The HMS Terror, one of two ships that took part in the doomed 1845 Royal Navy expedition to navigate a north-west passage through the Arctic, was recently discovered. It and its companion ship, the HMS Erebus, became trapped in ice and were eventually crushed, which resulted in the loss of all 129 men of the expedition.
The search for a shortcut to the spice-rich orient drove many to look for a “north-west passage,†which, of course, they never found. Until the construction of the Panama Canal, the only sea route to the East remained around Cape Horn, where the Atlantic and the Pacific meet in the Southern Hemisphere.
In American cricket, there has also been a long, fruitless search for a shortcut – but to success in international competition. We have endured fifty thoroughly wasted years under USACA, countless self-promoting Lalit Modi-wannabes promising us professional cricket leagues that never materialized, and lately, we have the ICC itself following its own map through the icy waters.
The latest sad spectacle in this search for an American Cricket Northwest Passage is playing out in Indianapolis at a five-day camp to select a team for the Auty Cup against Canada and then the Division Four matches in Los Angeles.
The ICC plan is for the USA’s weekend club cricketers to qualify for the 2019 World Cup and the 2020 World Twenty20, simply through better coaching and more intense preparation. Former Sri Lankan Test player Pubudu Dassanayake has been brought on to perform this miracle, but this week he probably felt more like Custer at Little Big Horn than someone leading a cricket program.
Cricinfo’s stalwart American correspondent Peter Della Penna reports that nearly half of the 22-man squad has become unavailable due to injury, or simply the need to go home to their real jobs. After only four days of training, just thirteen survivors remained, no doubt casting nervous eyes at their teammates, wondering who will be the next one to fall.
The ICC belief that American weekend club cricketers could simply be “coached up†to the standards of international competition is not only laughable, but frankly, somewhat insulting to the other nations. The belief that such a group could qualify for the World Cup is simply lunacy.
The only practical purpose the United States’ national cricket program can serve at this point is to aid in what should be Job One: the popularization of the sport among Americans. They could do this by becoming roving goodwill ambassadors, polished spokesmen and enthusiastic promoters, visiting American schools and conducting demonstration events. (And, of course, playing occasional international matches, principally with Canada, with whom we should have a heated rivalry, but don’t.)
These duties are necessary because without a significant fan base (I would settle for 5% of the population as casual fans, or 16 million people), there is no chance to create a viable economic marketplace that can support a truly professional national team setup; no chance to gain the interest of free-to-air television in a primetime cricket product; no chance to gain major national sponsors that could throw big money at Team USA.
How bad is cricket at selling the game to America? “Drone racing†is outclassing it. Just last week, ESPN announced broadcast rights to the “Drone Racing League†and will broadcast its entire season, from start to finish, on its major channels ESPN & ESPN2, starting on Oct. 23. Drone Racing’s take? $12 million.
How bad is cricket at selling the game to America? We hosted several Caribbean Premier League matches and in the neighborhoods immediately around the venue, no one other than existing US cricket fans were even aware of it.
How bad is cricket at selling the game to America? India and the West Indies played matches that mattered in Florida and no effort was made to even notify ordinary Americans. Tickets were priced in such a way as to only be of interest to the Indian diaspora. The second match was jeopardized so that the viewers in India (in India!) wouldn’t miss a ball. The message was clear: Cricket is for those of us born into it – the rest of you can go about your business.
Is there any surprise that 99% of Americans have no idea how to even play the game of cricket, much less where to actually watch a match?
As the Royal Navy discovered nearly two centuries ago, shortcuts rarely pay off – and often lead to calamity. The USA has wasted over fifty years watching shortsighted administrators and greedy speculators search for a cricket Northwest Passage. You’d think the ICC would represent a departure from this pattern, but so far there is no evidence of such.
Until the ICC wakes up and puts the marketing of cricket to the American mainstream as its number one priority here, nothing will change, and we will continue to see the spectacle of helpless ships trapped in ice floes, being slowly crushed under the weight of sheer stupidity.
It’s time to abandon ship, mates.
WRITTEN BY A PAST MEMBER OF CRICKETWINDIES.COM
