Who is Jomboy, the American baseball expert who makes cricket fun for newbies? | ICC Men's T20 World Cup

New Jersey, United States On a cold March day in Jersey City, the warehouse looks nondescript from the outside. Surrounded by a fence under a noisy flyover bridge, there is little of note in the gloomy industrial area, apart from the cannabis shop next door. But inside lies the world of sports-loving children's fantasies: a cavernous room transformed into a field of play.

The menu includes Ball in Play, a mix of cricket and baseball, with players wearing bucket hats and bubble gum-colored kits. The walls are decorated with team banners with ridiculous names: The Woogas, Love Yas, McFlurry Power and Forgotten Rotten.

It is here that 35-year-old Jimmy O'Brien, aka Jomboy, enjoys realizing his dream.

The founder of Jomboy Media has overseen the booming expansion of his empire from a two-man podcast to an organization employing more than 60 people in an office and studio complex near New York City's Empire State Building and New Jersey warehouse.

Jomboy's success is based on podcasts and videos analyzing baseball and other American sports, but almost by chance O'Brien discovered a late love for cricket. He couldn't possibly have imagined that this would lead him to one of Cricket's most coveted broadcast roles.

OBrien, an American who has never played cricket, will join a commentary team of former star players and the game's elite broadcasters at the 2024 ICC Mens T20 World Cup.

A casual cricket fan

O'Brien was first introduced to cricket in Australia as a six-year-old.

His family lived in the Sydney suburb of Lindfield for two years, and OBrien has vague memories of playground games during recess at Holy Family Primary School.

I didn't really play it when we lived there, only in the schoolyard, OBrien tells Al Jazeera.

My boyfriend played, so I remember going to his practice every now and then. But I never saw a match.

I've seen more rugby and Australian rules on TV. But my dad had a company outing where they were playing cricket and I was playing with all the other kids. I didn't know the rules. I knew you run back and forth to score points.

Back in the US, OBrien pursued a career in sports media, initially as a videographer.

In 2017, he started a podcast about his beloved New York Yankees with his best friend Jake Storiale as a hobby.

I was like, I'm going to make a Twitter account and make content about the Yankees because I don't have anyone to talk to about them and I'm bored. And then out of nowhere they had a good season. They went to the playoffs so our podcasts grew. We thought it was big. Maybe 1,000 people were listening.

But it grew. I got a small investment of $25,000 to quit and try full time for a year. Jake got laid off and was looking for a new job and I was like, you want to share half of this nothing with me?

OBrien combined an uncanny talent for lip reading with video forensics to analyze everything from strategy to alleged cheating in Major League Baseball. In 2019, several videos went viral and the number of Jomboys followers skyrocketed.

Not yet a cricket snob

A combination of fatherhood and the COVID-19 pandemic reconnected OBrien with cricket. His son James was born in November 2021 during the Men's T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

O'Brien spent the next five days shuttling between the hospital and a hotel room that had no access to the internet or cable television.

I had looked [Australian documentary] The test on Amazon because I really like the Australian media and don't want to forget that part of my life. So I watched The Test, season one, and that brought it back to the brain.

When I was in hospital, the T20 World Cup was the only thing that was live. And then I looked at a barrel [of cricket] when I was on paternity leave.

The T20 franchise leagues in New Zealand and Australia would be broadcast late at night on the US east coast, which would provide the new dad with plenty of opportunities to watch cricket.

I like the complexity of strategy. I also like bat-to-ball sports. But unlike baseball, cricket is a good watch, even for less athletic players. Baseball is pretty brutal to watch when it's amateurs, but cricket, I could play any league and I could enjoy the action. But maybe that's because I'm not a snob yet.

Does wonders for the sport in the US

Perhaps it is his lack of cricket snobbery that has endeared him to other newbies to the game like himself.

In an analysis of the West Indies' stunning Test win over Australia in January, OBrien distilled the historical context and meaning; Steve Smith's strategy to lead Australia home with the tactics of tail-ender Josh Hazlewood and Shamar Joseph in a 10-minute masterclass introduction to Test cricket.

His explanation of why Smith must continue the strike and protect Hazlewood is comically honest: [Hazlewood is] a very good bowler. He doesn't hit well.

There's no shortage of baseball references, either.

When Smith plays a late cut, OBrien points out that it is not an excuse foul ball like in baseball, but a well-executed cricket shot.

And when Joseph finally gets Hazlewood by hitting the top of his stump, O'Brien isn't sure if the correct terminology is “top of off” or “off of top,” he gives it a baseball equivalent: He stippled out the corner. You'd say high and outside, period, and that's exactly what he did.

In another clip of cricket analysis commentary that went viral, OBrien explains the intricacies of a bowler setting up a batsman for a wicket. He guides the fan through cricket terms such as inswinger, outswinger and wobble seam in a straightforward manner.

Some sports fans have credited Jomboy with helping them understand the game better than ever before, while others feel he is doing wonders for the sport in the US.

Jomboy is one of the sports content creators in the world. He is still relatively new to cricket, but he still scores six points with his coverage. Does wonders for the sport in the US https://t.co/45ZC6xQILK

Matt Nicholls (@matt__nicholls) March 4, 2024

From baseball podcast to cricket broadcast

The ICC hopes OBrien will help them break into the US market by breaking down barriers when he joins their broadcast team for the matches in New York.

We are pleased that Jomboy will be part of the commentators' panel of the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, ICC TV executive producer Ajesh Ramachandran told Al Jazeera.

With its unique blend of insightful analysis and entertaining storytelling, Jomboy will bring a fresh and exciting perspective to cricket, making it more accessible and enjoyable for our growing American audience. His passion for the game and ability to connect with fans will undoubtedly enhance the World Cup experience for viewers.

For OBrien, it's a chance to bring his analytical skills to the podcast and add the perspective of someone who didn't grow up with the game.

I'm very happy to have the opportunity. I'm also so nervous because it's something I haven't done before and I know how much the viewers love the product.

OBrien believes cricket has the potential to penetrate the coveted US market, but that will take time.

If cricket in the US reached the level that baseball has reached in Australia, I think it would be quite successful. I think it takes twenty years for a sport to really penetrate the population. You have to get the youth to play it.

Back at the warehouse in March, ex-professional baseball players bowl to current professional cricketers with a baseball bat that is flattened on one side, another hybrid. The teams for Ball in Play consist of social media content creators, contributors and amateurs with a mean swing. There are wickets instead of noughts, fours and sixes, and batters walking between the wickets. It is the wedding of OBrien's two sports lovers.

Two players, Aaron Jones and Shayan Jahangir, have been selected in the US squad for the World Cup. Jahangir is on O'Brien's team, Team Baggage. Neither realizes that OBrien could soon be commentating on them in front of a global audience of hundreds of millions of people when the T20 World Cup finally lands in the US.