Comments
ecphiondre t1_jcu19tx wrote
Among white Americans, no. Among subcontinent immigrants (a pretty large number) and maybe a few English/Australians/other Cricket playing nations, yes, a lot. This league is trying to be niche anyway, it's goel is not to grab the mainstream American attention, at least for now.
ctiger12 t1_jcu1pbq wrote
MLC? There’s such thing in America? I know pet stores like crickets
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Kuumsy t1_jcu7y7w wrote
Get those corrupt ass holes out of cricket, then allow expansions into North America. We already have so much corruption, why add to it.
thenjdk t1_jcuic5d wrote
Somebody better tell Delhi that there is already a team called the Washington capitals.
NoQuestion4045 OP t1_jcuim5k wrote
The team is called "Washington Freedom"
letsnotreadintoit t1_jcuizgc wrote
It’s probably gonna be like the MLS, none of the best players will be there until the end of their careers. But it will be easy for fans of cricket to see a game in their own time zone
drmcsinister t1_jcujtgy wrote
Somebody also better tell the Mumbai Indians that they'll need to change their name to the Mumbai Guardians or something...
jaybleeze t1_jcunr50 wrote
Where I live there’s a large Bhutanese and Nepali immigrant community. One of the local metro parks installed cricket pitches and they are packed on weekends
PoorPauly t1_jcupyjg wrote
Oh that’s going to fail.
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agoia t1_jcuw3ac wrote
I actually like cricket a good bit. Very relaxing yet also more exciting than baseball. With more people like Jomboy talking about it and giving very helpful explanations, I think it could get some decent viewership.
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I-suck-at-golf t1_jcuzswi wrote
If Americans take up Cricket in a serious way, they will dominate the world in 8 years. There’s no bigger organization than the American Sports Complex.
hosty t1_jcuzz5x wrote
The Chennai Super Kings are one of the best named teams in all of sports. Just being "Kings" wasn't audacious enough for them.
LightningVole t1_jcv0yzb wrote
Yes, that’s why the US men’s team won the last football World Cup. It has, after all, been about 30 since MLS was founded.
Classic-End-5505 t1_jcv186z wrote
I dislike sports, but I know I would be hooked on cricket. It’s so exciting.
I-suck-at-golf t1_jcv1wj8 wrote
Americans don’t take Soccer seriously. That’s proves my point. If Americans some how “care” about Cricket. It could be huge.
Republican_Wet_Dream t1_jcv30si wrote
I know nothing about modern professional cricket. Can you provide some details?
BubbaSpanks t1_jcv3qbm wrote
This could be huge for the states! Gonna be interesting
Kuumsy t1_jcv3sd1 wrote
I'm on a ski lift so I won't be able to link but check out:
Hasan Minhaj episode on cricket
There's a couple of Netflix documentaries on the corruption
I know I won't win any points - but type in "cricket corruption" on Google and the rabbit hole will be dug.
Sorry if I can't help at the moment, but those are very good foundations.
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RedStar9117 t1_jcv6gko wrote
Sometimes when I go to Washington DC I see some Indian fellows playing cricket near the Washington Monument.....looks pretty cool
Navy_Canuck t1_jcv7acd wrote
Deployed a few years ago and when we were around the Indian Ocean area the only sports our sat tv picked up was some IPL cricket. Quickly became really popular with people huddled around the TV screen, cheering for every 6 lol.
Definitely not popular in North America but it has potential.
carnifex2005 t1_jcv7ccx wrote
The Kolkata Knight Riders is up there too.
ND_Khakis t1_jcvdnqw wrote
As an American with family roots from Mumbai, its very upsetting to learn that the Mumbai cricket team is called the Indians.
boston_shua t1_jcvejg4 wrote
Fuck no. There’s barely a market for professional soccer which is way less boring.
mrbear120 t1_jcvggtr wrote
They ride knights? I didn’t think Kolkata was very progressive, but here they are proving me wrong.
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Kimchi_Cowboy t1_jcvhwvi wrote
I'm more of a Grasshopper fan. Crickets are noisy.
bayern_16 t1_jcvj3i6 wrote
I live in Chicago and we have 50-60 cricket clubs
lewphone t1_jcvl86o wrote
There's an Amazon Prime show called "Inside Edge" about a fictional Indian professional cricket team.
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WCRugger t1_jcvmimb wrote
It's actually a T20 Cricket League. Which are run over shorter schedules of around 6-8 weeks. Players tend to play across several leagues over the course of a year. So there's actually a decent chance of getting quality players involved. Particularly seeing as this is heavily linked to the Indoan Premier League which is the boggest league of its kind in the world drawing in the best players.
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JohnHwagi t1_jcvr7vg wrote
I live in Texas, and we have cricket pitches in a lot of public parks here. It is mostly Indian people that play here, but not exclusively and there are open leagues you can sign up for.
kokeen t1_jcvrdk7 wrote
May I ask why? Why wouldn’t a team from an Indian city not name itself with Indian word?
