T20 World Cup 2024: Where will New York host games? A look at USA's cricketing infrastructure

Cricket could never quite gain a foothold in the United States of America the way its cousin baseball did even though the Americans were involved in the first ever international match — against Canada all the way back in 1844. The popularity of the ‘Gentleman’s Game’ in the United States, however, has been on the rise with the steady influx of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent as well as from the neighbouring Caribbean islands, whose nations form the West Indies cricket team. The 20,000-capacity Central Broward Regional Park Stadium — USA’s primary cricketing venue — after all, happens to be located in Florida’s Lauderhill, a city that has a high Caribbean population. **T20 World Cup 2024: Full schedule of mega event in West Indies and USA** The sport, however, could soar in popularity in the American market like never before following ICC’s announcement of the schedule for this year’s T20 World Cup on Friday. The ninth edition of the showpiece T20I event will have 55 matches taking place across nine venues in the Caribbean and the United States, with the latter set to host a major cricketing event involving some of the world’s top teams for the first time. New York City, a.k.a. the ‘Big Apple’ is among the three American host cities listed by the global body for the sport and is set to host some of the biggest matches in the group stage of the tournament. That includes three out of India’s four games, including against arch-rivals Pakistan that should draw the most eyeballs in the tournament. **T20 World Cup 2024 | India’s full schedule at group stage of showpiece T20I event** However, NYC doesn’t quite have a history of hosting cricket matches the way it does for the ‘Big Four’ of American sports — American football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey — as well as soccer and tennis. It does beg the question, therefore, as to where the high-profile matches will be held in what some describe as an unofficial ‘Capital of the World’. The answer to that question lies in the concept of pop-up stadiums, one of which is set to come up at the Eisenhower Park in Nassau County, Long Island. What is a Pop-up Stadium? And what is the cricketing infrastructure in US like?  The concept of pop-up stadiums, which are temporary venues, isn’t something that’s new in the sporting world. Stadium 974, one of the venues for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, was assembled with spare shipping containers and is among the more popular examples of temporary sporting venues. A similar venue is set to come up at the Eisenhower Park later this year, though construction at the venue is yet to get underway. The proposed venue comprising temporary stands will be able to accommodate up to 34,000 spectators, which is considered standard when looking at cricketing venues across the world.

Under construction? They haven't even broken ground yet, and won't until February. This is what the Nassau County, NY cricket stadium site for the 2024 T20 World Cup currently looks like. https://t.co/0jiG5rs1GR pic.twitter.com/A8yGh0dT2A

— Peter Della Penna (@PeterDellaPenna) December 31, 2023

New York City mayor Eric Adams had originally hoped for the ICC T20 World Cup matches to take place at Van Cortlandt Park in the borough of Bronx, but had to shelve those plans after facing criticism from locally elected officials. As for the other American venues in the US, the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium in Lauderhill, Florida happens to be the most prominent one given the number of T20Is that it has hosted starting with a New Zealand vs Sri Lanka fixture back in 2010 and between West Indies and India last August. It has hosted a total of 22 international games to date — 16 T20Is and six ODIs. Team India have faced the West Indians a total of eight times at this venue, the first of which took place in their visit to this part of the world back in 2016. [caption id=“attachment_12987352” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground in Lauderhill, Florida. Image credit: Twitter/@windiescricket[/caption] As for Dallas, the third venue in the list that hosts the opening fixture of the tournament between the USA and Canada, the 7000-capacity MLC Grand Prairie Stadium rose to prominence during the inaugural edition of the Major League Cricket and is a venue that can be expanded in capacity ahead of the big event later this year.