Beyond the Test World

Leave Americans to baseball

In an excellent (well, we would say that!) article, Cricinfo editor Sambit Bal has written about the claims that hosting ODIs in the USA will help promote the game there:

In an excellent (well, we would say that!) article, Cricinfo editor Sambit Bal has written about the claims that hosting ODIs in the USA will help promote the game there:
"Both the ICC and the West Indies Cricket Board have made pious-sounding statements about matches in the USA and Canada helping the spread of the game, and it is simply a false promise.
"A few years ago, when Jagmohan Dalmiya was taking cricket far and wide, I had felt a genuine surge of excitement. It was novel watching cricket matches in Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada. Some grounds were oddly shaped, the matches were thinly attended, and there were hardly any locals. But I supported the expansionist zeal, and hoped that cricket would catch on. I was naïve, and wrong."

Martin Williamson is executive editor of ESPNcricinfo and managing editor of ESPN Digital Media in Europe, the Middle East and Africa