Duckfammit t1_jcvrrej wrote
You gotta know what a crumpet is to understand cricket!
joebro2022 t1_jcvsmzk wrote
Americans trying to come up with an original Joke about Cricket ( Challenge Impossible)
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joebro2022 t1_jcvstqd wrote
The WC match vs England had higher viewership than NBA and MLB Finals. They certainly seem to care about Football but their just not good at it.
ConstantStudent_ t1_jcvtmgl wrote
Would do great in Canada. It’s like half our population and growing
Tenpat t1_jcvvwul wrote
The USA has a large enough population that it can support a few teams for a niche sport like this.
learnitallboss t1_jcvz6su wrote
I used to live in Austin and drove by a cricket match of Indians vs Pakistanis, and there were probably 300 people watching.
real_man_dollars t1_jcvzoym wrote
yeah.. ok
Imunhotep t1_jcw11iv wrote
In what?? MLC??? Did they plan on advertising this in North America at anytime since it’s due to launch in a few months? Oh boy.
Magai t1_jcw1jcc wrote
A Jose Canseco bat? Did you pay money for this?
Jlx_27 t1_jcw3nlc wrote
Sounds like a fun place to hang out on weekends!
Jlx_27 t1_jcw3xlg wrote
Well... there is the NHL club the Los Angeles Kings.
gta0012 t1_jcw4ck8 wrote
It's actually like my response when people say "you like cricket?" I'm just like yeah it's better than baseball lol
I don't watch it religiously and pay more attention to Nation stuff but I definitely enjoy it more than I do baseball.
redsealsparky t1_jcw506f wrote
No one cares about Cricket in North America
LeicaM6guy t1_jcw5mwq wrote
TIL there’s cricket in America.
hosty t1_jcw6j8z wrote
Pssh, call me back when they're the Los Angeles ULTRA MEGA KINGS.
werdnak84 t1_jcw77b5 wrote
The wealthys' specific recreational hobbies are being influenced by the very corrupt foreign leaders that also fund their own interests, and the rest of the world can't do anything about it.
Jlx_27 t1_jcw7htn wrote
RedRox t1_jcw7k4n wrote
I was thinking Kitt the car :)
RedRox t1_jcw82m3 wrote
Yep, exactly. IPL already contracts oversea's players for their league. And I'm sure players will jump at the chance (and money) to play in America.
People don't realise how much fun T20 cricket can be. They only have 20 overs (120 balls) to get as big a total as possible. So everyone wants to try and smash it out of the park.
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JgL07 t1_jcwcu7c wrote
I wouldn’t be surprised if a team is based in Canada
mrbear120 t1_jcwd850 wrote
Im just a touch young for that. Who was the Knight Rider. Like his name was Michael Knight, and he worked for Knight Industries which was not his company, and the car is called KITT which is Knight Industries Two Thousand. So who was the titular Knight?
JgL07 t1_jcwdct8 wrote
I don’t understand how it’s upsetting, but it is a extremely boring name
brownstone79 t1_jcwdstb wrote
The cricket pitches that I know of in my area were set up by the local West Indian population. A bit of googling shows me that there is a local league with 2 divisions.
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treznor70 t1_jcwgkjd wrote
Test cricket and even one day cricket can be a bit slow until you get what it is. But T20 (which is what this is)? It's the length of a baseball game, but with ~200-400 runs scored. Doesn't sound boring to me.
PositivelyIndecent t1_jcwh9xa wrote
This is the correct answer.
Im English but live in America. I was walking my dog the other day and saw a couple of south Asian kids playing cricket in the garden. Made me happy to see it.
Im curious as to what kind of number ESPN+ gets for cricket too.
sugoiiiidesunee t1_jcwi8tp wrote
Lol, considering how big the MLS has become and how long it took to be what it is now I think they have a mountain to climb.
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Minqua t1_jcwj9ie wrote
There is a baseball team in Japan named the Nippon Ham Fighters….i cant think of a better pro name
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hosty t1_jcwk0hc wrote
This is right up there, but they unfortunately lose a few points when you learn that they're the Fighters, owned by Nippon Ham Foods Ltd.
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Minqua t1_jcwmfhv wrote
Ham Fighters!
