Lord & Eyes,
Thanks for the rousing support, but I'm afraid I'm not well enough connected to run the USACA..... And since I've only been playing this great sport of cricket for three years, I suspect many would scoff at the notion of my involvement with the sport at all!
Seriously, though, what needs to happen in America is for a professional sports promotion company to decide that cricket is worth taking a chance on. Right now, with television rights pretty much locked up (we can only get live cricket via satellite dish, over the Dish network, on a pay-per-view basis...), there's little chance of getting the word out that way. Even if it were televised, I suspect most native-born Americans would be baffled by watching it, like I was. It's actually harder to follow the game when you watch it on television, because you don't always see the bowlers changing ends, or the batsmen running, or a whole host of other things that go on during a match. Without someone there explaining it, someone watching could easily get so confused that they would lose interest.
Where I think we need to focus is at the elementary school level. That's how soccer took hold here, and I'm convinced cricket can do the same thing. If American children grow up familiar with the game from having learned it in school, then they will be more likely to either play the game, or at least watch it with interest if and when we get some domestic cricket coverage... (or even some World cricket coverage!). All of this will take TIME of course, but there's no time like the present.
Well, as most of you can see, I'm the only one from my club posting out here, as I really haven't had the chance to promote this new feature of our website. By the way, we have a website at
tricitycricket.com if anyone's interested in checking out what our season is going like. (We've been on a bit of a win streak, but I unfortunately have yet to play, as I'm also coaching my son's baseball team... whose season doesn't end until mid-June... but don't worry, he'll be back playing cricket this summer, as will I!).
I DO appreciate the words of support and encouragement, and hope that this little bulletin board feature gets more use over time.
And eyes, thanks for offering umpiring advice. It's always good to have experts on hand to consult! Here's one for ya.. (this really happened in a match last year....):
The striker plays a shot but misses, but the ball glances off his pads and past the keeper into the outfield, a leg-bye, of course. The aggressive non-striker calls for a run, and the striker leaves his crease only to lose heart and turn back at the last minute just as the non-striker makes his ground..... Of course the throw from the outfield is brilliantly on mark, blasting apart the stumps as both batsmen simultaneously make their ground. The astute gully rushes in, shovels the ball to the bowler at the other end who strikes the wicket there. The question is, which batsman is out? The original, faint hearted striker, or the bold non-striker?
My decision, as umpire, was to give the original striker out, as he had left his ground briefly and, in my opinion, lost his right to that ground to the non-striker who was running toward it. Was I correct???
Well, that's my two cents... Great chatting with all of you.....
Steve