Who needs soccer, anyway? Cricket's coming Stateside!

No, really.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_8470000/8470796.stm?

Twenty20 is basically the home-run derby of cricket, and is as far from the stereotypical days-long, all-whites affair as can be. Games also typically last about three hours.

With all that said, this can't possibly work. Or can it?

 

There's enough ex-pats to make some money, but it's not going to crack the U.S. fandom.

And it's a shame that they insist on trying it with 20-20. Five-day test cricket is much more fascinating. T20 is, as you said, a home-run derby.

 

<crickets>

 

Damn you!

 

And as a home run derby, it has a far better chance of succeeding here.

People here always say they want high scoring and a lot of action. This fulfills both of those requirements easily.

 

Of course, stick the games in the right places and you don't need a single white American to show up. It's not as though there aren't any Indians, Pakistanis, West Indians or, of course, Brits in the U.S.

 

I'm right in thinking the sport is particularly strong in the northeast thanks to the large Indian, Pakistani and West Indian communities there, right? I mean, they've played one-day games before at the Skydome in Toronto.

 

Ready to see some wicked googlies.

 

I think this is a silly mid-on idea.

 

Anything to promote tea consumption, I say.

 

This is a silly point.

 

Ain't nobody drinkin' tea at Twenty20. Or multi-day matches for that matter. For varying reasons, both require beer.

In fact, it was at a Twenty20 match that I saw something I can't believe hasn't caught on in the U.S., or maybe it has and I just haven't seen it. Beer vendors walking around with little portable beer coolers on their backs, complete with taps to dispense with.