America doesn’t really care about cricket. Can Major League Cricket change that?

Major League Cricket (MLC), a new professional cricket league in the United States, aims to popularize the sport, which has struggled to capture American interest.

Breakthrough Endeavour: The inaugural tournament of MLC starts on July 13, featuring six teams over 19 matches.
* The tournament kicks off with a match between the Texas Super Kings and the Los Angeles Knight Riders at the newly transformed 7,200-seat Grand Prairie Stadium near Dallas.
* Matches will also take place in Church Street Park, Morrisville, N.C., with the playoffs returning to the Grand Prairie Stadium.

Big Investments: MLC is backed by a $120 million investment mainly from Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan, co-founders of Willow TV, North America’s largest cricket broadcaster.
* The investment is aimed at growing the game in the U.S. through recruiting international talent and building venues and training facilities, with the hope of developing a new generation of U.S. cricketers.

The Challenge: Despite the investment and launch of MLC, cricket’s future in the U.S. remains uncertain.
* Zubin Sarkari, who manages operations for MLC, highlights the spectator-friendly T20 format of the game as a selling point, comparing the experience to attending a Minor or Major League Baseball game.
* Meanwhile, Peter Della Penna, former ESPN cricket writer, criticizes MLC for failing to cater to the sporting culture of the U.S. and for lacking an approach to earning organic support from the American public.

The Path to Success: Penna suggests that grassroots level effort and integrating cricket into American school sports could offer a sustainable pathway to popularity, rather than relying on immigration patterns and international stars unknown to the average American.

View original article on NPR

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