Bringing Cricket to American Sports Fans
Best of Both Worlds
If your idea of fun is watching a guy representing one country whip a ball at a guy with a bat representing a different country, it doesn't get any better than this. The planets have aligned. The ICC T20 World Cup got underway this week in India and Sri Lanka and features twenty of cricket's top international teams vying for the title. And just as that's wrapping up, the World Baseball Classic begins in Miami, Houston, San Juan, and Tokyo pitting twenty of baseball's best international squads against each other. Amazingly, seven countries qualified for both events: Australia, Canada, England (Great Britain in the WBC), Italy, Netherlands, Scotland (Great Britain), and the US. Since both tournaments feature a... (Read more)
Test Season
Cricket fans in the US have been feeding on a steady diet of T20 for months. The IPL and PSL in the spring gave way to Major League Cricket and Minor League Cricket this summer and then the CPL this fall. Finally, though, fans can sink their teeth into some deeper play as we're about to embark on a busy international Test schedule. And despite the fact that the action will take place half-way around the world, because of time differences, the majority of matches will be in very viewer-friendly prime time for those in the States....(Read more)
The Rules
Not the 18th century "Laws of Cricket," but a quick way to understand the basics of the game and be able to watch either live or televised cricket as if you've been doing it for years.
Terminology
Cricket is famous for its jargon and terminology. Don't fret! I've come up with the 40 most used words and phrases that you'll need in order to watch, understand, and enjoy the game.
Features
My take on what's going on in the sport. Hopefully, it'll help you understand things a little bit better. If it doesn't, I apologize in advance.
About CricAmerica
Why an already really busy guy decided to devote a ridiculous amount of his time to watching, thinking about, reading about, and writing about a sport he only discovered a few years ago.
Most Americans have a preconception about cricket -- that it’s a complex and slow-paced, days-long game played in England by guys dressed in white. And while, yes, this is partially true, it's generally based on very limited exposure. (It'd be like generalizing that football is a game played only by giant, freezing guys in Buffalo and Green Bay.)
The fact is that cricket is just a really weird version of baseball. Take a big swig of NyQuil, go to sleep, and have a dream about baseball.
That's cricket.
Batters have to be a bizarre combination of Tuukka Rask, Ichiro, and Mike Trout. The guys throwing to the batters are not only gunning it at 90-plus mph, but they get the added advantage of being able to bounce the ball to further mess with the hitter. No one on the fielding team -- other than the guy that's essentially the catcher -- is allowed to wear a glove. (And the ball is even harder than a baseball.) Oh, and there's no foul ground. You can hit the ball anywhere.
A NyQuil dream about baseball.
Other than that, though, the rules are incredibly similar to baseball.
My goal for CricAmerica is to have you be able to watch, understand, and enjoy cricket. Your initial investment is minimal. Start with The Rules section and the Features section and then poke around the rest of the site, which is constantly being updated.
The return on your investment? The ability to enjoy the athleticism, excitement, and drama of the second most popular sport in the world.
More importantly, it'll let you pretend to work while watching the best players in the world square off live in an Indian Premier League game at 11:00 on a Tuesday morning.
