Explained: How the drop-in pitches for New York's T20 World Cup matches will be made?

The cricket matches in New York during the T20 World Cup 2024 in June will see the sport and organisers make multiple innovations as the International Cricket Council (ICC) tries to spread the game in the United States of America. US is one of the biggest markets for sports with billions being spent on it every year, but cricket is still to crack the code in the country. The US national cricket team has not achieved anything significant so far and international matches involving India in Miami over the years and Major League Cricket (MLC), a T20 franchise league which began in 2023 and has four teams out of six teams owned/co-owned by IPL franchises, have not made a major impact on the market so far. The future, however, is expected to be different. With the inclusion of cricket in 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and an ICC event moving to US for the first time in 2024, the sport is expected to get a massive boost. To forward cricket’s case in the US, the India vs Pakistan game in the 2024 T20 World Cup has been arranged in the North American country rather than in co-hosts West Indies. T20 World Cup 2024: A look at USA's cricketing infrastructure The match has been scheduled to take place in New York in a pop-up stadium rather than in Florida or Dallas where permanent stadiums already exists. While the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium in Lauderhill, Miami, Florida has a capacity of 20,000 and the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas only has a capacity of 7,500. To have a bigger crowd at the stadium, the decision was taken to schedule the match in New York in a new pop-up stadium which will have a capacity of 34,000. The Eisenhower Park which will be in Nassau County (Long Island), New York, will become first modular stadium in cricket and is expected to be ready by end of May. The Eisenhower Park will be hosting eight out of 16 matches US will be hosting during the T20 World Cup 2024. T20 World Cup 2024: Check out all nine venues The first match at the stadium will be on 3 June between South Africa and Sri Lanka. India play their first match on 5 June against Ireland, before facing Pakistan on 9 June. They will also take on US at the same venue. With so many matches scheduled at a completely new venue, which will be a pop-up stadium, it’s natural that fans and organisers are concerns over the quality of the pitches at the ground. **T20 World Cup 2024: Full schedule of mega event in West Indies and USA** A drop-in pitch will be used for the T20 World Cup matches at New York. A drop-in pitch is a pitch that can be prepared anywhere away from the stadium and is later “dropped” into the stadium where it will be used. Unique drop-in pitches It has now be revealed that the drop-in pitches for the Eisenhower Park is going to be unique in the way it is being prepared. The ICC has hired Adelaide Oval Turf Solutions to execute the preparation and delivery of the pitches. One of the members of the Adelaide Oval Turf Solutions is the Adelaide Oval head groundsman Damien Hough. Hough has revealed that six of 10 trays were built in Adelaide and have been shipped to Florida where the pitches are being made. “It’s a bit tricky, we basically built six of the 10 trays here in Adelaide. We made them modular. We’re really proud of them. We’ve got a couple out of the back that will probably come out here [on Adelaide Oval] next year,” Hough told Channel 7. “We put them in a shipping container and send them really wherever we want around the world. But they’ve gone over to Florida. And I’ve just come back from a month of work over there putting the trays together, putting the soil in, compacting them and putting the grass on. So we’re in the grow-in phase. “We’ve got a business, a company over there called LandTek that are helping us with the grow-in phase. Then there’s a couple more strategic trips throughout the next six months to do some work on them and then transport them from Florida all the way up to New York where we’ll put them in and prepare them. He added that it will take two days for the transport the drop-in pitches from Florida to New York and four drop-in pitches will be used at the venue. “It’s a lot of work that’s gone into it so far. But the real work starts around the start of May. It’ll take two days to transport them up which is quite incredible. Never done that before. So there’s a lot of firsts. And then there’s getting them in the ground. “Four go into that venue, that pop-up stadium, 34,000-seat stadium. Eight games in 10 days. One of them is Pakistan and India which will be amazing. And then there’s six that go into the warm-up venue with so many teams rotating through and so much training.”