An American Cricket Odyssey

Martin Chandler | 8:13am BST 31 August 2025

Published: 2025
Pages: 317
Author: Simpson, Beth and Greenslade, Mark
Publisher: Pitch
Rating: 3 stars

Despite never having had Test status the US remains a source of fascination for the committed cricket tragic, albeit as a lost opportunity. The Philadelphian all-rounder Bart King remains one of the great talents of the Golden Age and the representative team he played for, The Gentlemen of Philadelphia, were well up to First Class standard. For those of us who are interested in that era there have been plenty of new books and monographs published in recent years, primarily but not exclusively in relation to the Gentlemen of Philadelphia.

An American Cricket Odyssey looks back to the Golden Age as well, but only briefly, its main interest in relation to the Philadelphians being to confirm that the historic grounds where the Philadelphia, Merion and Germantown clubs played have in recent years, after a long hiatus, begun to host cricket matches once more.

The main purpose of the book however is to look at modern times and it begins with the US’s meeting with Australia in the 2004 Champions’ Trophy. The Americans were all out for 65 and suffered a nine wicket hammering, to go with an equally ignominious defeat by 210 runs they had suffered at the hands of New Zealand three days earlier.

At the close of the book the Odyssey referred to in the book’s title then, effectively, ends with the US co-hosting the T20 World Cup in 2024 and their much celebrated win over Pakistan, a performance which must, given it guarantees the Americans a spot in next years edition, be viewed as a success despite their progressing no further than the last eight.

In between authors Beth Simpson and Mark Greenslade chronicle the progress of the game in the US, a country where we would all like to see the game develop, but where it still seems to be unable to establish a firm foothold.

Part of the problem, which until now I had always found it difficult to fully appreciate is the sheer size of the country in terms of organising a minority sport. It is difficult not to have some sympathy with those who failed so badly to run the USA Cricket Association, the edition of the governing body that the ICC eventually lost patience with.

Having described cricket as a minority sport in the US I was ultimately surprised at just how much cricket is played there, and the passion for the game that some have. Less of a surprise however was the fact that the game still seems rooted in the Caribbean and South Asian diasporas and that despite the efforts that have been gone to cricket seems to attract a very limited following amongst the rest of the American public.

So what will happen in next year’s T20 World Cup? Will it be a step forward for US cricket? Or a step back? There have been several of both in recent years. Simpson and Greenslade, understandably, hope for the former but for both their expectations are tempered by realism. We will just have to wait and see but, if you want to know about the current state of cricket in the US, this is certainly a book to invest in.