Cricket: Americans eyeing cup games

By RICHARD BOOCK in Johannesburg

If you thought this World Cup was a Mickey-Mouse affair, just wait for the plans for the 2007 event, which will apparently include automatic entry for the United States, and a few games in Florida.

Having presided over a tournament containing one of the worst formats in modern sport, the International Cricket Council has evidently made plans to take its global vision a step further in 2007, despite the obvious drawbacks of an enlarged tournament.

The ICC's ambition to spread the word might be well-intentioned, but the consequences of the move have already been felt in southern Africa, where the race to find the best team in the world has been upstaged by developmental ideology.

The expanded 54-game format meant there was no room to schedule reserve days in the first round - a convenience that led to the elimination of the West Indies - and the scheduling of games in Zimbabwe and Kenya had a well-documented impact on qualification.

The ICC executive committee will meet in South Africa next week to discuss plans for the next tournament in the West Indies and, according to reports, is expected to offer strong support for the US to qualify automatically as co-hosts.

Andrew Eade, the ICC's global development manager, made no bones about his organisation's eagerness to accommodate the US, seen as one of the game's biggest and most lucrative potential markets.

"If formal acceptance is given to the US hosting matches, then the intention is they would be given automatic entry as co-hosts," he said. "We are very hopeful it will be approved. The potential is fantastic."

Although there was always a faint chance of the US being included as soon as the West Indies were confirmed as major hosts, the ICC's increased enthusiasm apparently stems from what officials believe is an unprecedented amount of World Cup coverage on the American-based global news channel CNN.

But what the officials have not appeared to grasp is that the tournament has been mentioned on CNN's international channel, but hardly at all on CNN's American telecasts, a fact that possibly sheds more light on America's readiness for cricket.

If initial reports are correct, the US will probably stage four matches in 2007 at a purpose-built stadium in Florida, a location renowned for a large West Indian community, not to mention a horrific record with a faulty electric chair, and a dubious election win for George W. Bush.

In terms of cricket, the US finished fifth in the last qualifying tournament as the top three went through, and can allegedly boast 10,000 cricketers of varying ability - mostly of Asian and West Indian descent, in New York, California, Michigan and Florida.

Matthew Engel, Guardian cricket writer and former editor of Wisden, has roundly condemned the American vision, saying the ICC is now lusting over breaking into the US as pathetically as the class nerd lusts after the bustiest cheerleader. Soccer, a little hopelessly, dreamed the same dream.

Engel added that "according to my database, 'cricket' has appeared 559 times in major American papers over the past month".

"Most of these concern such matters as crickets as a fishing bait, Mormon crickets, an insect damaging crops in Utah, the Cricketers Club in New Jersey, which features heavy metal, and Cricket Williams, a women's basketball player".

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