{"id":85,"date":"2010-05-23T06:58:10","date_gmt":"2010-05-23T10:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/?p=85"},"modified":"2010-05-23T06:58:10","modified_gmt":"2010-05-23T10:28:10","slug":"trying-to-turn-the-u-s-into-a-cricketing-nation-ny-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/?p=85","title":{"rendered":"Trying to Turn the U.S. Into a Cricketing Nation (NY Times)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By HUW RICHARDS – source http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/05\/21\/sports\/cricket\/21iht-CRICKET.html<\/a>
\nSometimes life really does imitate art. In Joseph O\u2019Neill\u2019s novel Netherland \u2014 a bestseller given a boost when President Barack Obama said he was reading it \u2014 a character dreams of bringing the world\u2019s best cricketers to the United States.
\nDon Lockerbie, chief executive of the U.S.A. Cricket Association, can claim that dream as reality this weekend when two of the top eight teams in the world play international matches in the Twenty20 format \u2014 in which a match lasts a baseball-like three hours \u2014 in Florida.
\nNew Zealand faces Sri Lanka in two matches in Lauderhill on Saturday and Sunday, each combined as a double-header with matches between the United States and Jamaica.
\nDaniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, and Jacob Oram, also of New Zealand, threw out ceremonial first pitches at a Major League Baseball game between the Florida Marlins and the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday. They also trained with the Marlins, leading All-Star shortstop Hanley Ramirez to express amazement that cricketers field barehanded.
\n
\nThe leading nations have never before played in the United States, although India-Pakistan one-day internationals have taken place in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really big weekend for us,\u201d Lockerbie told the Cricinfo Web site. \u201cWe want to show the world we are open for business, and show that these teams have made a wise choice to come and play cricket in the U.S.A.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is also big for Lockerbie, a sporting heavyweight who made his name and money in stadium and tournament development. He was involved in five Olympics and three soccer World Cups. He supervised the $435-million project to build 12 stadiums in the West Indies for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. The experience reawakened an interest in cricket that had been latent since watching a five-day test as a teenage visitor to England in 1973.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told that you could drink beer all day at matches, which I did, but I also enjoyed the game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It has been just over a year since he took over at U.S.A.C.A., charged with leading it back to basic competence, and on to serious professionalization, after years of crippling infighting. Among his programs for rebuilding the American game is \u201cDestination USA,\u201d attracting those top teams to visit.<\/p>\n

This weekend will be an early test. New Zealand plans regular visits under a strategic partnership reached in November. Two New Zealand coaches, including former test player Dipak Patel, were at a national training camp before Christmas. The U.S.A.C.A. has also held talks with Pakistan\u2019s cricket authorities.<\/p>\n

Obama admitted to not knowing much about cricket, but Lockerbie is fond of an anecdote suggesting that the job title has cricketing roots. \u201cWhen the founding fathers discussed what to call the chief executive of the United States, John Adams said that the most respected man in a New England village was the president of the cricket club, and we owe having a president to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is sporting archaeology, but there is clear evidence of widespread current interest. Cricinfo, the game\u2019s leading Web site, says it gets more traffic from the United States than from vast, and famously cricket-mad, India.<\/p>\n

The problem is translating those largely expatriate numbers into attention from mainstream media that still regards cricket as an un-American activity.<\/p>\n

Bringing in the best teams is one way, developing an effective U.S. team another. Another Lockerbie programme is \u201cProject 15\u201d to lift the United States back into the top 15 nations in the world. It was there a few years ago, before U.S.A.C.A.\u2019s endemic infighting exasperated the International Cricket Council into suspending it.<\/p>\n

The U.S. team has begun to progress, winning World League Division five in Nepal in March. It will play in Division Four in Italy in August. It continues, though, to be plagued by the logistical problems of organizing U.S. national teams and by conservative selections.<\/p>\n

There is a long journey ahead. The matches this weekend in Florida are merely among the first steps.<\/p>\n

Lockerbie, has justified his optimism with reference to another sport once reckoned an expatriate eccentricity. \u201cWe\u2019re where soccer was 30 years ago,\u201d he said. \u201cReady to break out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By HUW RICHARDS – source http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/05\/21\/sports\/cricket\/21iht-CRICKET.html Sometimes life really does imitate art. In Joseph O\u2019Neill\u2019s novel Netherland \u2014 a bestseller given a boost when President Barack Obama said he was reading it \u2014 a character dreams of bringing the world\u2019s best cricketers to the United States. Don Lockerbie, chief executive of the U.S.A. Cricket Association, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/86"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}