One sure way of making a sport popular in a country less enthu about it is to make the host country win. India winning the football World Cup if India hosts the tournament, for instance, would do wonders in turning cricket nuts overnight into football fans. Which brings us to cricket in America. While the sport was played by British colonists from the late 18th century – with Philadelphia as the cricket capital of the Americas – the Civil War made the more malleable no-stumps-needed baseball the American bat-‘n’-ball game. The final yorker in the coffin was delivered by humiliating defeats against a travelling English side – remember, they were still seen as ex-colonists, not America’s Blairite poodle, by Americans then – in 1859.
Enter last week’s US victory against Pakistan in the ongoing T20 World Cup in Dallas. Wilted though the 2009 champions may be today, beating Pakistan in cricket is like beating Italy in football. To catalyse cricket popularity in Baseballabad, may we suggest renaming ‘overs’ to ’rounds’, ‘wickets’ to ‘outs’, and ‘bowlers’ to ‘pitchers’. Also, introduce a break every 5 mins for ads, snacks and breathers, irrespective of end of overs. Call it ‘Freedom format’. And consider T10 instead of T20 endorsed by, say, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson explaining the LBW rule, or Taylor Swift singing about the ‘Glorious Drive’.
