In “Psmith Journalist”, written by P.G. Wodehouse in 1914,
part of the context of the story is that Psmith has accompanied his friend Mike Jackson on a visit to America…
and Mike as come as part of an exhibition cricket team, touring through…the “cricket playing section” of the U.S!
Anyone know more about this? Did Americans used to play
more cricket?
Go to any seach engine and you get a lot of results like this:
http://www.usaca.org/home.html
http://www.uscf.org/
http://www-aus.cricket.org/link_to_database/NATIONAL/ICC_MEMBERS/USA/
http://cricket.about.com/sports/cricket/library/weekly/aa022800.htm
The last one offers a comprehensive history.
“Used to” is not the right term. Americans still do play cricket. Just not a lot of them.
The reverse can be said of the UK. Baseball is played over there, but not by many people.
According to a news story I’ve seen lately, the quality and quantity of cricket in the U.S. is increasing (although it’s all still on the amateur level). This interest in cricket is fueled mostly by immigrants. Not immigrants from the U.K., but from other cricket-playing countries like India, Pakistan, and the West Indies.
There aren’t a lot of second generation cricket players in the US. However, there are always enough immigrants from cricket-playing countries to keep some level of interest in the sport on this side of the pond.
Cricket was big among the British actors who came to Hollywood in the 1930s.
According to tradition, the first tennis match played in the U.S. took place at The Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club in 1874.
bibliophage:
Uh, the first tennis match?
Yes, the first tennis match. I intended the post as an illustration of the fact that cricket was so popular in the U.S. that there were such things as Cricket Clubs here. The game of cricket was played in the U.S. much earlier than 1874.