Cricket is Finally Gaining Back Its Popularity in the United States
Cricket is now one of the most popularly played sports worldwide. However, when it comes to the most popular sports in the United States alone, basketball, baseball, football, and professional wrestling are on the top list. Cricket is still trying to make its way back in the US.
We say that it is trying to find its way back to the most popular sports in the land of the free because at some point, it actually was the most popular sports back then. It was before the Civil War when cricket was soaring in the US.
It was mainly in the 1700s when cricket had quite a following in states like Philadelphia, Hartford, Boston, and New York. During the Civil War, however, many soldiers started playing a different sport, which was baseball.
It’s simply easier for people to follow cricket matches because of live or real-time streams online. Wagering on it would add more thrill and fun. Some people now take betting seriously as they see it as a career. Sites like Cricket Prediction 365 helps these punters better their chances of winning.
Since many soldiers during that time were seen playing a lot of baseball games, people eventually saw it as a patriotic game. It didn’t take long before it overtook the popularity of cricket in the country. In fact, after the war, nobody seems to be interested in cricket anymore. It was basically non-existent after World War I.
Eventually, cricket was just really out from the list of the most popular sports in the US. It’s now known to be popular in European countries, Australia, and some parts of Asia like in India. India is a really big fan of this sport. Think of how Americans are with baseball and football games. That’s pretty much how India loves the sport.
It’s even the most popular sport in India. This is evident as the locals don’t just watch the game. You can see kids and adults play cricket on the streets. Cricket clinics are also scattered all across the country. Local punters are also all eyes on this.
It’s not like the US isn’t playing cricket at all nowadays. There was a time when the US was kicked out of the International Cricket Council due to behavior issues. However, the US is finally welcomed back by the ICC at the start of this year.
ICC’s official statement says, “The International Cricket Council today welcomed USA Cricket as its 105th Member, in what is a historical milestone for the governing body established in 2017.”
This would surely help boost the comeback of cricket in the US, but there are still other factors that could help make this happen.
One of these would be the rise of sports betting in the country. In May 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States has declared that the Professional and Amateur Sports Act of 1992 unconstitutional. This means that each state now has the power to decide whether they’d like to legalize and regulate sports betting.
Cricket is one of the popularly wagered on sports worldwide, and since more and more states are allowing sports betting, it’s possible that cricket’s popularity in the US would also be raised by this industry.
It helps that there are cricket matches that could last for up to five days. These are the five-day Tests that occur between different leagues worldwide. Such matches are something that serious punters are after.
Another thing that happened this year is that the ICC has finally announced its strategic partner with regard to developing a professional T20 tournament in the US. The American Cricket Enterprise or ACE was chosen by the ICC to help them with the developments that they need.
It is reported that the partnership between the two will allow the ICC to have over a billion dollars budget for organizing and establishing a T20 tournament in the US.
Paraag Marath, ICC’s chairman of the board, expressed his happiness with the partnership.
“This is a watershed moment for cricket in the United States and we look forward to a long-lasting, successful partnership. USA Cricket is excited to partner with ACE to launch a professional cricket league in the United States and I thank the board for their hard work and thoughtful deliberation throughout this process,” Marath said.
With these developments, it is possible that cricket will eventually get the attention of more Americans in the next few years. In fact, the ICC also sees that big cricket tournaments like the World Cricket League may even happen in the country within this decade.
