[cognito20]

The ICC Trophy tournament to qualify the Associate nations for the 2003 World Cup was held completely in Toronto. I went up to see some matches (5-hour drive), and was not disappointed. Good, competitive cricket. There were originally matches scheduled to be held in -this- World Cup in Miami, but for whatever reason (probably the complete and total ineptitude of US Cricket, an organization with whom I once applied for a public relations and liaison job), those plans were cancelled. For there to be even the slightest interest in one-day cricket in the US, even in passing, the USA is one of these days going to have to throw off the West Indian mafia and boys' club that runs the USCA, get competent administrators in there, and actually do well enough in a future ICC Trophy to qualify for a World Cup. They've made the final -stage- of the ICC Trophy a few times, but have not yet come close to qualifying. IIRC, I think they finished 7th in the 2003 ICC Trophy, where the top 3 qualified, and that's the best they've ever done.

Although it is one of the greatest sports in the world, the USA sports fan in general just does not have the attention span, patience, intellectual curiosity, or cricketing tradition to ever follow TEST cricket, and I don't feel too confident about there being any future for the 1-day game either. For one thing, native-born Americans generally don't even know the rules of the game, much less play it. I'm the only native-born American to ever play for the club team I bowl for in Ithaca, NY, in over a decade of existence, and I have a build that is...well....very similar to Leverock's. The only thing I could -maybe- see taking off under the right set of circumstances is 20-20 cricket, which is cricket in name only. Basically, it's a 3-hour hitting-the-ball-far contest.

--Scott