I don't agree with the common opinion that Americans will not take to cricket because of long duration of game in order to get a result (not talking about T20). They do have enough patience to wait & watch a Quality sport. Yes, American sports like baseball, basketball or college football are played for 3-4 hours maximum. Let's look at major Golf tournaments, they are played over a few days (as good as a Cricket Test match) and spectators patiently wait for the golfers to hit a shot, then walk some distance, do some calculation & then hit the next one. Result is derived after a good few days. I believe, Quality is a mandatory requirement. Enough knowledge provided to the spectators will surely generate interest in the game of Cricket amongst American population.
PE teachers, in the first 2 sessions, have shown enough interest by asking questions about batting, bowling, fielding, basic rules & strategies involved in cricket. Questions such as why can't the elbow be bent while bowling, why do we need to rotate the arm while bowling, why does a batsman need to go on back foot while batting, why can't a batsman swing at all deliveries, what is a good length ball, which ball does a batsman defend & which one goes to the 'Cow Corner' (towards deep midwicket).
Questions about running the batsman out, which end to throw to get a batsman out. Since they are use to running towards the next base in baseball, some of the PE teachers by default started running in circles while playing a cricket match. They felt a little hard to adjust running staright up & down, however, they just took a couple of chances to get adjusted and believe you me, they were running good.
The third session is coming up on Feb 24th, in which I anticipate about 40 odd more PE teachers. This time it will be Elementary school teachers. I am really looking forward to this session before we start going in to schools to do sessions with the school kids involving these PE teachers...
Keep reading....
Saturday, February 13, 2010
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It will be great to see cricket take off at schools in the US. In the long run it will open up a whole new world!! and a whole new outlook at cricket.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm an American who loves Cricket, I have to respectfully disagree with the idea that Americans in general wouldn't have the patience for the game. One of the main reasons baseball has lost it's overall popularity and the fact golf only appeals to a small percentage of folks (on a statistical level) is actually proof. While, I don't believe NO ONE would be interested, I think the key is to find the niche'. Playing T20 type games would definitely help, I believe, and I think once it does take off among white/african-american youth I think it'll receive some "credit" for being worth playing. Currently I think a lot of people see it as the game "those folks play"...i.e. the immigrants. I'm very excited to have the game being brought out excitedly in the U.S. and hope it takes off on a level average American youth can play (i.e. it won't only be for the "rich kids"). All the best
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