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Ozarkian_Tritip t1_jcu0p2m wrote

Is there a market for Cricket in North America?

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ecphiondre t1_jcu19tx wrote

Among white Americans, no. Among subcontinent immigrants (a pretty large number) and maybe a few English/Australians/other Cricket playing nations, yes, a lot. This league is trying to be niche anyway, it's goel is not to grab the mainstream American attention, at least for now.

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jaybleeze t1_jcunr50 wrote

Where I live there’s a large Bhutanese and Nepali immigrant community. One of the local metro parks installed cricket pitches and they are packed on weekends

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Jlx_27 t1_jcw3nlc wrote

Sounds like a fun place to hang out on weekends!

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brownstone79 t1_jcwdstb wrote

The cricket pitches that I know of in my area were set up by the local West Indian population. A bit of googling shows me that there is a local league with 2 divisions.

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Blue1234567891234567 t1_jczfxkn wrote

How does one acquire a large Bhutanese immigrant community

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jaybleeze t1_jczgpni wrote

I honestly don’t know. It’s north Akron. For whatever reason there are a lot of Bhutanese and Nepali immigrants and refugees that live here. I’m a big fan because their food is great and they wear fun hats

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Blue1234567891234567 t1_jczmyrw wrote

No disagreement from me here, I think Bhutan is awesome. Just aren’t a lot of immigrants of ‘em out there

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agoia t1_jcuw3ac wrote

I actually like cricket a good bit. Very relaxing yet also more exciting than baseball. With more people like Jomboy talking about it and giving very helpful explanations, I think it could get some decent viewership.

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gta0012 t1_jcw4ck8 wrote

It's actually like my response when people say "you like cricket?" I'm just like yeah it's better than baseball lol

I don't watch it religiously and pay more attention to Nation stuff but I definitely enjoy it more than I do baseball.

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ecphiondre t1_jcwpqhv wrote

I don't know about the relaxing part much mate. There are times when I feel like having a heart attack, especially if you are a New Zealand supporter.

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Nicholarse_Angle t1_jcxey90 wrote

Or moments of severe depression if you're a fan of the current South Africa team.

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RedStar9117 t1_jcv6gko wrote

Sometimes when I go to Washington DC I see some Indian fellows playing cricket near the Washington Monument.....looks pretty cool

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ecphiondre t1_jcwojuf wrote

There is a Washington team for the this league, called Washington Freedom, I don't think a name can get more American than that 😂

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RedStar9117 t1_jcwrd7t wrote

A grand tradition of terrible sports team names for DC teams. The last good team name was the Washington Senators and they left 60 years ago

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chaosgoblyn t1_jcwwwxe wrote

Aw, not a fan of the Bullets?

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RedStar9117 t1_jcwwz99 wrote

Never seemed like a good team name to me

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chaosgoblyn t1_jcxryv5 wrote

On the one hand it's kind of funny how extremely poor in taste it was, on the other hand, it's a professional team

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RedStar9117 t1_jcxs6gg wrote

I think they changed it when DC had the highest per Capita murder rate in the US

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RedStar9117 t1_jcwrfet wrote

I retract my statement... Capitals js a pretty good name

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PositivelyIndecent t1_jcwh9xa wrote

This is the correct answer.

Im English but live in America. I was walking my dog the other day and saw a couple of south Asian kids playing cricket in the garden. Made me happy to see it.

Im curious as to what kind of number ESPN+ gets for cricket too.

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sugoiiiidesunee t1_jcwi8tp wrote

Lol, considering how big the MLS has become and how long it took to be what it is now I think they have a mountain to climb.

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ecphiondre t1_jcwp9fz wrote

As I said earlier, they are not trying to appeal to the mainstram audience or compete with baseball. They are only trageting the immigrants population where the demand is plenty. There are many small local leagues and divisions already.

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digitalFermentor t1_jcwqekp wrote

They should be quite successful. Wiki says there are over 6 million South Asians in the USA. Many of those will be fully Americanised and have no interest in cricket, but if even 15%-30% decide are interested that’s an immediate market of 1-2 million. Plus any Caribbean viewers and finally Americans without a cricket heritage.

The real question for me is what format will they play? I’m assuming T20 and not Test.

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ecphiondre t1_jcwqr7k wrote

Yes T20. Franchise leagues are only played in T20 formats.

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apocolipse t1_jcwyv82 wrote

There are more people who know who Sachin Tendulkar is than there are US Citizens... and yet only about 2% of Americans know who he is (Indian Americans... and Seth Macfarlane and people like me who got the joke from the 1 episode of Family Guy)

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ecphiondre t1_jcx06zl wrote

How is that relevant here? Many Americans don't know Maradona and many Indians don't know Micheal Jordan or Kobe Bryant (I only learned about him after seeing the news of his helicopter crash on Reddit), that doesn't affect anything. Even 1 percent of people in America (3 million) showing interest would be huge for a niche league.