WCRugger t1_jcwn7rq wrote
Prior to Covid there was actually a Canadian tournament called the Global T20 Canada. Had 6 teams. https://gt20.ca/ Will be interesting to see if it is re-launched or teams join MLC.
ecphiondre t1_jcwojuf wrote
There is a Washington team for the this league, called Washington Freedom, I don't think a name can get more American than that 😂
ecphiondre t1_jcwp9fz wrote
As I said earlier, they are not trying to appeal to the mainstram audience or compete with baseball. They are only trageting the immigrants population where the demand is plenty. There are many small local leagues and divisions already.
ecphiondre t1_jcwpqhv wrote
I don't know about the relaxing part much mate. There are times when I feel like having a heart attack, especially if you are a New Zealand supporter.
ecphiondre t1_jcwqc9d wrote
Just visit a city with big immigrants populations and you will see how many people care and play. This league is appealing to immigrants.
digitalFermentor t1_jcwqekp wrote
They should be quite successful. Wiki says there are over 6 million South Asians in the USA. Many of those will be fully Americanised and have no interest in cricket, but if even 15%-30% decide are interested that’s an immediate market of 1-2 million. Plus any Caribbean viewers and finally Americans without a cricket heritage.
The real question for me is what format will they play? I’m assuming T20 and not Test.
ecphiondre t1_jcwqr7k wrote
Yes T20. Franchise leagues are only played in T20 formats.
RedStar9117 t1_jcwrd7t wrote
A grand tradition of terrible sports team names for DC teams. The last good team name was the Washington Senators and they left 60 years ago
RedStar9117 t1_jcwrfet wrote
I retract my statement... Capitals js a pretty good name
ecphiondre t1_jcwtntx wrote
Good to hear. IPL starts from like a week from now.
chaosgoblyn t1_jcwwwxe wrote
Aw, not a fan of the Bullets?
RedStar9117 t1_jcwwz99 wrote
Never seemed like a good team name to me
apocolipse t1_jcwyv82 wrote
There are more people who know who Sachin Tendulkar is than there are US Citizens... and yet only about 2% of Americans know who he is (Indian Americans... and Seth Macfarlane and people like me who got the joke from the 1 episode of Family Guy)
ecphiondre t1_jcx06zl wrote
How is that relevant here? Many Americans don't know Maradona and many Indians don't know Micheal Jordan or Kobe Bryant (I only learned about him after seeing the news of his helicopter crash on Reddit), that doesn't affect anything. Even 1 percent of people in America (3 million) showing interest would be huge for a niche league.
apocolipse t1_jcx1b46 wrote
The relevance is to say that yeah, it’s not popular here, given one of the literal most popular athletes in the world 98%+ of Americans have never heard of him.
Compare that to Soccer, also not that popular in the US as a pro sport, most Americans could name at least Ronaldo, Pele, Beckham.
IngVegas t1_jcx960z wrote
Awesome. And then the Americans can play the World Series for the best cricket team on the planet.
Nicholarse_Angle t1_jcxey90 wrote
Or moments of severe depression if you're a fan of the current South Africa team.
SnooRobots6923 t1_jcxhcnt wrote
What? The incidents that come to mind are decades old. The last major scandal was back in 2013. I see many comments like this without providing any actual context.
ecphiondre t1_jcxi8lk wrote
The league already has Aaron Finch, Mitch Marsh, Nortje, de Kock, Cory Anderson. These are big names already.
WCRugger t1_jcxidi3 wrote
And there will probably be a number of others as well. Sort of proves my point.
chaosgoblyn t1_jcxryv5 wrote
On the one hand it's kind of funny how extremely poor in taste it was, on the other hand, it's a professional team
RedStar9117 t1_jcxs6gg wrote
I think they changed it when DC had the highest per Capita murder rate in the US
Blue1234567891234567 t1_jczfxkn wrote
How does one acquire a large Bhutanese immigrant community
jaybleeze t1_jczgpni wrote
I honestly don’t know. It’s north Akron. For whatever reason there are a lot of Bhutanese and Nepali immigrants and refugees that live here. I’m a big fan because their food is great and they wear fun hats
Blue1234567891234567 t1_jczmyrw wrote
No disagreement from me here, I think Bhutan is awesome. Just aren’t a lot of immigrants of ‘em out there
David_McGahan t1_jd0kedi wrote
I’m Australian - my brother-in-law went over to teach in Winnipeg for a year. His school was full of Pakistani and Bangladeshi kids just mad keen for him to start running cricket games in phys ed or gym class or whatever you call it there.
This MLC league should 100% have had a Toronto team. There’s like 7mil South Asian Canadians, and 1.5 in Greater Toronto alone.
Mahameghabahana t1_jd3g0w1 wrote
Nah he is just salty about dominance of india in cricket, he should be the last person to take opinion regarding these lol. He is just repeating that how good cricket was back then when all countries focus on 5 day test matches and then evil india and BCCI made IPL which ruined cricket. That's all he provides.
rameshnat27 t1_jd4v85n wrote
What an interesting way to come across the sport! Thank you for sharing
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hawkDsh00ter t1_jd5zp6l wrote
In fact, IPL and t20 saved cricket.
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Ozarkian_Tritip t1_jcu0p2m wrote
Is there a market for Cricket in North America?