Twenty20 Cricket arrives in United States

Twenty20 Cricket arrives in United States: Cricket has been an integral part of sports for quite some time now, but this game has still a lot to cover in terms of being global as there are very few nations around the world playing cricket.

Twenty20 cricket finally announces its arrival in the United States, the Caribbean Premier Leagues officials have decided to hold some of its matches at South Florida in the year 2016, as stated by a Top CPL Official to the Reuters on Thursday.

For a nation that plays Baseball, the Twenty20 format will be something refreshing as a 20-overs match takes three hours to complete which is less than what an average Major League Baseball game.

On a telephonic interview to the Reuters the CPL CEO Damien O’Donohoe said, “The plan is to play three or four matches at Fort Lauderdale”. O’Donohoe hopes to establish a full time franchise in North America. The matches are set to be played at Central Broward Stadium in Lauderhill as it is the only certified cricket ground in USA. With a large Caribbean community in South Florida, O’Donohoe is confident for a great turnout.

O’Donohoe further said, “Americans love watching the best players in the world. If anyone’s in position to give it a shot, we’re best positioned”.

Twenty20, the new, shortened format of the game has became widely popular among the cricket playing nations. Both T20 and Baseball can be summed up to be somewhat same in nature, as sixes in the T20 format are equivalent to Home Runs in Baseball.

The wildly popular game of Cricket i.e. T20 has its own perks as the top players are paid handsomely. The popularity of T20 cricket can be judged by the involvement of both Hollywood and Bollywood celebrities, as they are buying up franchise teams in various T20 tournaments like the Caribbean Premier League or the very Popular Indian Premier League.

The Caribbean League has a total of Six franchise teams namely: Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Guyana, St. Lucia and St. Kitts. Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg has equity in the Barbados Tridents franchise, while Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan has just bought the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel, where as Scottish actor Gerard Butler owns part of the Jamaica Tallawahs.

The third season of the CPL will start from June 20 this year and continue till 26th July. Although O’Donohoe is looking to shift the tournament to October from the next year to avoid clashing with the English season, allowing more international involvements. He has plans for a full-time franchise in North America, with New York, Toronto and South Florida being the top choices.

Concluding it O’Donohoe said, “Next year will be a ‘dip-our-toes-in-the-water’ exercise, but absolutely that is the plan, If any form of cricket is going to be successful, it’s going to be Twenty20. We really believe in the product we have”. The ending line sums it up as The Caribbean League said, “We might just have to show Americans that a six is a home run.”