Baseball cricket in the USA

The newest format of cricket has arrived in the United States and it is called baseball/cricket.

The format has been conceptualised by chairman of Cricket Council USA (CCUSA) and successful businessman Mahammad Qureshi. The new format is a hybrid of the popular American sport baseball and cricket. The innings is comprised of 10 overs and carries all the rules of the International Cricket Council (ICC). However, the change is that only 10 players can take the field at one time as the fielding team.

There are no fielding restrictions as all eight fielders can be on the boundary from ball one. A total of 13 players per side can be involved in the match and the players can be interchanged during the game. Another major change is that the bowling takes place from one end (similar to one base) and the batting at the other. This reduces the time by a lot which augers well for the sport in America, where fast-paced action is the order.

CCUSA held the tournament from May 19 to May 22 at the Central Broward Regional Park and it was a tremendous success according to Qureshi: “This was really successful. I want to say congratulations to all the teams that took part and special congrats to the winners Titans.

“We held the USA T10 International Premier League (IPL) and the baseball/cricket format was introduced. The players all really liked it and it was refreshing to see. What was notable was the fact that locals were attending the matches because it was taking just about an hour and half to be completed. They were choosing their matches and going to them before leaving to do other things. So, I think with this we have found the right format to get the locals interested in the sport.”