The history cricket in the United States begins in 1709 with a glorious moment of colonial pomposity. The diaries of William Byrd II, a Virginia plantation owner, provide the first evidence of the sport being played in North America. "I rose at 6 o'clock and read a chapter in Hebrew," Byrd writes. "About 10 o'clock Dr. Blair, and Major and Captain Harrison came to see us. After I had given them a glass of sack we played cricket. I ate boiled beef for my dinner. Then we played at shooting with arrows...and went to cricket again till dark."
Byrd II lived a life of leisure while slave labour toiled in his plantation. Since, cricket in the United States has represented both the excesses of the elite, and hopes for a new beginning. As the eighteenth century progressed, participation increased, although the sport was played recreationally rather than competitively. It gained popularity among the fathers of the revolution.
In 1754, Benjamin Franklin brought a copy of the new laws of the game back from a trip to England, while future president John Adams mentioned cricket in one of his speeches. Most notably, George Washington used a game of cricket to boost the morale of his troops during the War Of Independence. The Continental Army suffered a tough winter dug in at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, losing up to 2,000 of their 12,000 men to disease. Come the summer, Washington was playing 'wicket', a variant of cricket, with his men, prior to a considerable upturn in his army's fortunes.
It's often argued that if the United States had remained a British territory for another century, it would be playing Test cricket now. In fact, the golden age of US cricket occurred after independence in 1783. In the early nineteenth century, cricket's development continued apace, with the corridor between New York City and Philadelpia the area of its greatest popularity.
However, tensions between the USA and the home of cricket, England - at their highest during the 1812 War between the USA and British North America (now Canada) - harmed the advancement of the sport in other ways. While the English game became more competitive, notably with the formation of county clubs, innovations often took years to find their way across the Atlantic.
Nevertheless, the USA can claim to have staged the first international match in New York in 1844. The game was billed as a true USA v Canada fixture, but in fact was a contest between Manhattan's St. George's Cricket Club and Toronto Cricket Club. In a low-scoring encounter by today's standards, watched by an estimated 5,000 spectators, Canada won the two-innings contest by 23 runs. The game took place before introduction of overarm bowling, with the top bowlers using a roundarm action, reminiscent of modern Sri Lanka quick Lasith Malinga, although considerably less hostile.
In the late eighteenth century, many of the USA's great, enduring cricket clubs were formed, including Philadelpia (1854), Germantown (1854) and Staten Island (1872). Facilities were particularly impressive at Philadelpia and Germantown, and the faded glory of their pavilions still stands today.
In 1859, the USA and Canada hosted another first; the first overseas tour by an England team. However, the seeds of cricket's decline were also sown in the late nineteenth century. While the game turned professional in England and Australia, US clubs remained avowedly amateur, a situation which led to cricket becoming a sport of the elite. More than anywhere in the world, it remained a gentlemen's game, played by wealthy men of leisure who didn't have to work for a living. Cricket was more social than competitive. Many clubs also started baseball teams, giving money directly to the sport that would replace cricket as the major bat and ball sport in the national consciousness.
However, their was one last hurrah before US cricket sank into its 20th century oblivion. In 35 glorious years, the Philadelphian cricket team, comprising players from the Philadelphia, Germantown, Merion and Belmont clubs, had first-class status, and could compete with the best in the world.
The star name was Bart King, a fiercesome fast bowler who played 65 first-class matches between 1893 and 1912, taking 415 wickets at an average of 15.65. The high point of his career came on the Philadelphian's tour of England in 1897. At Brighton, he took 7 for 13 to help dismiss a full-strength Sussex side for just 46, setting up an 8 wicket victory. King also took ten wickets in an innings in an 1909 home match against Ireland.
The Philadelphians beat a travel-weary Australian team returning from England by an innings in 1893. The team also toured England again in 1903 and 1908, but after World War I its star faded. The status of US cricket was damaged irreparably by the formation in 1909 of the Imperial Cricket Conference (the forerunner of the ICC), which only admitted members from within the British Empire or Commonwealth, a policy not reversed until 1965.
US cricket fell into its dark ages, with the sport being kept alive through the mid-twentieth century by the dedication of officials at clubs such as Staten Island, which has been continuously operating through thick and thin since 1872.
More recently, the influx of Caribbean and South Asian immigrants into the United States has caused a resurgence in cricket's popularity. To mainstream society, it is still seen as a fringe, immigrant sport, as documented in Joseph O'Neill ground-breaking novel Netherland. The highest concentration of players is in New York City, New Jersey and south Florida, but cricket is played in all 50 states. In 2004, the first first-class match on US soil since 1913 was played against Canada in Fort Lauderdale, and the USA qualified to play the big boys in the ICC Champions Trophy. There is undoubtedly potential for the USA to become a major international player.
Whether the United States Of America Cricket Association, frequently accused of administrative bungling, and suspended by the ICC twice in the last five years, can harness that potential remains to be seen.
Copyright: Cover Point
