page_title: Sports in the United States
section_title: Cricket
hierarchical_section_title: Sports in the United States / Other team sports / Cricket
caption_attribution_description: English: Aaqib A. playing cricket
context_page_description: Sports in the United States are an important part of culture in the United States. American football is the most popular sport to watch in the United States, followed by baseball, basketball, and ice hockey, which makes up the "4 major sports". Soccer, Rugby union, Rugby league, tennis, golf, wrestling, auto racing, softball, field lacrosse, box lacrosse, handball, volleyball, and water polo are also played in the country. Based on Olympic Games, World Championships, and other major competitions in respective sports, the United States is the most successful sports nation in the world.
  Based on revenue, the four major professional sports leagues in the United States are Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, and the National Hockey League. The market for professional sports in the United States is roughly $69 billion, roughly 50% larger than that of all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa combined. All four enjoy wide-ranging domestic media coverage and are considered the preeminent leagues in their respective sports in the world, although American football does not have a substantial following in other nations.
context_section_description: In 2006 it was estimated that 30,000 people in the United States play or watch cricket annually. By 2017, this figure had risen to 200,000 people playing cricket in 6,000 teams.
  Cricket in the United States is not as popular as baseball and is not as popular among as large a fraction of the population as it is
  within either the Commonwealth nations or the other ICC full member (or Test cricket) nations. There are at least two historical reasons for the relative obscurity of cricket within
  the United States. One reason was the 19th-century-rise of the summer time bat and ball sport now called baseball, which seems to have displaced cricket as a popular pastime. Another reason was that in 1909 when the ICC was originally organized as the
  Imperial Cricket Conference it was open only to Commonwealth nations and thereby excluded the US from participating in the sport at the highest level.
  Nevertheless, in 1965 the US was admitted to the renamed ICC as an associate member and the sport grew in popularity in the second half of the 20th century. An oft mentioned reason for the growing popularity of cricket is the growing population of immigrants to the US who come from cricket playing nations.
  With the launching of the United States Youth Cricket Association in 2010, a more focused effort to bring the game to American schools was begun, with the intention of broadening cricket's fan base beyond expatriates and their children.
  ESPN has been stepping up its coverage of cricket in recent years, buying the cricket website Cricinfo in 2007, and broadcasting the final of the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 competition, the 2014 Indian Premier League, English County Championship games, and international Test cricket.
caption: A Sri Lankan-American child playing cricket in the US state of Virginia.
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