AMONG cricket’s many quirks is the fact that its first international contest was between two countries, America and Canada, that now hardly play the game. Held in New York over three days in September 1844, the match drew up to 20,000 spectators, wagers of over $100,000 and, though the Canadians won by 23 runs, helped Americanise what had hitherto been considered a preserve of toffee-nosed British expatriates. Within a year, reported the Herald newspaper, cricket was “fast progressing throughout the land—in every city, town and hamlet are clubs formed”.
A few things, chiefly baseball, have impeded that progress; America’s national side, currently ranked 25th in the world, one place below Singapore, has not qualified for a major tournament in a decade. So a three-match veterans tour of New York, Houston and Los Angeles this month by some of the game’s biggest stars, including its captains, Shane Warne, a brilliant Australian, and Sachin Tendulkar, the most revered living Indian, was a timely effort to regain influence.
The games, which drew a combined crowd of over 60,000 to three famous baseball venues, Citi Field, Minute Maid Park and Dodger Stadium, were equally a tribute to the influence American sports have had on cricket. They were played using the game’s shortest format, T20, a made-for-television hit-athon,...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/1R8BrMC
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