There are grave lessons to be learned from the extinction of cricket in the US - mistakes the ICC and administrators the world-over fail to realise and are being repeated today.
Cricket in the US died because it stubbornly refused to become professional while the rest of the world did, it kept the game exclusively for rich, white middle-aged protestant men from England, the ICC excluded it, and the majority of players were wiped out in the Civil War and two World Wars. Having utterly failed to market the game or give access to anyone else, it died.
Baseball, on the other hand, realised the opportunity to charge a small fee to spectators and re-invest in facilities and the game, it opened its doors to every migrant community, and it marketed itself to women and children. It became sustainable and conducive to growth.
And how does this relate to today? How many cricket clubs make themselves accessible to all communities, ages, levels and genders rather than just being lads' clubs? How many actively recruit players on a daily basis? How many market themselves to spectators? How many develop their own facilities rather than relying on an ever-dwindling supply of fourth-rate municipal fields? How many operate on a professional basis versus amateur democracies? And lest we forget our leaders, the ICC Executive Committee, barring anyone but its Full Members from the World Cup. The only organisation looking to shrink its membership.
I play cricket in North America - and I exclude the beautiful clubs of Philadelphia from this, they are the exception - but even today it is the most shambolic, damaging and exclusive set of administrations. 99.9% of players are middle aged expat men grouped by race in dung-heap clubs on municipal cow pastures. 99.9% are utterly uninterested in allowing kids, women, beginners, older people, or any other nationalities play. Unsurprisingly, when this happens, you are left with gangs of expats - none of whom want to put any work in - fighting in ever fewer public parks. I would bet less than 10 cricket fields on the continent cut the grass.
Any talk of a revolution of cricket here must first address this. The fact is, take a random American watching cricket on ESPN, and in the unlikely event they find a local club with a website, and in the even unlikelier event they are invited along to a practice starting at 11 pm on a weeknight in winter, or in shin-high grass by train tracks in the summer, they are going to find out very quickly they are not welcome in an expat men's clique, let alone play a couple of games or progress. Would you sign up your kids for that? If no, then cricket here has no future.
Cricket - in every country - needs to wake up and learn its lessons from history.
