Cricket is about to challenge baseball, and maybe what it means to be American, too
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskBut on that Sunday the Dallas-Fort Worth area, of which Grand Prairie is part, thrummed with sports. In the car park across the road, souped-up cars were doing timed laps around a traffic-cone circuit. By lunchtime the nearby Olive Garden, a chain restaurant where a $25 meal supplies a day’s calories, was full of diners in jerseys signalling their support for the Texas Rangers, a baseball team.
Various reasons have been set forth for cricket’s decline after the civil war. One is that baseball was more conducive to battlefield conditions—it did not need a smooth batting surface. Another is that baseball was, then, a much shorter game. But above all, as Mr Melville writes, “Cricket failed in America because it never established an American character.”
One culprit is time-wasting by pitchers and batters. Another is statistical-analysis-led strategy, which has robbed the game of some of its most exciting, if inefficient, tactics such as stealing bases. The chief problem is stubborn traditionalism. Changes that have irked fans and officials include radio commentary, stadium floodlighting and electronic decisions on strikes. That makes it difficult for baseball authorities to innovate.
This format spread, spawning the Caribbean Premier League, Australia’s Big Bash and more. It is this model that the backers ofadapted from it. Cricket and baseball have met in the middle on length, but cricket now provides far more action per minute. The averageMuch else has changed in the century and a half since cricket fell out of favour with Americans, not least the meaning of “Americans”. In 1920 the United States was 89.7% white, 9.9% black and rigidly segregated.
If passion for cricket is one defining characteristic of Indians in America, another is financial success. The median annual household income for Indian-Americans in 2019 was $119,000, nearly double the national average. Indians are vastly over-represented in Silicon Valley. A few have become wealthy beyond their dreams. And yet something is still missing.
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