Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back. To the American Over, a podcast on cricket in the USA. My name is Neil. And I'm Dhruv. And I'm indoors staying warm, Neil. Tell us a little bit more about where you are.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a nice background, right? So I'm here upstate New York with some buddies on a cabin trip here. It's like 35 degrees, but it's such a nice atmosphere. I had to come come outside. So. Funny story, so there's there's a garage over there and it has a bunch of like sports equipment. right and you know we have a really nice kind of flat grass section in the back overlooking the lake right And my buddy's practicing his kind of bowling motion. And so we went inside to see what they had.
Speaker: uh dad likes basketball, they had baseball, they had football and stuff and I looked at one of the shelves and on the shelf they had a little a thing that said cricket. It was a scientist cricket. I got incredibly excited because there was like ah a cloth bag back there. You open it, it's heavy. It's like, you know, this wide. And it's like, it's rustling. You can feel the wood sticks inside. So I got super, super excited. so I zip it open.
Speaker: Turns out it's croquet. No. Not cricket. they the wes that's cricket It was croquet. Um, I'm too young to play. Okay, and my... ah my My disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined. Maybe we'll take one of the pieces of firewood here and fashion show a cricket. Uh, well. and then we'll tape up a tennis ball. played some old basketball, right?
Speaker: So we'll see. We'll see. But anyway. i'm Glad to be back. Daruv, we had some fun cricket. You know, last time we we were recording as one of the the USA's recent matches was going on.
Speaker: What do you think about that one? There was another one that went just a couple days after. Yeah, I mean, so we had... We had the world, you know... cricket league continuing to go on some of these qualifiers continue to go on you had usa uae last week and then uh uae or excuse me usa and namibia uh which were very very different matches for a lot of different reasons um uae usa we were kind of watching live as as you said and man USA just...
Speaker: their bowling attack just annihilating them out there right um yeah So UAE was bowled out for 2 -13. short of 50 overs and then usa come in and just cruise 214 for five Less than 40 overs, 38 .4 overs. like That was a dropping.
Speaker: And, you know, it was good to see. It was good to see. And I think that was the third straight match where USA had chosen to bowl first and chase, right? And that worked out very well for them. Look at these lines. Nethor Volker, 9 .3 overs.
Speaker: 23 runs only, three wickets, incredible. Shubham Ranjaneh, 10 overs, 39 runs, four wickets. So really, really dominant. Boeing. Um... UAE had a bit of a collapse in the mid -overs, so in the span of 10 overs. They went from 131 for two to 177 for eight.
Speaker: uh and there really wasn't much recovering from that you know and you know to their 2 .13 is like that. It's not something you can really get under fans. You know, realistically. Yeah. Unbelievable collapse. And honestly, even just to get to shoe 13 from there. Yeah.
Speaker: That's impressive. it's not easy And batting -wise, so we had Shay and Joy Serrier come out here for about 83 off 95. Very, very good. And then that that was basically all we needed, right? is We got a bunch of cameos for 20. Smith Patel, one of the openers, 25.
Speaker: Sanjay Krishnamoorthy, you know. Good kid, 28. Millen Kumar, 27. Runger day, 14. Shifted to the bat, too. So, you know, its good. The first two partnerships, you got the first partnership for the first week, it was 75, and the next one was 65. So you sit there at 140 for two.
Speaker: You need 75. you're in good shape, right? This is what we talk about when we talk about platforms. you know. Get yourself in good shape after the first couple of wickets. And then, you know, you just got to cruise the rest of the way. I mean, I forget how many how many balls or overs they'd spent to get to 140. But, like, they had all the time in the world. So.
Speaker: Nice and easy, nice and clean win. I mean, UAE is not the most intimidating team, I would say, of the remainder that we were playing against. I would say Namibia. would be the most intimidating team, which is my perspective. And that match did not go as well. What what did you think there?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean look you had a USA finally decided to chase on this one, or excuse me, finally decided to put up a score and be chased. yeah And in all the previous matches, the USA had chased whether they got to decide or whether they were they were thrown into doing that.
