
The massive inflow of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent and the Caribbean gave another boost to the game starting in the 1980s and accelerating in the 1990s. Today, the US is teeming with cricket leagues and tournaments on the Eastern seaboard, and in Florida, Texas, California and the Pacific Northwest. A big-time splash never seems far away.
"Politics between rival factions and vast distances have stymied the game in the US," says Bunti Sarai, President of the Seattle Cricket Club, which hosts a Twenty20 league this weekend at Redmond's Marymoor Park, home ground for the Microsoft cricket team. In fact, the second cricketing nation in the world did not even make it to the ICC World Cup qualifiers round this time, while Afghanistan did.
But then even a 50-over game is seen as stretch for Americans. IPL-style Twenty20, cricket on steroids, may have a different appeal considering it is about as long as an average baseball game.
Even otherwise, it shouldn't really matter: immigrant spectators and viewership from the Indian subcontinent, Caribbean, and the antipodes alone should be enough to sustain the game. Was that umpires saying "Play"?
Pictured: President Obama learns how to defend himself if Hillary goes "Vince Foster" on him.
Makes me upset being a southpaw.
But I do feel unique in that there are very few southpaw guitar players around. So I guess I have that going for me.
Watching paint dry is more exciting than Cricket.
Actually T-20 cricket is radically different from actual Test cricket. The game is over in 2 hours in T-20, as opposed to five days, for the Test version.
Most fun is sitting in a bar somewhere and watching a Test match with the sound off and trying to figure out the rules with your friends.
Which explains why he calls Penn State the "Nittaly Lions." /sarcasm
I certainly agree with you on that. I lived in England for 18 months and found Darts and Snooker better watches.
And as for the claim Cricket is the oldest competitive sport in N. America? Lacrosse was being played long before there was a USA.
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