United States cricket team
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Cricket in the USA
Cricket was established in the USA in the eighteenth century. George Washington was an avid follower of the sport. Indeed, John Adams even stated in the U.S. Congress in the 1780s that if leaders of cricket clubs could be called "presidents,"there was no reason why the leader of the new nation could not be called the same.
The USA played the first ever international cricket match against Canada in 1844 at the St George Cricket Club Ground, Bloomingdale Park, New York. This was also the first international sporting event [link] and therefore began the longest international sporting rivalry in the modern era [(USA vs Canada: 1844: scorecard)].
Decline
If modern cricket is dated from the 1780s, when the Laws of Cricket were first formalized in England, North America would have to be considered a major participant in the world cricket scene for two-thirds of the time that modern cricket has been around. However, the USA did not develop into a modern cricket-playing nation with baseball taking prominence during the nineteenth century.
One reason for this decline may be that in the late 1800s American cricket remained an amateur elite sport at the same time that England, then Australia, were developing a professional version of the game. As cricket standards improved with professionalism elsewhere in the world many North American cricket clubs stayed stubbornly elitist. Many abandoned cricket and converted their facilities to recreations like golf and tennis. Some city cricket clubs, viewing the emerging game of baseball as an auxiliary entertainment, sponsored the first baseball teams. After 1900, baseball had taken over the American scene, created its independent mythology, and cricket was marginalized as a summer sport.
The eclipse of American cricket was also abetted by developments in the then British Empire. The Imperial Cricket Conference (predecessor to the International Cricket Council), formed in 1909 to coordinate the worldwide development of the sport, specifically excluded countries from outside the British Empire from having any significant influence. This exclusionary policy certainly undercut any momentum to professionalize cricket in the USA, although whether the momentum would have developed even in the presence of a more open ICC remains a question. [link]
Philadelphian cricket and J. Barton King
Nonetheless, Philadelphia remained a relative stronghold of cricket until World War One, producing cricketers more than able to hold their own with the best of them from England and Australia. Foremost amongst these was J. Barton "Bart" King, regarded as one of the greatest cricketers never to play at Test level, failing to do so only through want of opportunity. King was renowned in particular for his swing bowling, reaching the zenith of his career on the Philadelphians' 1908 tour of England, which resulted in him topping that season's English first-class bowling averages, his return of just 11.01 for each of his 115 wickets being the best genuine figure in an English season in the entire first half of the twentieth century.
King took all 10 wickets in an innings on three occasions and he took 9 or more in an innings no less than eight times. He followed up his "tenfer" against the Gentlemen of Ireland in 1909 with a hat-trick in the second innings.
In 1897, King took 7 for 13 against a full-strength Sussex side, which included the great "Ranji", aka K.S. Ranjitsinhji, whom King bowled first ball.
In his last two international matches, against the 1912 Australians, King, now nearly 40 years old, took 9 for 78 and 8 for 74.
Though King is most famed for his bowling, he was also a talented batsman. On a 1903 tour of England, he scored 133 not out and 98 in a match against Surrey. He ranks as one of the finest - and sadly the most overlooked - all-rounders to grace the game. In first class matches, he scored 2,623 runs with a highest score of 344 and he took 529 wickets at an average of 12.48.
Present Day
Cricket then continued as a minor pastime maintained by occasional bursts of amateur enthusiasm. For example, the founding in 1932 of the Hollywood Cricket Club, whose leading lights included former England cricket captain turned Hollywood actor, C. Aubrey Smith. A more sustained resurgence in popularity was seen in the 1970s as immigrants from the West Indies and the Indian subcontinent played the sport. The main areas where cricket is now played are in New York, California around Los Angeles and San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Florida, though it is played in all fifty states.
Cricket in the USA developed even more by 2004, with them participating in the first ICC Intercontinental Cup, which saw them play first class cricket against Canada and Bermuda; and with it winning the ICC Six Nations Challenge, albeit on the most narrow of margins - beating Scotland, Namibia, the Netherlands and the UAE on net run rate by 0.028 of a run.
A professional league known as Pro Cricket was started in 2004, playing 20-over-a-side games with five-ball overs (i.e. 100 balls per innings). This did not enjoy the support of the USA Cricket Association that is recognised by the ICC.
Winning the ICC Six Nations meant that they qualified for the ICC Champions Trophy 2004 in England. Here the USA played their first ever one-day international match against New Zealand at The Oval on 10 September 2004. Although the USA won the toss it was all downhill from there, the side being completely shown up by the New Zealanders, with several records broken, and subsequently also by Australia, the world champions. While some frailties were obvious, a more fundamental problem was the average age of the team - over thirty-five. This boded ill for success in the near future, as was shortly to be demonstrated.
The 2005 ICC Trophy represented a chance for the USA to re-establish themselves on the world stage and qualify for the 2007 World Cup. However, a disastrous campaign saw them finish bottom of their group, with four losses and a shutout from their five group matches. This failure robbed the USA of the prize of full One-Day International status on offer to the World Cup qualifiers.
On August 9 2005 the ICC dealt American cricket a further blow by expelling the USA from the 2005 ICC Intercontinental Cup after running out of patience with the inability of the USA Cricket Association and the Council of League Presidents to agree on team selection. The USA's place in the competition will be taken by the Cayman Islands. This decision, and the ICC's determination not to allow the USA back into the fold until the internal dispute is over, means that the USA team is likely to be without serious representative cricket for some considerable time.
It was the trough of a dispiriting twelve-month period for US cricket, which had started the previous year not only with improving prospects on the field but with ambitious plans to stage a match in the 2007 Cricket World Cup, centered in the Caribbean. Initial talk of a match at Walt Disney World in Orlando had been superseded by a more determined bid to stage a tie at a proposed purpose-built stadium elsewhere in Florida, at Lauderhill, Fort Lauderdale. The bid was given credibility under the leadership of former West Indies spin bowling legend, Lance Gibbs, onetime holder of the world record for most Test wickets. However, when the ICC announced the tournament venues, ironically on July 4, 2004, an expectant crowd listening to a live broadcast of the announcement at Ford Lauderdale City Hall was disappointed to hear that all the matches were to be staged within the West Indies.
From hopeful World Cup host in July 2004 to cricketing outcast in August 2005 - a rapid and most sad descent. Undeterred, the bid team in Lauderhill intend to see through their stadium project, with a view still to stage international cricket eventually, possibly including warm-up matches for the 2007 World Cup, and another new cricket ground is being developed at Piscataway, New Jersey, with similar hopes of staging World Cup warm-ups.
The USA intends to develop its cricket further by introducing it into schools. Currently, pupils not selected for baseball teams have no summer ball game to play. The idea is that these pupils will play cricket. Pilot schemes have already started in Texas.
American musician Jack White of the White Stripes is a cricket fan.
See also
Related Links
- [Official Website of the United States of America Cricket Association]
- [US Cricket portal]
- [Cricinfo USA]
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