Is Cricket headed to the US?

The sport of Cricket is widely popular around the world but when it come to the United States, its often avoided.

Its hard to believe that The U.S. has and estimated fan base at 15 million particularly among immigrants from the West Indies and South Asia.  Besides the local and regional Cricket teams, the sport is virtually unheard of in the land of baseball and the thought of a sport introduced by the British becoming mainstream hasn’t really taken off, but that may soon change.

The name Sachin Tendulkar may not ring a bell but across much of the world, he’s simply “The God of Cricket”

Tendulkar is to Cricket what  Jordan is to Basketball or Gretzky to Hockey.. Since the 42-year-old retired from competitive cricket in 2013, he’s been on a mission to further expand the game’s imprint around the world and now he is teaming up with other Cricket legands such as Shane Warne of Australia to announce a ten-day, three city cricket all-star exhibition tour of the United States in November.

Tendulkar and Warne will each captain a team consisting of some of the best international players of the past 35 years, in three matches scheduled to be played in U.S. baseball stadiums: New York’s Citi Field on Nov. 7, Houston’s Minute Maid Park on Nov. 11, and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Nov. 14.

“You’ll only learn things if you give them a try … Americans are used to watching baseball, and it’s very similar to that. If Americans can start coming to the stadium, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them following cricket from here on.” – said Tandulkar.

Pakistan’s Wasim Akram, South Africa’s Shaun Pollock, Brian Lara of Trinidad and Tobago and Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka are among the other all-time greats slated to join the cricket barnstorming tour. Besides hoping to fill up ballparks, the players plan to conduct clinics in each stop to teach Americans about cricket.

This is sure to have fans across the country excited, stay tuned to Spotlife Asia for all the updates.