US schoolkids to get cricket education amid game’s expansion

The T20 World Cup is just the beginning of the International Cricket Council’s push into the lucrative United States market, with the sport’s governing body setting an ambitious goal of having one million US school children involved in cricket by 2028.

The US will host 16 matches at the World Cup, beginning with a clash between USA and Canada in Dallas on Sunday (WA time) and featuring a highly-anticipated match-up between India and Pakistan at New York’s pop-up 34,000-seat stadium.

But expanding the tournament to be held away from a Test-playing nation is far from the end game for the ICC, with chief commercial officer Anurag Dahiya declaring growing the sport at junior level was the key to its emergence in the US.

Dahiya said the sport had a “playground to podium” ambition for American kids, with investment at grassroots level aided by the exposure of the World Cup, Major League Cricket, and the code’s inclusion at the 2028 Olympic Games to be held in Los Angeles.

“The World Cup has a crucial role in grabbing the attention of fans and potential fans, but really what we leave behind as the legacy of this World Cup is what will count,” Dahiya said.

“We’re partnering with schools to incorporate cricket into their physical education programs, that involves things like teaching them the basics of cricket, and a lot of that will kick off from the new school term in August.

“The aim there is as we get to the Olympics in LA in 2028, we are aiming to have a million school kids playing cricket.

“Equally, there is focus on training and education, developing coaches and officials… and that is where we feel the proper foundation for the sustainable growth of our sport will be laid.”