LONDON: Former West Indies cricket Chris Gayle has expressed hope that the T20 World Cup will help cricket crack the profitable American sports market and lift the game onto a new level.
The Twenty20 event, which starts on June 1st, is being jointly hosted by the US and Gayle’s native West Indies, where big gatherings are expected. It will be the first mega international cricket tournament organized in the US, with a sell-out crowd expected for the match between arch-rivals Pakistan and India at a temporary 34,000-seat venue in New York.
Pakistan v India Clash will be Phenomenal: Chris Gayle
Gayle says the success of last year’s inaugural Major League Cricket, a US-based T20 franchise contest, has given the sport a foothold in the US.
The ICC has been making efforts to get cricket on international scale within the United States of America, Gayle said. He said that Pakistan v India is in New York will be phenomenal.
West Indies won first two men’s one-day international World Cups in 1975 and 1979, but they did not qualify for last year’s ICC world cup in India. Gayle further said that they missed out on the 50-over World Cup so this would be something fantastic for the players to actually play for something.
