Surprise! Surprise! When all the eyes were on the seriousness with which China is internally trying to get cricket going in their country with the help of PCB, silently the Americans are not far behind from the Germans (whoa) in getting a foothold into the cricket fraternity.
Apparently 12 teams including Germany, Mozambique, Nepal, Norway, Vanuatu, Afghanistan, Bahamas, Botswana, Japan, Jersey and Singapore are all going to battle it out in the ICC world league division.
The weirdest thing about this was that the American cricket association, was actually banned for a couple of years for some strange internal political reasons which you come to expect from any sports federation organization, be it the ICC or FIFA. In the recent ICC meet, their suspension was lifted.
What is positive from the Americans is that from the usual takes of baseball, many of their public schools have introduced cricket. As you would come to expect, there would be significantly large numbers of their immigrant citizens from India, Pakistan, Malaysia, South Africa and the West Indies.
On a general note, perhaps with their love for baseball and the similarities of the two sports, it shouldn’t actually be too difficult a proposition for them to make inroads into the cricketing world. One thing I assume will be good from them would be the fielding if they take a leaf out of baseball like what the Australians do.
The other country getting into cricket which basically stunned me is Vanuatu! I plead my ignorance and my curiosity chased me into their association site.
Here is a pic on the boys from Vanuatu learning cricket! From all the bickering and whiplashes happening in world cricket, there is light after all at the end of the tunnel.
be prepared for uncle sam invading cricket too…
I think it will be good for Cricket as Americans and Chinese both take every sport seriously, and America will attract a lot of players from overseas just like what they did in Soccer.
uncle sam… there sure will be some gizmos invented to help them… puzzles me though on why they were suspended.
Welcome Wasim… do you mean players from other countries playing for America or for their league.
USA, China, Germany…it’s going to be a complete chaos. China won’t allow anyone a peak in their net session, where bowlers would be practising their bewitching bowling action, like the hidden service in Table Tennis. I hope USA doesn’t decide to bomb Afghanistan (they r also in the fray) if they lose a match….whatever, it’s going to be an interesting scenario
Welcome Som… you may be right… they may bomb countries for winning against them. But they have a natural mascot in bush dancing silly to african beats.
…adding to that…
if any other country find real pace prospects…they will bomb them again for hiding ‘weapon of mass destruction’
scorpi, the us, eh? can see all them 7 footers from the windies signing up.
on a serious note, at least the cheerleaders will be in good hands.
let’s see how it all pans out… cheers SP
Absolutely NC… the best cheerleaders may be in the offering… On the team, it is led by a west Indian. There are quite a few there.
Dude what is the ICC rule on number of non-citizens in the playing eleven? Wasnt there a rule which turned UAE from heroes to zeroes. If not, the americans could definitely entice some good players. Would be interesting to see the Americans following and the Indians (read BCCI) calling the shots for once
Scorpi, adding you in my blogroll. Mind adding mine?
Avnish… the rule as I remember it is a maximum of 2 players to represent a country after residing for 4 years in that country. I do not know if it has been revised over the years. This rule is potentially silly because if there is a case of an Indian or Pakistani student who studies there for 3 years and works for 1 year, he becomes eligible to play, even though he is not a citizen.
Teams like the US and Norway mostly comprise of the immigrants with little or no local lads. So there is an argument that cricket is actually not spreading as one would believe. The only positive is the hope that it rubs on to the locals when some media attention comes through with maybe a couple of big wins… cheers
Cheers som… have added you
An American friend of Indian origin who has been a cricket enthusiast for four decades at least, and residing in America for the past three decades, was telling me that the American cricket association scene was bad. Every time I broached the topic, he has been pessimistic about various factions coming together and has even been dismissive.
It is said, Stanford is eyeing that market with an intention of consolidating it under himself.
Soulberry… apparently your friend is right as they were banned for these stupid political infighting by these factions. Stanford eying the US market is interesting. maybe he has plans to start an independent all-american league.