ZIMDOGGY wrote: ↑Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:24 am
how often does cricket get a run in the US?
Last year when i was there for a few months i dont seem to recall struggling to find any cricketing reference.
alot of indian types floating round happy to talk shop.
pretty sure i saw some cricketing references on TV.
In 2015 when Jarryd Hayne made the NFL briefly off the street rugby league and union was getting a bit of hype, yanks were talking to me about it in the street, but pretty sure that died down just as quick.
Cricket is still regarded in the US as something slightly less exotic than Chinese foot binding rituals.
Couple weeks ago I was on a 3.5 hour flight to LA and one of the two women sitting next to me struck up a conversation. I casually threw in that I watch cricket - I don't remember why I would do that, maybe because the girl mentioned she played softball in high school. At any rate, both women's curiosities were immediately piqued. I could have told them I had 10 million dollars worth of diamonds taped to my dick and they would probably not have been as interested, lol.
The woman my age was a former softball player and the older woman's daughter was a current softball player so both were interested in cricket. I spent the next 3 hours answering all their questions and explaining almost everything. You know you're having an excellent discussion with an American when they pull out their laptop and google "cricket field" and ask you "what is 'on side?'" You know you've had a thorough discussion when you explain what a short-leg or silly point fielder's basic job is.
As far as seeing cricket on the mainstream media or consciousness...its not really there yet in the US. And it won't be unless the US makes a major ICC event or at least gets to host one. Soccer got big here in 1994 after we hosted the FIFA WC, and soccer was still magnitudes more known back then compared to cricket in 2018.
Cricket is still by and large the butt of jokes here in the US, and Americans erroneously believe that its far too complex for them to understand. If Americans can understand football, they can easily grasp cricket.