Inzamam-ul-Haq and up to seven disaffected members of the Lahore Badshahs ICL franchise are in discussions with an American entrepreneur who hopes to establish an international Twenty20 tournament in New York City.
Is this designed to promote cricket to the non-expat (and non-first-generation) community? Basing the teams on their national origins might well draw in the expats, but the Aussies and English won't show up to see the retired Indians take on the retired Pakistanis and vice versa. And the Americans just won't show up.
October is baseball playoff season, and both New York teams stand good chances of being involved. That's some stiff competition for an obscure foreign game.
As a money maker, I have my doubts about it. Unless the quality of play is truly amazing, the cricketing population of New York will prefer to watch the national teams play on satelite, and keep going to the park on the weekend. There will be some curiosity at first (I'll go to the first game if this actually comes about), but even the India-Pakistan games will ring hollow after a very short while.
I would love nothing more than to see cricket take off in New York, and the States as a whole, but this won't do it.
Posted by: timmyj at March 27, 2009 5:49 PM
This sounds just like the failed USA 20/20 league they tried in 2004. They're even gonna
play on the same ground. Desi cricket hustlers
are dime a dozen here in the states and this is just the
latest crazy scheme. We can only hope that one of
these days we'll get some real, bona fide, 2020
cricket here in the states put together my
a reputable, professional, financially sound,
organization that knows what they're doing. But
since the Stanford fiasco this hope is fast fading.
Posted by: Rich B at March 28, 2009 7:23 PM
It can't be too bad if Inzamam is going to be involved - probably similar in composition to the one in Fort Lauderdale a while ago.
True, most players will probably be over the hill but you won't get any genuine international cricket until team USA climb the ladder a bit more. I reckon a tournament like the recent one in Toronto might be the next step.
Posted by: Xerol at March 31, 2009 4:09 PM
If this goes through I can see myself taking the trip up from Baltimore. The best way to get Americans involved is to make it accessible to many people, and even if baseball is going on it can be competitive with reasonable ticket prices and good scheduling.
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