Despite being under the rule of Great Britain before 1776, the United States of America (USA) never took to two of the sporting events that were popularised by the great colonial power - football and cricket. Rather, this nation created its own modified (or corrupted) versions of these games - american football and baseball - which gained a following only to a limited extent outside of the US. Soccer gained a limited, but firm, foothold in the US when the 1994 FIFA World Cup was successfully staged in nine venues across this country.
Thirty years after that seminal event, cricket is also making an attempt to inch its way to the mindset of the sports lovers of this vast country through the hosting of the International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup, jointly with the West Indies. Cricket West Indies and USA Cricket had submitted a joint bid for hosting the above event in 2019. After due processes, the ICC announced in November, 2021, that the joint bid was successful, leading to the commencement of processes for holding the championship.
Since the US is not a “full member” of the ICC and do not play international cricket with the “big boys”, all arrangements, right from the scratch, had to be done under supervision and with the approval of the global body. The first among these was identification of venues and stadia where the games were to be held. The ICC shortlisted 4 venues - Florida, Texas, New York and North Carolina - out of which they zoomed in and gave gre.
