Cricket League like IPL in USA

[McLOVIN]

thats nothing new, we been talkin about it from last year

 

[Cricketman]

I hope it takes off, it probably won't.

 

[AbhishekS]

I hope it takes off, it probably won't.

why not?
of course it will take off and the APL will be a hit for sure.

 

[Owzat]

No there isn't. The only people I've met who know anything about here cricket have been West Indian, or have an English parent or something. Friend does have a point, most people in the USA don't know a thing about cricket. I don't see how you could say it's a solid base when the game isn't even in their vocabulary.

USA aren't even among the better ICC nations, they featured in what ONE ICC Trophy and that's about it. As for comments re USA and cricket being new, I can see where Friend is coming from. Barely any I've come across have much positive to say about cricket and most don't know much about it. That said, plenty of people in England are the same. If it hadn't been on TV for so many years would as many know as much as they do? Bear in mind we have a top six or seven Test nation, an 18 team 1st class set up and probably play as much cricket, if not more, than any nation, yet we have proportionaly a lot who knock it and know little about it - usually a hand in hand thing.

I agree that cricket will struggle in the USA, maybe before they try IPL scale tournaments they should test the water with a mini-tournament, maybe pit USA, Holland, UAE, Namibia, Bermuda, and Canada against England and another weakish T20 (Test playing) nation. If they can't sell out most tickets for those games then what hope a bigger competition?

 

[iridescentt]

Just like how America became fascinated with soccer when Pele came over. We should do the same and send Yuvraj the King of Durban over their to increase popularity. Problem solved.

 

[McLOVIN]

"American's like to see SuperStars"

Well that's too bad, in cricket we don't have to many superstars. This will never work.

yup they do, but what you mean no superstars in cricket? there are big names in cricket, but not to Americans, b/c they dont watch cricket, so they dont know em.

Maybe if players hit a six off every ball then the Americans will get interested.

they would also enjoy 95+ mph ball. i wish we could send that young and crazy Shoaib Akhtar from the past. they would be shocked to see a 95+ mpg ball travel, with out chucking it.

they think ball doesnt come that fast just b/c we bounce it. and they think its really easy b/c we have a "flat" bat. these are the 1st few things that comes to their mind.

 

[Howsie]

yup they do, but what you mean no superstars in cricket? there are big names in cricket, but not to Americans, b/c they dont watch cricket, so they dont know em.

Have you seen how they market there Stars, I don't think anyone in world cricket would be as marketable as a LeBron James, or Reggie Bush, or Peyton Manning.

 

[shravi]

Have you seen how they market there Stars, I don't think anyone in world cricket would be as marketable as a LeBron James, or Reggie Bush, or Peyton Manning.

True, but you also have to work your way up. You can't expect cricket to be instantly at the top with NBA and NFL. It's going to take some time. But besides that, those stars are popular because they play in national competitions. Cricket revolves around international teams. If NFL was actually IFL, do you think the Americans would care about say, a star German quarterback, or something. It's all fine and well bringing foreign players to America but sooner or later, you're going to have to set up a national/domestic competition which will be made up of mainly Americans. Otherwise, it's not very appealing to the general American public.

 

[Howsie]

And that's why I don't think cricket would ever get that big in America, it's impossible to get through the NBA, NFL and MLB. You would need a real freak athlete to market the sport and cricket just doesn't have that someone. A good example would be Jonah Lomu 14 years ago. He burst onto the rugby scene in the 1995 World Cup and quickly become the biggest name in rugby, he was pretty much the first superstar in rugby's history. During the world cup his name was pretty much spread throughout the world and it wasn't long until NFL teams such as the Cowboys wanted him.

Now if Rugby had of setup a competetion in the USA with Lomu as there drawcard I'm sure there would of been a lot of interest. It would of been "This guy turned down the NFL, he's 6'5 280 pounds and can run the 100 in 10.5 seconds, I've got to check this out"

Now let's say Atul Sharma can actually bowl 100mph+, from what I've seen of him he's a pretty good looking athlete, he's very big and muscular. If he was able to bowl quicker then anyone else in the history of cricket and he had MLB teams looking at him (just saying as an example) and he turned them down just like Lomu, don't you think there would be a lot of interest in him.

Thus creating interest in the cricket tournament