Can Cricket Break America?

Yes, they already have baseball. In fact, America has it’s own entire calendar of sports that are hardly even shared by the rest of the world, but is there room for cricket?

In my humble, and admittedly very biased opinion, cricket is a far more engaging and interesting sport than baseball, as proven by the USA’s jaw-dropping, last-gasp super-over victory against cricketing giants Pakistan in the T20 World Cup, in Dallas no less. But with baseball being so deeply engrained in the cultural makeup of the US, it’s easy to reach the conclusion that cricket has no hope of challenging it when it comes to garnering a fanbase, even with such seismic wins coming on home soil. It certainly doesn’t help that most Americans likely think cricket is the game played on broomsticks by Harry Potter and his wizard friends. Even so, there’s hope of cricket achieving success across the Atlantic, even if it doesn’t break into the country’s top tier of sports. Hosting a World Cup, and taking a massive scalp or two along the way, is an early step along that road.

The most obvious market is the expats from the more established cricketing countries and cultures, but they don’t really need much encouragement - there’s a reason Willow Cricket already exists. The key will be getting cricket into the sporting consciousness of America’s biggest sports fans. And I don’t mean the bloke who just watches his favourite NBA, NFL and NCAA teams every week and not much else. As proven by the success of The Athletic and it’s numbers-driven sports writing, there is clear market amongst Americans for statistical, some might say nerdy, sports journalism - something which cricket might as well have been custom-built for.

I’ve long thought that the parallels of statistical breakdowns, plus the obvious similarities in gameplay, between cricket and baseball gives cricket a fighting chance of achieving success in America, especially with T20 cricket. We just need to sell it as baseball, but more exciting - home runs (AKA sixes) being hit as often as outs happen in baseball, and outs (AKA wickets) only occurring about as often as home runs. With baseball followings seeming to fade in recent years, despite it traditionally being “America’s pastime,” and the main appeal becoming hotdogs and beers in the ballpark rather than the sport itself (another thing baseball shares with cricket, at least in England and Australia), a gap in the market may be opening up, especially if sports fans in the US can be convinced of the inherent excitement of T20 cricket.

Football, or soccer to be specific, has been growing in the States in recent times. It is generally viewed as a sport for women over there, given the success of the USA women’s national team, but in the last few years the MLS has grown into more and more of a serious league in the scheme of America’s biggest sporting offerings, gradually catching with MLB as interest in baseball fades, aided by the arrival of, in my opinion, the greatest to ever play the game in Lionel Messi.

If cricket can get a similar, small foothold in the American market, through Major League Cricket to begin with, then we could see a similar growth in interest. If team USA continue their incredible to start to their home T20 World Cup campaign, who knows whether that could garner some attention in mainstream sports news. We all know how deeply patriotic Americans are, but outside of their national women’s football team, and basketball in the Olympics, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for the USA to hope for significant victories in any international team sports given that all the major team sports played in the States are hardly played elsewhere. A good run in the World Cup could add another opportunity for some of that good old American-style patriotism in internationally sport.

Cricket is also gradually entering the zeitgeist as some Americans are becoming aware that cricket is in fact the second most watched sport in the world, and that Virat Kohli is one the world’s biggest stars, at least based on Instagram followers. One example that stands out to me is Garrett Clarke, of the Youtube golf channel Good Good, making multiple references to this in recent months, and suggesting that he has an interest in learning how cricket works. Such major influencers in other sports that US audiences are already engaged selling cricket to their fans with could be a big step on the road to breaking America.

The biggest step, however, could be cricket’s inclusion in the Olympics. China has long said that it will increase investment massively in its cricket infrastructure once it becomes an Olympic-sanctioned sport, and the USA will not want to risk losing out on any medals to it’s biggest rival in that competition. The ongoing cricket World Cup will build some awareness amongst a wider base of American audiences, but the Olympics is a far more recognisable brand for cricket to latch onto the coattails of in the US. Cricket may even follow a similar pattern to football (soccer), beginning as a sport played largely by women. USA Cricket may view the women’s game, which is still largely amateur except in the big three cricket nations (and even there professionalism is somewhat limited), as a major opportunity to achieve success, and an extra Olympic medal.