Push to have T20 World Cup in USA.

[brockley]

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/spo...652dfc08074631

[brockley]

CRICKET
Bold bid to stage T20 World Cup in New York City's Central Park
Ben Horne, The Daily Telegraph
October 28, 2017 9:50am
Subscriber only
CRICKET is determined to take a chunk out of the Big Apple, and James Sutherland reckons they should be going straight for the core.

With Yankee Stadium the wrong shape and the international cricket ground in Florida too irrelevant, the Cricket Australia chief executive is asking why the iconic New York landmark, Central Park, smack bang in the middle of Manhattan, can’t host Australia v India in a World Twenty20 showpiece for the ages.

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The world’s most iconic park visited by 25 million people every year has packed in hundreds of thousands of fans for superstar concerts like Bon Jovi, Mariah Carey and Paul Simon, and now Virat Kohli and David Warner are being imagined as the next headline acts to grace the open green pastures of cricket’s first-ever pop-up stadium.


Adam Zampa, Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith in Times Square, New York.
The ICC board led by Cricket Australia are pushing for a World Cup to be played in the United States in the next eight-year international cycle, between 2023-2031, which they believe with the right planning and investment can emulate FIFA’s hugely successful American World Cup back in 1994.

However, unlike soccer which simply used big time rectangular NFL stadiums located in every city, finding appropriate cricket venues remains an enormous obstacle for administrators to overcome.

When Shane Warne took his band of All-Star globetrotters to America a couple of years ago, the crowds in New York, Houston and Los Angeles were stunning, but the legitimacy of cricket played on elongated baseball diamonds was ridiculous.


Fancy, but not cricket friendly. Pic: Getty
Equally, attempts to make a big deal out of cricket played on proper fields in the back waters of Florida is virtually pointless.

Enter Central Park — the 843 acre oasis in the middle of the world’s most buzzing metropolis, which in Sutherland’s crystal ball, could find the room next to its zoo, ice rinks and museums to play host to a multimillion-dollar pop-up cricket ground, complete with temporary grand stands, light towers, a drop-in pitch and the potential to break broadcasting records.

“Look, this might be a ridiculous dream. But just imagine Australia versus India played at Central Park on Manhattan Island,” Sutherland told The Daily Telegraph.


Australia v India can put on a show. Pic: AFP
“We know that within 50km or so of New York City there are literally tens of thousands of cricket fans. And we also know the propensity of Indian fans to travel from all over America.

“There’s lots of expats there. To that end. We don’t need to just look at the traditional American stadiums, we can also look a little bit creatively at the opportunity to play a big international match, to make a statement in an iconic place like Central Park.

“Perhaps there are other good examples of places across America where you could play a big game like that with temporary grandstands.

“My personal view is that it would be great at some stage in the next cycle for the ICC to commit to having a world event in the USA. Why not? … Bring big games and big names to the country … It’s one of the biggest commercial markets in the world.”


David Warner could be the face of New York cricket.
Sutherland knows the Central Park idea seems out there, but he says cricket must explore every avenue to cash in on its biggest untapped market and that it must happen in the next decade.

Of the 90,000 international fans to travel out to the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand — 25,000 were from North America — a higher number than any other continent.

The USA sits below only India, Australia and England when it comes to cricket TV rights and the fact Warne pulled crowds in excess of 30,000 to matches involving past greats illustrates what an enormous potential the game has to reach out to America’s huge expat population of people with subcontinental backgrounds.

Sutherland says cricket must follow the blueprint set by soccer, which followed up arguably the most successful World Cup of all time with a Major League Soccer competition two years later.

“The reality is if you give enough lead time and telegraph it, you can get there,” said Sutherland.

“There’s two or three stadiums now, there are stadiums you can convert and there’s green space you can convert with temporary grandstands.

“Soccer is a good analogy in terms of the big decisions FIFA and others made in terms of their desire to grow the game in the US a long time ago.

“There’s a very clear strategy in how to grow the game and there’s a lot of layers to that … and as I often talk about it’s building from the top down and the bottom up.

“There are tens of thousands of people who live in America who play cricket every week during summer.

“Participation is really important, engaging with the competition, but also at the higher level, creating aspiration to play for your country and having a pathway competition, including in the college system.”

[bujhee kom]

Good thread Brockley.

Now let's see what this James Sutherland guy is talking about...Central Park, Manhattan. Look below...



Where are you going to play international cricket? A T20i World championship? AT the Sheep Meadow? North Meadow? Great Lawn? Jacky Kennedy Pond/lake? Wheer are all the people he is talking about like 10s of thousands, where are they going to stand/seat and watch from. There is NO slope around the meadows for the people to theatrically watch a pitch movement. It's all ground level.

I guess if you have a friendly match at the North Meadow, at the max a thousand people can watch from the Great Hill. By the way, those green rectangles around the park are NYC city blocks. 20 of them from the shorter side plus the width of the streets in between add to a mile. So you can gauge the area of the meadows as for playing ground + spectator zone!

And comparing FIFA - Soccer with cricket in the USA: And saying that cricket is being played every week during summer, being watched on TV in North America - numbers only below India/Australia. These are only being engaged by expats and sub-continentals in the US. No white or black Americans play or are interested in cricket. Soccer is popular in the USA, look at the US women's and men's soccer teams, club teams, MLS - they are all, almost hundred percent of them players are whites, latinos and blacks. You want to introduce cricket in America? It has to be played by high schools, colleges and Universities first. And they have to draw the local Joes and Sallys into the ground to watch, in small town America. It is an impossible dream/idea.

[brockley]

https://player.whooshkaa.com/shows/cricket-unfiltered
Brief discussion where the games,will be played at the end of the podcast.

Fair points Buhjee.
But with expats as you know its a big crowd to pull.
Lot of Aussies going to the states now.
Don't agree over black ppl,as their are a lot of expat West Indians there.
The 3 All Stars games drew crowds of 30,000.
Have a qualifier in USA will be good too,look at Ireland,a lot of Irish born Americans.
Its like having Rugby Union World Cup in Japan,rivers of gold,lot of money in Japan in Rugby,same as America.

[Abid_Khan]

Originally Posted by brockley
https://player.whooshkaa.com/shows/cricket-unfiltered
Brief discussion where the games,will be played at the end of the podcast.

Fair points Buhjee.
But with expats as you know its a big crowd to pull.
Lot of Aussies going to the states now.
Don't agree over black ppl,as their are a lot of expat West Indians there.
The 3 All Stars games drew crowds of 30,000.
Have a qualifier in USA will be good too,look at Ireland,a lot of Irish born Americans.
Its like having Rugby Union World Cup in Japan,rivers of gold,lot of money in Japan in Rugby,same as America.

But Japan has an established rugby culture with a good domestic and international set up

[brockley]

But it was an out of blue decision.
USA have 10,000 players playing cricket,some countries would be jealous of that.
WIllow which carries cricket into the US is very popular.

[bujhee kom]

Hey Brockley Mate...You in the market for some good knock off ultra light Air Jordanas?
Jimmy Choo here is selling at BC!

[brockley]

Athlete's foot.

[Wickets]

Originally Posted by bujhee kom
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You could fit a 60m boundary onto the great lawn with about a 20,000 capacity in temporary seating I reckon. Probably similar on the north meadow despite its slightly more awkward shaping.