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apocolipse t1_jcx1b46 wrote

The relevance is to say that yeah, it’s not popular here, given one of the literal most popular athletes in the world 98%+ of Americans have never heard of him.

Compare that to Soccer, also not that popular in the US as a pro sport, most Americans could name at least Ronaldo, Pele, Beckham.

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JohnHwagi t1_jcvr7vg wrote

I live in Texas, and we have cricket pitches in a lot of public parks here. It is mostly Indian people that play here, but not exclusively and there are open leagues you can sign up for.

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learnitallboss t1_jcvz6su wrote

I used to live in Austin and drove by a cricket match of Indians vs Pakistanis, and there were probably 300 people watching.

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ConstantStudent_ t1_jcvtmgl wrote

Would do great in Canada. It’s like half our population and growing

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WCRugger t1_jcwn7rq wrote

Prior to Covid there was actually a Canadian tournament called the Global T20 Canada. Had 6 teams. https://gt20.ca/ Will be interesting to see if it is re-launched or teams join MLC.

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JgL07 t1_jcwcu7c wrote

I wouldn’t be surprised if a team is based in Canada

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David_McGahan t1_jd0kedi wrote

I’m Australian - my brother-in-law went over to teach in Winnipeg for a year. His school was full of Pakistani and Bangladeshi kids just mad keen for him to start running cricket games in phys ed or gym class or whatever you call it there.

This MLC league should 100% have had a Toronto team. There’s like 7mil South Asian Canadians, and 1.5 in Greater Toronto alone.

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letsnotreadintoit t1_jcuizgc wrote

It’s probably gonna be like the MLS, none of the best players will be there until the end of their careers. But it will be easy for fans of cricket to see a game in their own time zone

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WCRugger t1_jcvmimb wrote

It's actually a T20 Cricket League. Which are run over shorter schedules of around 6-8 weeks. Players tend to play across several leagues over the course of a year. So there's actually a decent chance of getting quality players involved. Particularly seeing as this is heavily linked to the Indoan Premier League which is the boggest league of its kind in the world drawing in the best players.

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ecphiondre t1_jcxi8lk wrote

The league already has Aaron Finch, Mitch Marsh, Nortje, de Kock, Cory Anderson. These are big names already.

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WCRugger t1_jcxidi3 wrote

And there will probably be a number of others as well. Sort of proves my point.

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RedRox t1_jcw82m3 wrote

Yep, exactly. IPL already contracts oversea's players for their league. And I'm sure players will jump at the chance (and money) to play in America.

People don't realise how much fun T20 cricket can be. They only have 20 overs (120 balls) to get as big a total as possible. So everyone wants to try and smash it out of the park.

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bayern_16 t1_jcvj3i6 wrote

I live in Chicago and we have 50-60 cricket clubs

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Tenpat t1_jcvvwul wrote

The USA has a large enough population that it can support a few teams for a niche sport like this.

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boston_shua t1_jcvejg4 wrote

Fuck no. There’s barely a market for professional soccer which is way less boring.

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treznor70 t1_jcwgkjd wrote

Test cricket and even one day cricket can be a bit slow until you get what it is. But T20 (which is what this is)? It's the length of a baseball game, but with ~200-400 runs scored. Doesn't sound boring to me.

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thenjdk t1_jcuic5d wrote

Somebody better tell Delhi that there is already a team called the Washington capitals.

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drmcsinister t1_jcujtgy wrote

Somebody also better tell the Mumbai Indians that they'll need to change their name to the Mumbai Guardians or something...

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hosty t1_jcuzz5x wrote

The Chennai Super Kings are one of the best named teams in all of sports. Just being "Kings" wasn't audacious enough for them.

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carnifex2005 t1_jcv7ccx wrote

The Kolkata Knight Riders is up there too.

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mrbear120 t1_jcvggtr wrote

They ride knights? I didn’t think Kolkata was very progressive, but here they are proving me wrong.

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RedRox t1_jcw7k4n wrote

I was thinking Kitt the car :)

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mrbear120 t1_jcwd850 wrote

Im just a touch young for that. Who was the Knight Rider. Like his name was Michael Knight, and he worked for Knight Industries which was not his company, and the car is called KITT which is Knight Industries Two Thousand. So who was the titular Knight?

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Minqua t1_jcwj9ie wrote

There is a baseball team in Japan named the Nippon Ham Fighters….i cant think of a better pro name

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hosty t1_jcwk0hc wrote

This is right up there, but they unfortunately lose a few points when you learn that they're the Fighters, owned by Nippon Ham Foods Ltd.

