This is not cricket’s American dream that was promised | ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, 2024

It occupied the entire first page of the New York Times. 

The Statue of Liberty, the beacon of the ideals of ‘liberty’ at the core of the American Dream, held a cricket bat instead of its torch. That torch represents the light that brightens the path to freedom for all who arrive on New York’s shores. 

It’s a striking image, and a powerful one at that. The caption that came along with it left no room for further interpretation. It announced in big, bold letters: “Cricket has arrived” as the dawn breaks in the background. 

Cricket did arrive with all the razzmatazz that you associate with a ‘global game’. In little more than three months, a modular stadium was erected in Eisenhower Park of Nassau County. Pitches brought in from Australia were installed in the middle of that ground with the precision you expect in any drop-in pitch instalment at the Adelaide Oval. 

Cricket was ready to dream. It had just cosied itself in a warm blanket and tucked itself in. 

And then the first T20 international took place on June 3. 

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“If this was a Test match, there would have been four slips ready to grab any chance that comes towards them.”

Dale Steyn said that with a chuckle in the commentary box as James O’Brien (better known as ‘Jomboy’) told the audience that New Yorkers usually come to this spot for a picnic and their runs. 

Steyn wasn’t wrong. After Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat on a track where they hadn’t even played once, they were made to feel as if they were batting in Cape Town, not a stadium in the middle of New York. Marco Jansen’s first over saw the ball fly past Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis’ bat after being pitched in good length areas. 

Next over from Kagiso Rabada saw the ball seam in exaggeratedly and whizz past Mendis’s hapless bat and pad. It bounced just over the stumps. Once the replays arrived, you could see it was a classic Rabada seam, falling on the pitch on its stitching and then jagging back in. 

Then there was the inconsistent bounce. While one ball climbed up to the chest from a back of a length, the other delivery, in the same over pitched just inches full, hardly bounced over the stumps. 

Only one boundary was scored in the first two overs. Even that came off from the top half of Mendis’ bat as it flew away to the boundary at third man. As it turned out, the Lankans scored just one more boundary in the next eight overs and lost half their side playing ill-advised shots on a sluggish deck. 

However, to blame the Sri Lankan batters entirely would be underplaying their misery massively. 

It wasn’t the pitch, inconsistent bounce, or consistent movement it offered to both pacers and spinners. Even when they tried to clear the infield and managed to connect, the ball plunged into the soft outfield, which was built in less than four months and has a sandy base. In fact, there was a slip fielder placed until as late as the 14th over of the game. 

Anrich Nortje, someone who had lost his form in a manner that few predicted after his stellar show in the Indian Premier League (IPL) a few years back, was unplayable. His 150 kmph pace and hard-length deliveries made it almost impossible to line him up on the pitch, which helped him feel like a homie. He ended up with figures of 4-0-7-4, the most economical spell in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup history. 

Meanwhile, the Lankans might have hoped that Angelo Mathews would chip in with more than the two sixes he managed to strike, but even the most in-rhythm Lankan batter was rushed by Nortje’s short and quick bowling and edged it to the fielder at fine leg. 

Sri Lanka plummeted to 77 in 19.1 overs – their lowest total in T20I history. 

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Now imagine you are a local American curious about this new circus that turned up out of the blue in the middle of the park, where you take your dog and yourself for a walk. Imagine you saw the Statue of Liberty holding a bat and got excited that, “Dude, this sh*t seems a big deal.” 

Imagine just once more that you also watched some Jomboy cricket explainer videos on YouTube and got a ticket for the game (which is ridiculously expensive, by the way). 

You come to the game, and you see that this sport is almost unplayable for the players holding the bat. Where’s the freedom that was promised? Where’s the flying ball that was promised? It was at the end just a lot of scraping for runs, ugly hoicks, and the ball not moving quickly in the grass. 

Will you come to watch this new game again? Will you take the leap of faith and believe in cricket’s American dream? 

Even someone as creative as Mark Twain wouldn’t be able to imagine such a scenario. 

This is not the dawn and the grand arrival that New York Times ad promised.