Courtesy: USA Cricket
The USA qualified for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup India & Sri Lanka 2026 after having finished in the Super Eight in the previous edition and will be keen to advance further as they begin their campaign against defending champions India. Speaking on JioStar’s ‘The Experts’ View’, Dinesh Karthik and Mel Jones discussed the growth of cricket in the USA and the role of Major League Cricket in the overall popularity of the sport in the country.
Former Australia cricketer Mel Jones is keen on seeing how USA progresses this time from the previous ICC Men’s T20 World Cup:
“There’s so much talk around USA cricket at the moment, administratively. How do the players and the support staff get into a mindset of putting that aside and focusing on the upcoming T20 World Cup? And if they can get into that little bit of a bubble, then that might be the slight shift, with the excitement of what they’ve done last year and the Olympics coming up in LA28. So, there’s all this noise going around this group, and the excitement of a new team trying to emerge into the big nations bracket. That’s what we all want from a World Cup, isn’t it? When you’ve got 20 teams in a competition, most people automatically look to India, Australia, South Africa, teams that have been there and done that for a long time. But the excitement for me is probably those teams ranked from 10 to 20, and what they can bring to the tournament. When you allow them the opportunity to do something like that, that’s where the magic happens in cricket. So, can they reproduce what they did in the USA and the West Indies? Yeah, I think they can, but it’ll be a challenge for them.”
Former India wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik elaborated on the role of Major League Cricket in the development of the sport in the USA:
“I really feel the MLC has helped the USA. The USA has had an influx of Indian and Pakistani talent, immigrants there who have now played the MLC and gained a lot of confidence. First-hand information, Saurabh Netravalkar has played with me. He is a left-arm pacer, who played the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand for India, and he did quite decently. He then obviously tried to come back to Mumbai and play, didn’t quite make the grade, but went there, got a job in IT, settled well, started cricket again, and then had a phenomenal World Cup. The beauty of doing well in a World Cup is that these opportunities not only give you a chance to showcase to the world how good you are, but you also get picked up by franchises. He has grown in stature again; he bowls the tough overs, both up front and at the death.”
On Shubham Ranjane:
“Another player I want to speak about, who I feel is extremely talented, is middle-order batter Shubham Ranjane. He did so well for Texas Super Kings in the MLC that he’s been picked in the SA20 for the Joburg team. That shows the amount of faith Stephen Fleming and Faf du Plessis have in him. They see a lot of cricketers, and for them to take him on as a professional tells you the level of skill they feel he has, which, in turn, tells you that USA cricket is growing. They’ve also done quite nicely in the associate top-seven qualification, and they achieved it quite comfortably. So, they are a team on the upward curve. If things settle down backstage, I think it’ll be even better.”
On the familiarity of several USA players of Indian origin with the country:
“Monank Patel has been around for some time now, a good, solid captain, so they’ve got some good names there. It’s all about trying to recreate a performance like the one they produced in home conditions. It’s going to be different in India, but there’s going to be a lot of familiarity too, because of the number of Indians in that group. They have something to look forward to. There is also a bit of competition among the associate nations in that World Cup. So, I’m really looking forward to seeing USA do well.”