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Jlx_27 t1_jcw3xlg wrote

Well... there is the NHL club the Los Angeles Kings.

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hosty t1_jcw6j8z wrote

Pssh, call me back when they're the Los Angeles ULTRA MEGA KINGS.

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Kuumsy t1_jcu7y7w wrote

Get those corrupt ass holes out of cricket, then allow expansions into North America. We already have so much corruption, why add to it.

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Republican_Wet_Dream t1_jcv30si wrote

I know nothing about modern professional cricket. Can you provide some details?

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Kuumsy t1_jcv3sd1 wrote

I'm on a ski lift so I won't be able to link but check out:

Hasan Minhaj episode on cricket

There's a couple of Netflix documentaries on the corruption

I know I won't win any points - but type in "cricket corruption" on Google and the rabbit hole will be dug.

Sorry if I can't help at the moment, but those are very good foundations.

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Mahameghabahana t1_jd3g0w1 wrote

Nah he is just salty about dominance of india in cricket, he should be the last person to take opinion regarding these lol. He is just repeating that how good cricket was back then when all countries focus on 5 day test matches and then evil india and BCCI made IPL which ruined cricket. That's all he provides.

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lewphone t1_jcvl86o wrote

There's an Amazon Prime show called "Inside Edge" about a fictional Indian professional cricket team.

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SnooRobots6923 t1_jcxhcnt wrote

What? The incidents that come to mind are decades old. The last major scandal was back in 2013. I see many comments like this without providing any actual context.

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PoorPauly t1_jcupyjg wrote

Oh that’s going to fail.

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Navy_Canuck t1_jcv7acd wrote

Deployed a few years ago and when we were around the Indian Ocean area the only sports our sat tv picked up was some IPL cricket. Quickly became really popular with people huddled around the TV screen, cheering for every 6 lol.

Definitely not popular in North America but it has potential.

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ecphiondre t1_jcwtntx wrote

Good to hear. IPL starts from like a week from now.

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rameshnat27 t1_jd4v85n wrote

What an interesting way to come across the sport! Thank you for sharing

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LeicaM6guy t1_jcw5mwq wrote

TIL there’s cricket in America.

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Imunhotep t1_jcw11iv wrote

In what?? MLC??? Did they plan on advertising this in North America at anytime since it’s due to launch in a few months? Oh boy.

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IngVegas t1_jcx960z wrote

Awesome. And then the Americans can play the World Series for the best cricket team on the planet.

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BubbaSpanks t1_jcv3qbm wrote

This could be huge for the states! Gonna be interesting

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Kimchi_Cowboy t1_jcvhwvi wrote

I'm more of a Grasshopper fan. Crickets are noisy.

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ctiger12 t1_jcu1pbq wrote

MLC? There’s such thing in America? I know pet stores like crickets

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Duckfammit t1_jcvrrej wrote

You gotta know what a crumpet is to understand cricket!

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joebro2022 t1_jcvsmzk wrote

Americans trying to come up with an original Joke about Cricket ( Challenge Impossible)

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redsealsparky t1_jcw506f wrote

No one cares about Cricket in North America

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ecphiondre t1_jcwqc9d wrote

Just visit a city with big immigrants populations and you will see how many people care and play. This league is appealing to immigrants.

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werdnak84 t1_jcw77b5 wrote

The wealthys' specific recreational hobbies are being influenced by the very corrupt foreign leaders that also fund their own interests, and the rest of the world can't do anything about it.

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Classic-End-5505 t1_jcv186z wrote

I dislike sports, but I know I would be hooked on cricket. It’s so exciting.

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ND_Khakis t1_jcvdnqw wrote

As an American with family roots from Mumbai, its very upsetting to learn that the Mumbai cricket team is called the Indians.

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kokeen t1_jcvrdk7 wrote

May I ask why? Why wouldn’t a team from an Indian city not name itself with Indian word?

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JgL07 t1_jcwdct8 wrote

I don’t understand how it’s upsetting, but it is a extremely boring name

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I-suck-at-golf t1_jcuzswi wrote

If Americans take up Cricket in a serious way, they will dominate the world in 8 years. There’s no bigger organization than the American Sports Complex.

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LightningVole t1_jcv0yzb wrote

Yes, that’s why the US men’s team won the last football World Cup. It has, after all, been about 30 since MLS was founded.

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I-suck-at-golf t1_jcv1wj8 wrote

Americans don’t take Soccer seriously. That’s proves my point. If Americans some how “care” about Cricket. It could be huge.

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joebro2022 t1_jcvstqd wrote

The WC match vs England had higher viewership than NBA and MLB Finals. They certainly seem to care about Football but their just not good at it.

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