Cricket for Americans: 28 Feb. 2019: USA! USA!

Yes, Virginia, there is a US national cricket team.

In fact, they just announced their 14 man squad for their first International T20s ever, against the UAE in Dubai in mid-March. These will be their first official one day matches since they played two ODIs at the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004. (They lost both, to New Zealand by 210 runs and to Australia by nine wickets.)

Also in Dubai the US men will play some 50 over games in preparation for the World Cricket League (division 2) tournament in Namibia in April. The top four teams from that tournament will advance to the World Cricket Cup (division 2) tournament which will take place over two years starting in 2020 which is the first leg of the qualification process for the 2023 World Cup.

They have long road to hoe before they earn any sort of international success, but they have already come a long way, with promotion to full Associate status last year as well as promotion from WCL division 3 with a win over Singapore in Onan this past November.

As an American, I have always felt guilt for not following — much less supporting — the US men’s team. But I will pay better attention, hopefully, with the blog taking the direction that it has. The T20Is mentioned above will, hopefully, be streamed somewhere, I will take a peek around and let you know. Either way, for US cricket coverage, you can’t beat Peter Della Penna, give him a follow on Twitter if you want updates on what the US is up to when it comes to cricket.

There is a women’s national team, as well, but I am not finding a lot about them. If you know what’s next for them in the coming year, please do post in the comments.

**UPDATE**

Here’s what’s on tap for the US Women, courtesy of Andrew Nixon, a writer for CricketEurope and someone else you should definitely follow.

Until tomorrow.