If that’s the case, then it would seem to have “caught on” in the U.S., in the same way that other more niche sports, with either ethnic or regional appeals, have caught on. I’d suspect it’s on a par with sports like lacrosse, rugby, women’s fast-pitch softball, disc golf, etc.: there are certainly people who enjoy playing them, and watching them, and there are certainly professional as well as amateur and high school teams.
If the OP’s question is, “can cricket catch on enough to have that sort of level of niche or regional appeal,” it sounds like it may already be there. If the question is, “can it be as popular as the big four sports in the U.S.,” then it is going to be a very long time, if ever, for it to do so – see soccer, which has had its proponents and fans predicting that it’ll be the next major U.S. sport for as long as I can remember.
…nobody said anything about sports that “export well.” Again: we are talking about sports that “expanded beyond their borders.”
And I haven’t changed my position on that. I do think that soccer is on its own here. However, if you think that “baseball and basketball” also are examples of sports that have expanded beyond their borders…then you have to include cricket on that list as well.
It doesn’t sound quite as catchy, nothing like the unlikelihood of a first baseman named Who. Still must be appealing to the global audience of Cricket enthusiasts.
For those interested, here’s the Wiki page for the team in the OP:
For what it’s worth regarding popularity in the US, looks like there are 3 members of the US national team there and the rest of the team are foreigners imported to play. Of the 3 US team members, one is South African (not clear if he holds US citizenship or some kind of permanent resident), one is Australian but holds dual citizenship through parents, and one is of South Asian descent.
Looks like the league itself is the latest attempt to develop professional cricket in the US and the ownership of each team is predominantly South Asian and solely so for most of the teams.
For what it’s worth they seem to have sold out a 7000 seat stadium near Dallas for all six games over the last weekend and all the future games are sold out too. Though the games in the Raleigh NC area are in a much smaller stadium.
I’m sure the audience was largely from the South Asian American and Caribbean American communities.
I’ve been impressed with number of headline players, many who feature in the top T20 leagues in the world. Sure, these rosters are not as deep as an IPL or Big Bash team, but the top 6 - 10 players are household names:
One of my nephews (born in the USA of South Asian immigrants) wanted me to teach him the basics of cricket. He’s a huge baseball fan and has played little league and “seniors” (whatever the heck that is).
Anyway, after about an hour of instruction using a tennis ball and a cheap kit, he unfortunately concluded that he agreed with our Jas09 here that baseball is just a superior sport, and proceeded to go on and on about the complexity and subtleties of the game. Of course he has mastered cricket in about an hour, so his could you argue with him?
I started the session pleased that the next generation was showing an interest. I ended it thinking cricket is never going to make it.
You could conceivably have a lineup of Hu, Watt, Nguyen, Weir, and Howe. That is, those are all real names - I don’t know if there are actually ballplayers by those names.
If they can regularly fill 7,000 seats from those demographics then the sport could well become viable in the US without converting a single baseball fan.
But if power baseball is now the singular way to team success, fan rapture and riches, then surely the possibility of having the same batter hit six home runs off six consecutive pitches like say Kieran Pollard below for the West Indies, must be attractive to some.
I’m not sure why they chose 2 relatively remote locations to host the inaugural league. Makes no sense. Why associate teams with LA, NYC, SF, etc. and not lease out fields in those regions? I get that there are costs to getting access to fields long enough to prepare proper wickets, but if you’re gonna try, you have to go all-in. With the star power they assembled, I would easily pay $100 per game to watch a couple of games at least, if they were within 100 miles of the NYC area. I just don’t have the time to drive 10 hours to North Carolina.
ETA: with the huge South Asian and Caribbean populations in the major US cities, cricket in the US could be way bigger than this version of Major League cricket. It seems like they half-assed it. And with a bigger mindset (investment, sponsorship and salaries), it could even attract Indian and Pakistani players that would add a whole new level,not possible in the IPL and PSL now.
Having been unavoidably exposed to baseball for nearly my entire life, I am thoroughly convinced that the weight of decades upon decades of tradition is the sole reason a game so royally bizarre is accepted as legitimate.
Cricket, with no such advantage, absolutely doesn’t have a prayer. Just the shape of the field is going to make this a non-starter, never mind quirks like players having to call their own outs or the weirdo bowling motion. I’m sorry, but there are certain things Americans just don’t go for. Heck, I’m surprised soccer gets the kind of hype it does.
