Ravi has a great post tracing the rise and fall of cricket in the US.
As the 19th century neared its end, baseball began to take precedence, and with that, the primacy of cricket in America’s sporting interests neared its end. One place, however, where cricket was still going strong was in the city of Philadelphia. The Philadelphian Cricket Team carried the mantle as the last remaining bastion of professional cricketing in the U.S., and frequently toured England and Australia, playing against some of the best cricketers in the world. A sign of the declining influence of the sport in America was that the American team consisted of “gentleman” players that had sources of wealth that allowed them to play cricket at no salary.
Comments
3 comments. Leave your comment »
ALE-Xpressed
Aug 11th, 2008 at 9:01 am | #
Interesting post … How about bASEball in India or Pakistan
That would be interesting just the same way 
Sue
Aug 11th, 2008 at 7:31 pm | #
Although Americans don’t play Cricket on the Professional Level, you can find teams in most major cities.
For example, in the Seattle Area they have 7 cricket teams.
http://www.seattlecricket.com/history/hist.htm
http://nwcl.org/NwclWeb/
Here is a recent article about Cricket in Seattle.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003859980_cricket30m.html
Sue
Aug 11th, 2008 at 7:52 pm | #
Conversely you can find Baseball in India
http://baseballindia.net
http://www.baseballindia.com
Actually, American baseball scouts had a contest in India to find the fastest pitcher. Rinku Singh, 18, and fellow javelin thrower Dinesh Patel won that contest and as a result gets a year of training in Los Angeles. At the end of the time the scouts are going to access their skills to see if they can make it in the big leagues.
http://www.reuters.com/article/inDepthNews/idUSDEL24903820080513
I can see why many Indians might be upset about this. I don’t know how I feel about attempts to spread the sport to other nations either. I like that it’s mostly played in America (and I guess now in Japan, and Latin America).
The NFL American Football (not soccer) League is reaching out internationally as well.
http://www.nfl.com/international
The New Orleans Saints will host the San Diego Chargers on Oct. 26 at London’s Wembley Stadium in the second NFL regular-season game to be played outside of North America.
NFL owners have committed to play up to two games outside the United States each season for the next four years. On Dec. 7, the Buffalo Bills will host the Miami Dolphins in Toronto.