T20 World Cup: Anticipation builds as cricket takes its shot at cracking America

New York, New York. If cricket can make it there, maybe it really can make it anywhere.

This T20 World Cup might be the sport’s most joined-up attempt to achieve what it has often spoken of doing in the past, albeit always in nebulous terms. That being to crack the American market.

Its biggest fixture is being put on at a 34,000-capacity pop up ground in a park, 33 miles east of Manhattan. It brings to mind the days when football tried to lay down roots in the US by bringing Pele, plus a number of other world stars, to play in the start-up North American Soccer League.

The great Brazilian played his first matches for New York Cosmos at a decrepit stadium next to an expressway, on a field so patchy it had to be painted green.

At least the T20 World Cup is a step or two ahead of that, even if it will be hosting the sport’s brightest stars at a temporary venue.

Cricket might not quite have a Pele per se to sell it. But in the form of the India of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, plus the Pakistan of Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi, it certainly has pull, particularly with the vast subcontinental diaspora of the US.

India versus Pakistan is one of seven fixtures being played at the New York venue over the space of 10 days. How the place holds up to that weight of traffic will be curious to see.

The scaffolding stands at the Nassau County International Cricket Ground have the look of those at the Dubai Sevens. If they can create a similar atmosphere to the annual rugby festival in the Middle East, the organisers will be on to a winner.

The outfield has been delivered by the company who work with the Yankees and the Mets in Major League Baseball, as well Inter Miami in football.

The wicket itself, which will be under an even