Rain, guts and skill: how American part-timers came to combine with the cricket elite | T20 World Cup 2024

Why was a Florida man named Chuck dressed? overalls with stars and stripes wandering around a humid park near Fort Lauderdale shouting that I'm cheering for dingers?

It's the magic of the Men's T20 Cricket World Cup that inspires fans to fall in love with a new sport and a new group of American heroes.

How come?

It was quite a World Cup debut for the USA, a raucous group of part-timers who pulled off one of the biggest upsets in cricket history by beating a traditional powerhouse, Pakistan. It was, mused one presentersimilar to the Boston Red Sox losing to the Durham Bulls.

Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner have yet to comment. But it means that, combined with the USA's opening win over Canada and the point they achieved on Friday when their match against Ireland was washed out due to the storms that battered South Florida, the unlikely has become a reality. Together with the winners of Group A and tournament favorites India, the US qualified for the next round at the expense of Pakistan.

This is the Super 8, which is both the title of an underrated JJ Abrams science fiction thriller and the name for the second group stage.

Can the US go to extremes?

Let's not get greedy. They have done very well to reach the Super 8s, where they will face South Africa (June 19), West Indies (June 21) and reigning champions England or Scotland (June 23). Yet there have been other disruptions. Afghanistan crushed New Zealand and Canada defeated Ireland. Perhaps most importantly, participation in the Super 8 guarantees the US a place in the next T20 World Cup, to be held in Sri Lanka and India in 2026.

Who are these new sports legends?

The US is coached by former Australian batsman Stuart Law. American star bowler, Saurabh Netravalkar, is a software engineer at Oracle. Netravalkar, 32, bowled the decisive super against Pakistan, taking the wicket of Virat Kohli, the Indian superstar with 269 ​​million Instagram followers, although India won the match. Netravalkar was born in Mumbai and played for India under-19. Batsman and vice-captain Aaron Jones, born in Queens and raised in Barbados, hit 10 sixes in the win over Canada. (A six, or a dinger, as Chuck would call it, is scored when a batter hits a fly ball over the boundary, similar to a home run.)

Who is here, and why?

This year's tournament has 20 teams. It started on June 1 in the Dallas area and ends with the final in Bridgetown, Barbados, on June 29. It is jointly organized by the West Indies (a group of Caribbean countries) and, for the first time, the US. Cricket bosses want to capitalize on the huge diaspora from cricket hotbeds like India and Pakistan, selling the sport to newcomers in the belief that the US is a huge untapped market.

Three US venues have been used: a small site near Dallas and Fort Lauderdale and a temporary 34,000-capacity stadium on Long Island. It hosted a clash between rivals India and Pakistan, with ticket demand comparable to the Super Bowl. After June 16, all the action will take place in the Caribbean.

I do not care. I'm focusing on the Olympics, thanks.

Cricket will be an Olympic sport in Los Angeles 2028! Moreover, American ties run deeper than you might think. This is the biggest moment for American cricket since 1844, the year of the world's first international cricket match (a victory for Canada over the US in New York). Even if you don't like the jargon-laden sport itself, and… like the American team itself – struggling with the rules, taking into account the compelling cultural context. North American cricket is a window into colonial history, considering its rise under British rule and its demise as baseball flourished after the Civil War. It is also a symbol of the energy and potential catalyzed by modern immigration trends, as the current resurgence owes much to fans, players and investors of South Asian or Caribbean descent.

What exactly is T20? Sounds like the name of another Terminator sequel.

This origin story has a (weak and tar-covered) American connection. A county cricket cup competition backed by an American-owned cigarette brand was axed after the British government banned tobacco-sponsored events in 2002. That created a gap in the fixture list which England's cricket overlords filled with a bold new format.

Competitions that last ten days instead of five? Weekend brunch in addition to the usual lunch and tea breaks?

They went the other way. T20 is a shortened version that was first introduced professionally in 2003 in England – a country with a generally snobbish and dismissive attitude towards baseball – to make cricket more like baseball. Counterintuitively, it quickly became extremely popular. World cricket's governing body, the ICC, has organized an international men's tournament almost every two years since 2007, with the first women's edition in 2009.

Games usually last less than three hours, there's an emphasis on bashing the ball as far as possible, and there's a lot of color, noise and commercialism in a sport known for being slow and staid. With its superficial yet addictive adrenaline appeal, its commitment to brevity, and its blatant attention-seeking, it's basically cricket's equivalent of TikTok. No one calls it by its full name Twenty20 anymore, because who has time for that? T20 is a reference to the number of six-ball overs each team faces: two sets of 20, unless all batters are out. Scores between 100 and 200 runs per team are typical. Cricket is like baseball on steroids, one player told Axios. Although, to be honest, we already have a pretty clear idea of ​​what baseball on steroids is like.

Of course, no elite-level professional cricketer would dream of lighting up a cigarette these days.

Um, Yes, Certainly. Whatever you say.

I'm jumping on the bandwagon. How can I watch?

In the US, the matches will be broadcast on Willow, a subscription cricket channel. The lack of free live coverage on a mainstream network is a downer. If that doesn't happen, or if Taylor Swift is spotted in the crowd, it will be difficult to move beyond preaching to the converted and take full advantage of the current momentum. No disrespect to cricket curious segments Good morning Americabut did not witness a phenomenon anywhere near as pronounced as when the US men's soccer team reached the knockout stages of the 2014 World Cup and 16-18 million viewers tuned to ESPN.

Yet, after the victory over Pakistan, JA, the New York Yankees television network, made a deal to show seven Major League Cricket matches when the US's premier club competition – a T20 competition featuring international stars, backed by ultra-wealthy investors – returns for its second season next month.

Baseball and cricket, coexisting peacefully.

Like I said, magical.