United States founding father George Washington is said to have played at least one game of cricket on US soil while battling the British for independence - well before the same sport was enjoyed on New Zealand shores.
Now a firm fixture of the Kiwi summer,cricket’s early popularity in the US was eclipsed by baseball about the time of the Civil War.
A century and a half later, the nation is today co-hosting the T20 World Cup - with the first match due to be played between two minnows of the game (the US and Canada) at Texas’ Grand Prairie Stadium.
Tim Southee will be playing at his seventh T20 World Cup. Photo / Photosport
The tournament - featuring the shortest, most family-friendly, and arguably entertaining format of the game - is an opportunity to bring cricket to a huge new audience and follows on from last year’s inaugural Major League Cricket competition in North America.
That MLC contest is part of a proliferation of T20 franchises around the world over the past 15 years, built on the back of the lucrative Indian Premier League.
Those competitions have created complications for national ODI and test teams as players become travelling guns for hire. But the leagues have also helped to grow the depth of New Zealand’s cricketing talent in ways impossible with domestic games alone or the sparse number of international fixtures the Black Caps play compared to the game’s Big Three (India, England, Australia).
Indeed, six of the Black Caps World Cup squad - including captain Kane Williamson - have previously played in the Caribbean Premier League (the islands are tournament partners with the USA).
As Black Caps all-rounder Jimmy Neesham told Cricket Monthly on the eve of the tournament, that can help remove some of a host’s advantage.
”Now you get tours where seven or eight guys have been in those conditions before, which certainly makes it less daunting to play overseas. I think one of the great things of our team is, there is no hesitancy to share that knowledge among players. I think that has been our strength in world tournaments over the last 10 to 12 years.”
Captain Kane Williamson of New Zealand hits a shot during the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 final against Australia in Dubai. Photo / David Gray / www.Photosport.nz
New Zealand has often come close but not close enough to glory at T20 world cups (the Black Caps have reached the semis at four outings, as well as the final in 2021).
With an experienced side, Kiwi fans should have every expectation Gary Stead’s men will reach similar heights as in previous tournaments.
While they are by no means favourites, one of the delights of the short format is how small flourishes of brilliance (a tight spell of bowling, a single over of devastating batting) can have outsized impacts on the result.
And such surprises, upsets, and routs will hopefully help more Americans swap their love of baseball for the sound of leather on willow.
