Will cricket bowl over the US?
As cricket's T20 World Cup hits US soil, could the sport's 'googly' soon replace baseball's 'curveball' in American culture?
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It won’t be much longer before the world might trade in the expression “curveball” – meaning something unexpected and difficult to deal with – for the word “googly.”
The former had its origins in baseball, that quintessential American sport, while the latter came from cricket.
Both relate to the way a ball is delivered and speak to the guile which can be evident in both sports and life.
Now that the T20 World Cup is bringing the most exciting and entertaining form of cricket to the American masses in the first major tournament of the sport to be staged, at least partially, in the US, perhaps that most colonial of games could start recolonising the Americas.
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The International Cricket Council knows what it is doing in holding 16 group stage games in the 20-team tournament on American soil, including the highlight clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan.
The US represents a massive entertainment market and, let’s face it, professional cricket these days is all about energising or mesmerising an audience.
At the same time, cricket – with its complexities and nuances – offers more engagement on more levels than baseball, we believe.
It will be interesting to see if American sports fans get hit for a six…
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