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I don't know that we'll ever get the volume of immigrants from the sub-continent to make the USA genuinely competitive. Of course they've made great contributions to the sport in other countries where they've planted themselves... so long as those countries already had a well-established cricketing tradition.
But when they arrive here, they find a country that has no meaningful cricket facilities, no infrastructure, no developmental programs, barely any local amateur leagues, and no interest whatsoever in developing these things. So the new arrivals are building it all from scratch with zero help from their adopted countrymen whose best potential cricket athletes will go on to play one of our other, very well-established (and in the case of the best athletes, very lucrative) sports. The descendants of the sub-continent immigrants? They too will likely become increasingly more involved in our more established sports with each successive generation.
I'm impressed Team USA earned ODI status and that should help hone their talent. But the fact that 22 members of the 27-man roster are immigrants highlights the challenge USA Cricket faces trying to develop home-grown talent in a country whose broader sports culture couldn't care less about cricket.
I don't know much about Nepal,but I do know Netherlands of all places and Scotland have pretty strong squads. I like Namibia too, they're a scrappy little bunch.
Strictly by numbers, we have 4 times more Indian / Pakistani in USA then in Caribbean countries. I am estimating Indian origin population of West Indies to be around 1.5 million. Still they produced great Cricketers like Rohan Kanhai, Alvinn Kalicharan, Chanderpaul, Sarwan.
You are right that it is very different to be born in Guyana / Trinidad then to be born in USA. They can pick up Cricket far more easily in West Indies.
Few years back when I was in University, there was an attempt to build up University Cricket teams for Cricket in USA. Funding came in. There was a tournament in Florida which was showed on some local Indian Diaspora channel of USA. If they can somehow link up College scholarships, game can kick off.
Right now Indian parents are forcing kids to mug-up dictionaries for Spelling Bee !! It will be a change.
Afghanistan I'd say is the biggest wildcard of the bunch. Not really a threat to win but certainly capable of making things interesting during the round-robin phase.
Well, so much for that. They haven't even given anyone a meaningful challenge. Zimbabwe, Ireland, and Scotland have to be watching this and thinking "they're in the cup and we're not?"
Some of Afghanistan's fielding has been so comically awful it almost makes me wonder if some of them aren't getting paid off.
It started when Andy Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands during the 2003 World Cup to protest the Mugabe regime. They had to flee Zimbabwe and to the best of my knowledge neither has ever returned.
Interesting side story on Olonga. He married an Australian lady and settled here. He has been on TV a lot recently because he entered The Voice singing competition and had some success. Pretty good singer.
India Team has been hurt with injury concerns.
Shikhar Dhawan has been ruled out of the tournament and this will disturb the balance in Batting order of the team.
Bowler Bhuvanaeswar Kumar has Hamstring concern.
Vijay Shankar got injured during Training.
It will be interesting to know if any of the bottom six teams can defeat the Big 4 ? Otherwise it looks like 4 semi-finalists have already been decided.
Rohit bowled out 1 of 10. Go Afghanistan! (though you'll probably still lose by 7 or 8 wickets)
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