T20 World Cup 2024 – The rise of American cricket over the past twenty years

In 2010, the US played in Division 5 of the World Cricket League (WCL). Fast forward to 2024, and they were the biggest surprise of the 2024 T20 World Cup. As co-hosts, they shocked Pakistan in the group stage and made history by making it to the Super Eight, where they will compete with South Africa, England and fellow hosts West Indies for a place in the semi-finals. Here’s a brief history of the ups and downs of American cricket over the past 20 years:

2004
The US’s first appearance in top-level cricket was the 2004 Champions Trophy, for which they qualified by winning the ICC Six Nations Challenge, featuring teams such as Scotland, Namibia, Netherlands, UAE and Canada. The backbone of their Six Nations success was former West Indies batsman Clayton Lambert, who top-scored in the event.

2007
Central Broward Stadium in Lauderhill, Florida was built. In March that year, the ICC suspended the USA Cricket Association until early 2008 after disputes within the board over its bylaws.

2010
The USA took part in the T20 World Cup Qualifier. They defeated Scotland in the opening match, but were eliminated after losses to Afghanistan and Ireland.

It was also the year the US hosted its first T20Is, a two-match T20 World Cup qualifying series between Sri Lanka and New Zealand, which ended in a 1–1 draw.

2012 -2015
The US did not play the T20 World Cups in 2012, 2014 and 2016 and failed to complete the qualifiers for each edition.

2015
ICC has again suspended USACA after raising “significant concerns about USACA’s governance, finances, reputation and cricket operations”. The ICC has also stopped funding.

Later that year, Cricket All Stars came to the US, where Sachin Tendulkar’s Masters took on Shane Warne’s Warriors in a three-match series. The games were held at baseball fields in New York, Houston and Los Angeles.

It was also the year that American players were picked for the first time in the Caribbean Premier League. Steven Taylor made the Barbados Tridents squad.

2017
ICC expelled USACA again and the team was temporarily supervised by ICC Americas. Later that year, USACA was replaced by USA Cricket, a new governing body for the game in the country.

2018
After beating Singapore in the 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Three final, the US were promoted to Division Two for the first time.

2019
The ICC lifted the ban on the US and granted them Associate status in January. In April, they played their first ODI in 15 years, a third-place playoff match against Papua New Guinea in Division 2 of ICC’s World Cricket League. In the same tournament, former West Indian batsman Xavier Marshall’s Century helped the US secure ODI status for the first time. They finished third on the WCL Division 2 points table. Soon after, USA’s first-ever T20I against UAE was wiped out. Their first T20I win came against the Cayman Islands in August the same year.

Another important project was initiated in 2019 when discussions on a new franchise tournament (Major League Cricket) began. Sameer Mehta, co-founder of American Cricket Enterprise (ACE) acquired the rights to own and operate the league in the US. The tournament was initially scheduled to start in 2021, but was postponed to 2023 due to COVID-19.

2020
ACE signed a 15-year lease to acquire AirHogs Stadium, a 6,000-seat facility for minor league baseball and football in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie, Texas. US cricket ramped up overseas recruitment to meet ODI status, and in time came on board the likes of New Zealand’s Corey Anderson, and South Africa’s Rusty Theron and Dane Piedt.

2021
The US secured a historic T20I win over Ireland – their first against a full member country.

2023
Major League Cricket (MLC) was eventually launched with Mumbai NY, the franchise owned by Mukesh Ambani, who also owns Mumbai Indians in IPL, and won the first edition by Seattle Orcas, owned by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, in to beat the final. Nadella, Ross Perot Jr (billionaire businessman and former owner of Dallas Mavericks) and owners of four IPL teams (MI, Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals) were among the investors who committed to commit $120 million say to MLC.

2024
Ahead of the T20 World Cup, the US defeated Bangladesh 2-1 in a three-match series in Dallas – their first win in the series against a full member country.

They then defeated arch-rivals Canada in the opening match of the T20 World Cup, stunned Pakistan in a Super Over and qualified for the Super Eight stage of the tournament.