Cricket projects have “roiled” N.Y., suburban Chicago, Sacramento and elsewhere as the sport's backers in the U.S. “seek to widen" its reach, according to Scott Calvert of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Six-team Major League Cricket started play last year, the U.S. is co-hosting this year’s T20 Cricket World Cup, and the sport will rejoin the Olympics at the 2028 L.A. Games. Yet many Americans “still have only a passing familiarity, if that, with a sport that has legions of fans in South Asia, the Caribbean, the U.K. and beyond." Concerns around proposed venues for the sport include “traffic, noise and balls flying about during the game.” Backers also are “trying to reassure local residents who might imagine rowdy, drunk cricket crowds.” The Oswego, Ill., village board “gave the go-ahead” last fall for the first phase of a privately funded, 25,000-seat cricket stadium slated for an industrial site, and complaints from nearby neighbors have “quieted down.” N.Y. “tried to pitch” Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx for a temporary 34,000-seat World Cup stadium, but Long Island’s Eisenhower Park “got the pop-up stadium,” which will stage Men’s T20 World Cup matches along with arenas in Texas, Florida and the Caribbean (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/7).
