Anurag Thakur ready to popularise cricket in the US
BCCI President Anurag Thakur expressed his eagerness to bring the cricketing action of Team India in front of the passionate USA crowd. This will be the very first time when India will play an international match in America. The city of Florida will witness two T20 matches with India and West Indies competing against each other. This should provide a great opportunity for the American fans to witness some of the best T20 players in live action. The matches are scheduled to be held 27 and 28 August. Backing his decision to host matches in America Thakur told the Times of India,
”America has round about 3.8 million Indians and a huge number of Asians. Everyone there is passionate about cricket and they travel across the world to support and watch ‘Team India’.”
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The Indian further added, “They connect to their roots through cricket and the BCCI thinks that this is the right time and opportunity to take cricket in that part of the world and make it popular. They follow the game online passionately. All these factors further prove that North America [USA and Canada] want to see quality cricket.”
He also praised Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne for taking the initiative to bring the game to America by conducting the inaugural All-Star series in the US last year.
”The initiative by Sachin was very well-received in the US, and even organising the CPL met with good success there. So, all these are signs that the Americans want to see cricket, especially T20, which is similar to baseball, which we know is one of the most popular sports in that region.”
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Thakur made his intentions pretty clear that he wants to globalise Indian cricket, and to make that possible the game must reach new places and new people to make it popular.
”We would definitely look at other countries, where cricket can be played and followed. Malaysia, Singapore, Canada and the UAE are always an option. Lot of these things depend on the availability of the teams. I’m sure that like India, all the countries too feel that if cricket has to become a global sport, it has to reach new places and spread the game.”
Thakur also provided examples of successful football clubs and how they have tapped into the American market. The Indian stated that clubs such as Bayern Munich and Manchester United have taken their players to new countries to expand the reach of the game. He was hopeful that other cricketing nations would be willing to play India in these countries, thus popularising the sport of cricket.