Cricket in the United States

Cricket in the United States is a sport played at the amateur, club, intercollegiate, and international competition levels. There have also been several recent attempts to form professional cricket leagues in the United States.

History

Main article: History of United States cricket

Students playing cricket at Dartmouth College in 1793

Cricket was played by British colonists in North America by the start of the 18th century.^[1] Dartmouth College students were playing cricket on the Green by 1793. ^[2] Haverford College formed a cricket team in 1833. In recent years Haverford is one of the few post secondary institutions to field a cricket team at the varsity level, hence most of Haverford's opponents are collegiate club level teams.^[3] Clubs from the United States and Canada participated in one of the first international cricket matches on record in 1844 in Bloomingdale Park in Manhattan.^[4]

In 2004 Pro Cricket was organized as a professional Twenty20 format league with eight teams in two divisions. However, the league closed at the end of its first season in 2004. The Pro Cricket league was independent of the USACA and not recognized or sanctioned by them.

Cricket grounds

There are only a few purpose built cricket grounds in the United States, they include: the Germantown Cricket Club and the Philadelphia Cricket Club^[5] in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Staten Island Cricket Club on Staten Island, New York; the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida; and the Leo Magnus Cricket Complex in Van Nuys, California.

The game is also played on a number of shared purpose venues, they include: Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, New York and others.

Governing body

Main article: United States of America Cricket Association

The United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) is the governing body for International Cricket Council (ICC) sanctioned cricket in the United States. The ICC recognized the USACA as an associate member starting in 1965. In 2005 the USACA was suspended from an ICC sponsored annual conference due to problems with USACA elections, but that suspension was lifted in March 2006.^[6] In 2007 the USACA was again suspended by the ICC because of problems with its administration and constitution, but was again recognized beginning on April 1, 2008.^[6]

The national association organizes play within and between seven regional conferences,^[7] a regional conference may contain several leagues and a league is a group of 8 or more teams that play according to a schedule.^[8] Competition is held at various age levels including Under 19, Under 15, Senior, etc.. There is a National Senior Tournament as well as national and international competitions for other age groups. For the adult levels the regional conferences are divided into two groups, known as the Eastern Conference Standings and the Western Conference Standings.

USACA Regions^[7][9]

Eastern Conference Standings	States, territories, districts	Leagues
Atlantic	Delaware, New Jersey, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland	Cricket League of New Jersey, Garden State Cricket League, Millennium Cricket League, New Jersey Cricket Association, New Jersey State Cricket & Umpire's Association, Washington Cricket League, Washington Metropolitan Cricket League
New York[10]	New York	American Cricket League, Bangladeshi Cricket League, Brooklyn Cricket League, Commonwealth Cricket League, Eastern American Cricket Association, Metropolitan Cricket League, Nassau New York Cricket Association, New York Cricket League, New York Metropolitan and District Association League, NYPD Cricket League
South East[10]	Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Puerto Rico	Florida Cricket Conference, Central Florida Cricket Association, South Florida Cricket Association, Florida South East Cricket Association, Atlanta-Georgia Cricket League
North East	Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont	Massachusetts State Cricket League, Connecticut Cricket League, Southern Connecticut Cricket Association
Western Conference Standings	States, territories, districts	Leagues
Central West	Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado, South Dakota, Texas, Wyoming, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas	Colorado Cricket League, Central Texas Cricket League, Houston Cricket League, North Texas Cricket Association
Central East	Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama	American Cricket Conference, Great Lakes Cricket Conference, International Cricket Management League, Michigan Cricket Association (Associate), Midwest Cricket Conference, Minnesota Cricket Association, National Cricket League, United Cricket Conference
West Coast	Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah	Bay Area Cricket Alliance, California Cricket Academy, California Cricket League, Greater Los Angeles Cricket Association (Associate), Northern California Cricket Association, North West Cricket League, Sacramento Cricket Association, Southern California Cricket Association, Arizona Cricket Association (Associate), Orange County Cricket Association (Associate), San Diego Cricket Association (Associate)

National team

Main article: United States national cricket team

The United States national cricket team is the USACA organized team that represents the United States in some ICC sponsored events. The United States has made frequent appearances at the ICC Americas Championship.

