Cricket in America

[Cricketman]

ICC Cricket Marathon going on right now on ESPN Classic! T20 game England vs Australia on right now.

Never have seen so much cricket on TV in America. Wonder what the Americans are thinking

 

[MLSfan22]

All World T20 games are being streamed live on ESPN3 in good quality. ESPN2 will have the final game (the first time ever I'll get to watch cricket on free cable TV in the US). ESPN's website has added cricket to list of sports scores they are updating on the front page and regularly features cricket stories (about past game or upcoming) under their 'Must See' column.

 

[Epic]

Didn't know about the final thing, that's certainly... Interesting.

 

[pcfan123]

keep dreaming. Ask any American of non-subcontinent origin and they could't give two shits about cricket.

 

[MLSfan22]

keep dreaming. Ask any American of non-subcontinent origin and they could't give two shits about cricket.

Of course they couldn't. Something has to 'exist' in order for people to decide whether they give two shits about it or not. Cricket is never on TV here, so it doesn't exist. People in America have heard of a sport called cricket but don't know how it's played or even what it looks like. They only know it takes many days to play and tea is served during breaks. That's about all.

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ICC Cricket Marathon going on right now on ESPN Classic! T20 game England vs Australia on right now.

Never have seen so much cricket on TV in America. Wonder what the Americans are thinking

ESPN Classic (that shows old sports games) generally doesn't get many viewers for anything. Its low household reach, compared to ESPN(1), ESPN2, and ESPNews, doesn't help either.

 

[MLSfan22]

An update for those living in the US: According to the WatchESPN site, the World T20 final will be on both ESPN2 and ESPN3 live at 9 AM Eastern. It will be replayed on ESPN2 4 hours later.

 

[Epic]

Thanks for the update man, I looked around all over the TV guide for no avail, thanks.

 

[Params7]

ESPN2 is showing this match now. Delayed, but since this was a fantastic match, worth a watch again.

 

[Epic]

Bit disappointed that it wasn't actually live like they said it would be, but w.e, at least it was on WatchESPN.

 

[cricketaddict]

keep dreaming. Ask any American of non-subcontinent origin and they could't give two shits about cricket.

Its not that Cricket in America is not known. Back in late 18th century and early 19th century the Philadelphians played a lot of cricket. Bart King and his men had many first class tours. The thing was they did good in start and they thought this sport my rise to the occasion but the result that were achieved werent satisfactory. We all know how restless Americans are

Not getting the desired result and change the profession.

America is a whole different market, things could get popular here but ICC needs heavy investment.

 

[Params7]

I just hope ESPN saw enough numbers on espn3 to also buy the home series from Willow's parent company. I'm sick of watching cricket on PPV with the worst 'fing ads ever. Indian aimed Insurance company ads are cancer.

 

[MLSfan22]

Bit disappointed that it wasn't actually live like they said it would be, but w.e, at least it was on WatchESPN.

Yeah .. wonder what happened there. I kept a screenshot of their TV schedule from WatchESPN which showed both ESPN2 and ESPN3 at 9 am (and again at 1 PM).

http://img278.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=629194408_Cricketonespn2_122_420lo.jpg

I've also filtered the schedule search result to ESPN2 only and it still showed two showings.

Then, during the broadcast they've edited out the very first wicket and 5 balls (plus cut few more overs including a wicket in the middle of the first inning). That probably didn't help any curious American trying to get an understanding of the sport (they probably had no idea ESPN edited out some parts of the game). I know the network tried to fit the game to a 3-hour window but surely they could have cut some of the long interviews of many players from the 35 minute long post-game show instead.

I also wish they showed the hawk-eye trajectory of one of the LBW outs which would've explained the out to those Americans. More replays of some of the notable plays in general (possibly from different angles) also would have been more useful than repeatedly showing the faces of players standing around or switching field during the over break.

The unusually slow beginning of the game itself didn't help either. How often do you see a test team with a run rate of under 3.00 after 8 overs in a T20 game?! Oh well .. congratulations to the West Indies.

 

[MLSfan22]

Its not that Cricket in America is not known. Back in late 18th century and early 19th century the Philadelphians played a lot of cricket.[/queue]

Yes, cricket is a known sport .. to the Americans who have been in the grave for the past 80 years. Those born after 1940 are about as familiar with cricket as they are with hurling or kabadi.

America is a whole different market, things could get popular here but ICC needs heavy investment.

Agreed. Cricket has just about everything Americans love in a sport and offer some exciting dimensions other sports don't offer. It just needs to be on non-pay TV to get people learning about it and become familiar with it. That may require sacrificing some of the fat pay-per-view money ICC gets from this market but they need to have a long term vision. If soccer can generate close to $2 billion in US rights fees for all televised games over an 8-year period, there's no reason cricket can't get at least 1/5th the amount with a little effort. I know us fans are not interested in the $$ part of the equation but the greedy ICC does. They are just too dumb or short-sighted to realize how much money they are leaving on the table.

 

[Epic]

Yeah .. wonder what happened there. I kept a screenshot of their TV schedule from WatchESPN which showed both ESPN2 and ESPN3 at 9 am (and again at 1 PM).

http://img278.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=629194408_Cricketonespn2_122_420lo.jpg

I've also filtered the schedule search result to ESPN2 only and it still showed two showings.

I saw it on the schedule too, but it wasn't to be, think they were showing something Nascar around that time.

 

[Cricketman]

Interested to see how ESPN takes it forward after the tournament has ended...