Build it and they will come, believes USA Cricket

BETWEEN Dallas and Fort Worth just off the Texas I30 Interstate an American cricket Field of Dreams is being built amidst the urban sprawl.

Just like the mysterious voice in the Hollywood sport fantasy film that told Ray Kinsella to turn his Iowa cornfield into a baseball diamond, the Chairman of USA Cricket, Paraag Marathe, believes in the saying “build it and they will come”.

The hope is that the best players, thousands of fans and a global spotlight will come to Grand Prairie’s AirHogs stadium after the minor league ball park is transformed into Texas’s answer to Lord’s, the world’s most famous cricket ground.

The state-of-the-art 8,000 seat facility will serve as the High Performance Center for USA

Cricket, the home of the Texas franchise in Major League Cricket (MLC) when the six-team league starts in 2022, and a venue for top international events.

“I have seen cricket played in parks when I am in London. I never thought we would be playing it here but we are fixin’ to,“Grand

Prairie mayor Ron Jensen told reporters.

“I have done a lot of research on it. Similar to baseball, a lot of the same things go on in it, pitchers have similar curve balls and all that. It is going to be a lot of fun.”

The redevelopment of the existing AirHogs Stadium, which will be renamed, is the cornerstone of a grand plan to see the US become one of the world’s top four cricketing nations.

However, cricket will almost certainly have a tougher mountain to climb than football, which trudged through decades of false dawns and failed leagues before finally taking root.

But USA Cricket is convinced the time is right.

Prominent deep-pocketed investors are lined up to finance Major League Cricket, the world’s top players are supposedly ready to sign on and, according to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and USA Cricket research, there is a baked-in fan base of between 15 and 20 million waiting to be served.

What USA Cricket and MLC failed to say during a conference call last week was who these well-heeled investors and cricketing greats are or even where the teams will be located beyond a franchise in Grand Prairie. – Reuters