This is perfect timing.
Team USA’s first World Cup cricket match will be held at Broward Stadium on Friday, June 14, when the U.S. hosts Ireland.
Cricket fever has never been hotter. The ultra-niche sport in the United States got a major boost on Thursday after the U.S. stunned Pakistan in a World Cup group game in Dallas.
That puts the U.S. 2-0 in its first World Cup appearance after a minor upset win over Canada on June 1. World Cup action will begin soon in Broward County, starting with a group match between Sri Lanka and Nepal on Tuesday.
The 20-nation tournament is being hosted by the United States and the West Indies, with 10 nations advancing to the next round, which will be hosted exclusively by the cricket-heavy West Indies nations of Antigua, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad, St. Lucia and St. Vincent.
Cricket is hugely popular in populous India and Pakistan, where organizers call it the second most-watched sport in the world after soccer, with more than one billion fans tuning in to watch the World Cup.
The U.S. team qualified for the 20-nation tournament because they were the hosts, and now they’ve beaten a powerhouse like Pakistan. Before the match, betting odds were minus-1000. You had to bet $1000 for Pakistan to win $100.
“This is a massive upset,” said Mark Jones, a spokesman for the International Cricket Council. “This is the 1980 victory over the Soviet Union. It’s like Al Michaels saying, ‘Do you believe in miracles?'”
“This was a very significant event. It brought American sports fans and media to the tournament who might not have paid attention to it otherwise. This is the biggest upset in world sports history and certainly in world cricket history.”
The World Cup will feature 20 countries divided into four groups of five teams each.
The U.S. was unlucky in the group with Pakistan and fellow powerhouses India, Canada and Ireland. Only the top two teams advance. The U.S. has a chance to advance to the West Indies stage with a win against favorites Ireland on Friday. The U.S.’ next match will be against favorites India in Long Island.
“The U.S. is in a very good position to advance out of the group,” Jones said. “The game against Ireland will be on a lot of calendars.”
That’s all well and good, but even though cricket is an offshoot of baseball, most Americans still don’t know how it’s played. South Florida is home to a number of cricket teams, including the oldest, the Palm Beach Titans, who still play on weekends at John Prince Park in Lake Worth Beach.
The Titans will face dozens of clubs from Miami to Port St. Lucie.
“We play in the middle of nowhere,” former Palm Beach Titans president and captain Paul Lamixon said, “so if someone drives by and sees 20 guys in white pajamas running around, they might not know what they’re looking at.”
As cricket comes to the region at the highest level, here are five steps to help you get started with cricket.
What are the rules and terminology of cricket?
Cricket was invented in England and was once played in America, where baseball was invented after the War of Independence as a final break from the old mother country.
That’s according to Todd Myers, COO of Willow by Cricbuzz, an exclusive subscriber network that broadcasts only cricket in the US and Canada.
He happily explains that the network is named Willow because the bats are made from willow wood.
A cricket match lasts about three and a half hours, and like baseball, a pitch clock can be used.
There are 20 “overs”, which is another term for an innings. In this new (T-20) format, each team gets to bat 20 times, and each “over” bowls six balls.
This means that 120 balls will be bowled in 20 overs. However, once a team gets 10 out, that’s it. There are no replacement innings, so teams are allowed to bat for 80 minutes.
Bowling means to throw. The game is long, with two 20 overs played, similar to how baseball teams play two nine-inning games.
There are 10 fielders and 1 pitcher. An “out” is called a “wicket.” The ball used is a little larger and heavier than a baseball.
The bowler primarily bounces the ball towards the batsman, but if it is so bowled the batsman is allowed to hit it with a fly.
A home run is called a “six” because hitting a home run scores a team six points. Aaron Jones hit a “six” in the upset of Pakistan.
If you’re in a bar this weekend and there’s a cricket match being broadcast, tell the person you’re drinking with that the catcher is called the “willow keeper.” He’s the only fielder allowed to wear gloves; the other fielders play bare-handed.
“You can tape a broken finger, but that’s it,” Myers said. “These guys are tough. They want to play. It’s not like the NBA, if you have a hangnail you can’t play.”
Why did the ICC choose to host the event in Fort Lauderdale?
The three American venues are in the Dallas area (Grand Prairie, Texas), Eisenhower Park on Long Island and Broward Stadium. Dallas and Broward Stadium are among the few venues that are primarily thought of as cricket stadiums (Broward Stadium has since become a multi-purpose stadium that hosts many soccer matches).
The World Cup spent $30 million to build a temporary stadium at Eisenhower Park, and nearby Hicksville has a large Indian community as well as Caribbean residents. New York was the obvious choice. But why South Florida?
“There’s a lot of cricket going on in Jamaica, but the existing stadiums have hosted international cricket tournaments before and are well-known facilities,” Myers said. “They really wanted three venues in the U.S. They didn’t want to build another $30 million stadium to host four matches. It’s easy to go from there to the Caribbean.”
Ramkisson said a big boost for cricket in the U.S. came when the World Cup was held in the West Indies in 2007. Fort Lauderdale issued bonds to build a cricket stadium, and the rest is history.
“We couldn’t be more excited to bring the people of South Florida to the highest level of international cricket,” said the ICC’s Jones. “We’re thrilled.”
Introducing the Palm Beach Cricket Team
The Palm Beach Titans were founded in 1975 and are still going strong. The team has always had players from a variety of backgrounds – the current squad is primarily from India, but also has players from the West Indies, Australia, Bangladesh and South Africa.
A reunion of all former players will be held in Palm Beach County in March. “Everyone in my chat group was excited[after Thursday’s upset],” Ramkisson said. “But that reunion chat group was the most excited.”
It was always going to be a battle to get a place to play cricket matches at John Prince Park, but it started with securing an overflow car park.
Ramkisson stepped down as chairman two years ago and moved to St. Augustine; the current chairman is Ray Robinson.
Current U.S. team hitter Steve Taylor has never played for Palm Beach but has played against the Titans many times. He is the only U.S. player from South Florida. He lives in Fort Lauderdale and his parents are Jamaican.
Ramkissoon, who is originally from Guyana, has tickets for the Ireland game and will be accompanying his father for what would have been his 70th birthday, and will also fly to Trinidad for the finals and bring his experience to life on “Live the Game”.
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Ramkisson wasn’t as surprised as others by Canada and Pakistan’s wins.
“Canada used to beat us regularly,” Ramkisson said, “but we beat them earlier this year and then beat the highly-touted Bangladesh national team for the first time. This has been in the plan for a while. It didn’t just happen.”
Schedule, tickets and TV
The four games taking place at Broward Stadium are:
June 11 — Sri Lanka v Nepal
June 14 — USA vs Ireland
June 15 — India v Canada
June 16 — Pakistan v Ireland
Tickets are on sale in most secondary markets and on the ICC website. The match kicks off at 10:30 a.m., with gates opening at 8:30 a.m. Inside the stadium, there will be a “Party Stand” event, a VIP tent with all-you-can-drink options located on the stadium’s grass bank.
Willow is broadcast on Comcast-owned stations 3285 and 3101.
