Howzat! Can cricket finally be a hit in the US? USA CRICKET

WHEN, on a 2020 visit to India, the then US president Donald Trump stood before a crowd of 100,000 at the Narendra Modi Stadium and butchered the name of the nation’s favourite cricketing son, the impression was not exactly of an America primed for invasion by leather and willow.

- Malik Ouzia

Little more than four years on from the “Soo-chin Tendul-kerr” blip, however, and as both Modi and Trump seek populist re-election, cricket is on the Stateside campaign trail, trying to woo its way into what can be a most insular sporting culture, just at the moment that the US, in turn, is establishing a growing and increasingly significant presence on the global cricketing scene.

Over the next month, cricket will settle into its sturdiest foothold in the US since the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, an event that sparked the decline of what had been the country’s 19th century bat and-ball sport of choice, until baseball soared past.

For the first time in history, the US is hosting a major international tournament, sharing the men’s T20 World Cup with the Caribbean and staging 16 matches in all across temporary venues in Florida and New York, as well as the converted baseball ground Grand Prairie, Texas, that has become the sport’s de-facto American home.

The opener on Saturday night (1.30am on Sunday UK time) will see the US meet Canada in a repeat of the first international cricket match, played back in 1844, while India’s meeting with Pakistan in New York is the standout showpiece of the opening group stage.

It is no coincidence that that game in particular — which has scarcity value since the rival nations do not meet outside major tournaments — has been picked for such plumb billing.