US ready to embrace twenty 20 cricket?

The USA is set to launch a Twenty20 tournament to be held in New York in October. American entrepreneur Jay Mir, the president and CEO of American Sports And Entertainment Group Inc, has drawn up plans for a twenty20 tournament which is made up of six teams. The ‘American Premier League’ is said to be a six team event, with Premium Pakistan, Premium Indians, Premium West Indies, Premium World and Premium America teams in the pipe line. Inzamam-ul-Haq confirmed to cricinfo that he and 7 other players in the ICL have been approached to join the APL.

Jay Mir is planning to hold the event in Staten Island, New York. Jay Mir is planning to bring cricket to the 15m cricket fans within the US. The tournament is however, not ICC sanctioned, which will limit the players that will be able to participate. The ICL players have been given the go-ahead to compete, as long as it doesn’t clash with ICL scheduling. Mir, 32, has also lined up an agent in the UK to help recruit players for the World team, with Richie Richardson in charge of recruiting the West Indian players.

“It is a cricket revolution in America,” Mr Mir told Cricinfo. “The venue is an absolute fit for the historic nature of this event. It has a capacity of approximately 10,000 spectators and has state-of-the-art facilities, and every spectator can view the beautiful Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty and the Hudson River from their seat.” A potential for high commercial revenue is one that Mir is desperate not to miss. The USA has always had a huge following of cricket fans, and has a huge fan base which is yet to be tapped into.

The ECB were previously said to be interested in forming a US team to compete in the English Twenty20 League, but have since confirmed that there will be no overseas teams competing. If this League is formed, it will be good for cricket. It will increase world wide audience of the game and the popularity of the game. However, this will not be an easy task, indicated by the failure to get the Americans to embrace Football (soccer), which attracts the highest sporting audiences.

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