Most of you have probably seen the latest “article” from BuzzFeed: Why The USA Needs To Give In And Embrace Cricket.
A synopsis of their reasons:
1. The games aren’t as long as most think
2. The players don’t always wear white – in fact sometimes they wear PINK
3. It’s similar enough to baseball
4. It’s hard
5. Players have to pay attention or they might get hit in the face (with the ball)
6. There’s trash talk
7. The fielding positions have funny names
8. Fans dress fashionably but also sometimes they wear costumes
9. There is beer
10. Sometimes it rains (?)
11. Hardly any countries play it so America could dominate (Paging, Peter Della Penna. Peter Della Penna to the front desk.)
12. Alastair Cook is super hot
13. Lily Allen likes cricket
14. Benedict Cumberbatch likes cricket
15. The princes like cricket
16. Doctor Who likes cricket
17. And you can play it whilst eating a sandwich
*
Yes, I know, it’s all meant tongue firmly in cheek, but some of those reasons are quite valid, and my list of reasons why Americans would love cricket, while shorter, was at least kind of similar:
1. The Two Chucks (what happened to those guys anyway?)
2. The blogging community
3. Lasith Malinga
4. Twenty20s
5. There’s beer
6. The fancy dress
Of course, with the exception of number three, those are all things that happen off the pitch, but here is an open letter to American Sports Fans explaining what they are missing out on by ignoring what’s happening on the pitch:
The game lasted five days. There were over 2,700 balls delivered. And yet somehow, despite all logic to the contrary, the game was not decided until the final ball was delivered…
It’s a great game, America.
Trust me. Trust BuzzFeed.
It’s time.
Join us.
Limited Overs 
America could dominate? Seen that headline before.
For the record: I don’t believe for one second that America will ever dominate cricket.
I don’t think they’ll ever dominate. But to match New Zealand, they’d need about 100,000 players. Roughly 1/60th the penetration of cricket in society of NZ, because they have 60 times the population. That is easily possible (they currently have 20,000 though most aren’t eligible to play for the national side). Jumping to 500,000 players to match England and Australia. That is much harder.
Conversely, there is no reason that – like football – the US couldn’t have a top-3 women’s team within a decade. They’d need about 10,000 female league participants (ok, they currently have about 50-100). But if cricket became even a minor college/high school sport, they’d get there very quickly.
Bonus prediction: Chine will beat India in women’s cricket within 15 years..