Other international

In July 2009 the United States under 19 team placed second to Canada in the ICC-Americas Under-19 competition held in Toronto.^[11]

Cricket in American culture

In 2006 it was estimated that 30,000 American people play or watch cricket annually.^[3] Cricket in the United States is not as popular as baseball and is not as popular among as large a fraction of the population as it is within either the Commonwealth nations or the other ICC full member (or Test cricket) nations.^[12] There are at least two historical reasons mentioned to explain the relative obscurity of cricket within the United States. One reason was the rise of the summer time bat and ball sport now called baseball in the 19th century within the US, which seems to have displaced cricket as a popular pastime.^[12] Another reason was that in 1909 when the ICC was originally organized as the Imperial Cricket Conference it was open only to Commonwealth nations and thereby excluded the US from participating in the sport at the highest level.^[13]

Nevertheless in 1965 the US was admitted to the renamed ICC as an associate member and the sport grew in popularity in the second half of the 20th century. An oft mentioned reason for the growing popularity of cricket is the growing population of immigrants to the US who come from cricket playing nations.^[3][12]

With the launching of the United States Youth Cricket Association in 2010, a more focused effort to bring the game to American schools was begun, with the intention of broadening cricket's fan base beyond expatriates and their children.^[14]

See also

• American Premier League
• Comparison between cricket and baseball
• Compton Cricket Club
• History of United States cricket
• Major League Cricket
• NYPD Cricket League
• Sports in the United States
• United States national cricket team
• United States Youth Cricket Association

References

1. ^ Das, Deb K.. "Cricket in the USA". Cricinfo. http://www.cricinfo.com/usa/content/story/141158.html. Retrieved 2009-07-20. 
2. ^ Dreamcricket USA (August 14, 2007). "History of American cricket Part I - The 1700's". http://www.dreamcricket.com/dreamcricket/news.hspl?nid=7157&ntid=4. Retrieved 2009-07-20. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Worrall, Simon (October 2006). "Cricket, Anyone?". Smithsonian (magazine). http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/cricket.html?c=y&page=1. Retrieved 2009-07-18. 
4. ^ Williamson, Martin. "The oldest international contest of them all". Cricinfo. http://content-www.cricinfo.com/usa/content/story/141170.html. Retrieved 2009-07-19. 
5. ^ "Other Activities at PCC". http://www.philacricket.com/club/scripts/library/view_document.asp?NS=PA&DN=PAOTHER. Retrieved 2009-07-14. ^{[dead link]}
6. ^ ^{a b} "ICC suspends USA Cricket Association". Cricinfo. March 3, 2007. http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/282227.html. Retrieved 2009-07-20. 
7. ^ ^{a b} "Regions of USACA". http://www.usaca.org/the-organization/regions-of-usaca. Retrieved 2009-07-22. 
8. ^ "Registration Info". United States of America Cricket Association. http://www.usaca.org/the-organization/registration-info. Retrieved 2009-07-23. ^{[dead link]}
9. ^ "Regional Administrations of USACA". http://www.usaca.org/the-organization/regional-administrations-of-usaca. Retrieved 2009-07-22. ^{[dead link]}
10. ^ ^{a b} "USACA Regions". USACA Council of Leagues. http://www.usacaclp.org/regions.asp. Retrieved 2009-07-23. 
11. ^ Aaron, John L.. "USA Under-19 All-America…All-Proud!". United States of America Cricket Association. http://www.usaca.org/content/20090717/usa-under-19-all-america%E2%80%A6all-proud. Retrieved 2009-07-18. ^{[dead link]}
12. ^ ^{a b c} Chetwynd, Josh. "Cricket, anyone? Obvious similarities make baseball, cricket sibling sports". http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060608&content_id=1495668&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb. Retrieved 2009-07-22. 
13. ^ "International Cricket Council - The ICC - About The Organisation - History". http://icc-cricket.yahoo.net/the-icc/about_the_organisation/history.php. Retrieved 2009-07-22. 
14. ^ Della Penna, Peter. "Have Kit, Will Play". Cricinfo. http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/511264.html. Retrieved 28 April 2011.