T20 international Cup 2024: Can new york Hit Cricket for a 6? – News .

A field of dreams emerges in the shadow of New York’s skyscrapers, but it’s not a baseball diamond. It’s for another bat-and-ball sport — cricket — that fans are betting will eventually topple the Americans. England’s centuries-old game has been enthusiastically received in much of the world, but the United States, long involved in American football, basketball and national baseball, has been stubborn.

That may change early next month when the United States gets its time in the cricketing sun, co-hosting the FIFA World Cup 2020 — a championship series for the shortened format

of cricket. The temporary new stadium, fully funded by the International Cricket Council, the sport’s global governing body, will host eight tournament matches including the headliner on June 9, a potentially epic clash between powerhouses India and Pakistan, two of the sport’s biggest rivals.

About 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of New York, a forest of metal girders rises from Long Island’s Eisenhower Park supporting 34,000 grandstand seats, the site chosen by the ICC after its earlier plan in the Bronx failed. It’s not exactly benign as Lord’s cricket ground in London, but the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium will soon be in the limelight – thanks to a quick green light from local authorities.

“The world is coming right here to Nassau County. You will have kings, princes and great dignitaries,” beamed Deputy County Parks Commissioner Michael D’Ambrosio. “A lot of people are very envious and jealous that we got it,” he told AFP, adding that the tournament has a huge global following. For its part, the ICC is heavily invested in the future of the sport in the US, particularly in the New York region, home to several hundred thousand people with ties to cricket-playing countries, particularly India and Pakistan.

The India-Pakistan match is already sold out, with tickets now going for over $1,000 each online. For the league But once the stadium is demolished in July, local cricket will return to its struggling state.Despite having round 10,000 players, the game has no devoted stadium in New York. “Cricket is growing but the infrastructure – that’s the struggle,” lamented Ajith Shetty, president of the Commonwealth Cricket League (CCL), the region’s premier cricket body.

New York will field a team in Major League Cricket, a professional league launched last year, and play on dedicated grounds — in Texas and North Carolina, where all MLC games are played to control costs. “We are exploring options to create a permanent location close to our loyal fan base,” a spokesman for defending champions MLC MI New York told AFP. Meanwhile, CCL players drag a 500-pound (225-kilogram) mat from park to park that acts as the “pitch,” a rectangular area in the center of the cricket field.

“No other sport has to put in so much work, only cricket in New York. We are suffering because of them,” said Shetty, an Indian businessman. “New York used to be the Mecca of cricket,” he added. But while conditions in the Big Apple stagnated, other states improved, notably Texas. Houston is where Team USA stunned Bangladesh on Thursday to clinch their three-match T20 international series ahead of the World Cup.

‘A long time is coming’ Some CCL clubs, backed by local businessmen, pay players thousands of dollars a year, though not enough to make them quit their day jobs. Waqas Ashiq, who plays for Long Island United CC and remembers the struggles when the team started in 2008, sees the glass as half full.

“It’s been a long time,” he said before taking the field to bat. “Hopefully with the World Cup coming up, people will get a little bit more interested. According to Shetty, a businessman, the ICC is keen to invest in youth development in the US, especially with cricket’s return to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.Schools also are displaying interest. The challenge now, Ashiq agreed, is beyond finding a permanent stadium to the next generation — the children of cricket-loving immigrants who have made New York their home. “That’s the only way to develop the sport and make sure it’s safe for the next 10, 20, 30 years.”