Cricket fever raging across US

The US is reportedly gripped with cricket fever as 17 teams from across America compete in the country's first-ever season-long national cricket competition, the American Cricket Champions League (ACCL) this year.

The tournament is due to end in October, when six of the teams would meet in Florida for a play-off contest to decide the US national champions, in one-day matches consisting of 40 overs per side.

The Independent reports that the launching of the ACCL is coinciding with a surging demand for new cricket pitches in the US cities including Washington DC, Dallas and Chicago.

Executive secretary of the American Cricket Federation, John Aaron, said that cricket was now in a similar position to football, as when soccer first started there, people had said it is not going to go anywhere, and now American football is the thing.

Aaron said that soccer has not replaced American football, but it has certainly taken off now, adding that it is attracting international teams coming there to play and he feels that cricket can do the same thing.

The United States of America Cricket Association (Usaca) has reportedly revealed that the US has an expanding base of cricket enthusiasts, with more than 1,100 teams playing in local leagues, with most of the 30,000 players being immigrants from former British colonies, the report added.

However, Usaca hopes to expand cricket's reach by introducing American schoolchildren to the sport, the report further added.