T20 World Cup: Lack Of Buzz Leads To A Lukewarm Build-Up In The USA

The year 1994 played a crucial role in shaping the USA's connection with football (called soccer in America) when it hosted the FIFA World Cup. The event served as a major catalyst for the sport's penetration into American culture. Now, after three decades, the USA is once again the chosen venue for the Men's T20 World Cup, making it the first time a major cricket event is being held in the country. The co-hosts will kick-start the tournament by facing Canada at the Grand Prairie Stadium, with the USA set to host 16 matches of the competition.

The stakeholders have long wished for cricket to gain popularity in the US, where sports like basketball, baseball, track and field events, football, and swimming dominate. But many see the Men's T20 World Cup helping cricket break into the lucrative US market.

Last year, the Major League Cricket (MLC) was launched, which is gearing up for a second season in July. Then there's cricket's inclusion into the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which means the signs are there for the sport to crack the American market.

“When the USA was announced as a co-host of the T20 World Cup (in 2021), I was very excited and felt, that finally, we could get to host a World Cup, because there have been slight developments in USA Cricket through Major and Minor Leagues, plus U11, U13, U15 category tournaments are happening all over the country,” Prasanna Balakrishnan, an ardent cricket fan who works as a software developer in Dallas, told IANS on Saturday.

“There have been so many games and I have even umpired in some of them. To see that excitement levels for the game has been amazing,” he said.

As the competition approaches, its ads are visible in New York's famed Times Square arena while the Rockefeller