Speaker: And I think we exposed our bowling attack here. You know, obviously there was a decent amount of playing 11 rotation, but USA put up ah a... slightly lower score 277 for seven and Namibia chased it down Man, you know they kind of dragged it a little bit towards the end, but they got real aggressive in the death overs and ended of the game with just a couple of overs remaining.
Speaker: put up the last 100 in the last 15 overs of them getting to place from 33 to 48. um To the 49th over. They were just.
Speaker: They were just... Playing aggressively, which you know what for ODI cricket? That's impressive. That's impressive. And they really didn't lose that many wickets until towards the end. some gorgeous gorgeous centuries coming from stream comp 102 off 114 erasmus almost got there um and uh you know he tried to he tried to hit the the century runs in you know that could have also been the winning runs, by the way.
Speaker: um when he was on 95 and and you know got caught out. And you know what they say, catches win matches, bowlers win tournaments. And so it was surprising, I think, a little bit.
Speaker: to see the batting for the USA not pop off in the way that maybe we would have expected, especially not the top order, and then the bowling to with some rotation. not come off the way we'd expect.
Speaker: Yeah, like... We also got to start from the beginning, right? A .277 is fine. Uh... you You can defend it, right? But I think what what happened is you you see what happens when our stars don't take off, right? So, the Smith Patel got out for one. He's been 14 balls and got one run. That's it, right? Monon, his partner in crime, got 30 off 40. He doesn't need a fine. Nolan Kumar got five off 17, right? And he's usually one of our top scorers, right? so I wouldn't quite say we're top -heavy. like we're We're, you know... Team USA's got.
Speaker: good batting, you know, up until six or seven, but, like... you know when A couple of your stars don't really do anything. you know, you're going to have trouble. Shayhan Jayasuriya came in, he got 76 off 99.
Speaker: And then, you know. That was basically it for a while. And then at the end, I think what happened was we had Cheyenne John Gear come in, put up 73, not out off 64. Harmeet comes in, puts up 54, not out. off just 34 balls. the way So these guys came in and I think for the last 10 plus overs, these guys just sitting there just kind of farming the strike and just kind of.
Speaker: You know. playing solid, not getting out and then just put up. a bunch of runs there at the end, you know, maybe they could have accelerated a little bit more, but it may be a little bit more aggressive. But again, speaking of platforms, they didn't have much. And I think that was impressive, you know, for these guys are probably used to playing T20s to sit there, just milk out 10 overs, right? Don't get out. You know, this is, you know, this is your number nine guy and you don't want, you really don't want to let anyone farther down.
Speaker: you know come in so just sit there Milk runs, you know, and we talk about developing teams' stamina. right uh and You know, like... If you can bat for longer than half of a T20 match, I mean, I know it's ODI, but like, you know. like that just relatively speaking like that's good that's good that's how you kind of develop that Yep. um And, you know, we haven't really seen Team USA do that very much. Just sit there. just Get not out.
Speaker: put up a good partnership, just just just run out of the time. I mean, again, it wasn't enough. But. That's maybe a bit of a silver lining. Um, so to be fair right like they had won the tournament already yeah and we did get a decent amount of player rotation right if you want to talk about that Yeah, so basically the the top six were pretty much the same. So the batsmen more or less the same. A lot of the bowlers rotated. So no Jewish bowler. He was out. Mokamala, I think he's all around the right. He was out. Nettervalker was out. right so yeah As you said.
Speaker: if nether valkyr's not playing like you gotta think that it's resting him right or i mean i know they rotated naturally but like you know you already locked it up last match, you know, just you don't need to play him. And then Ehsan Adil came in, Harmeet Singh came in, Chai and Jahangir came in. like These are good good players, right? So like it's not like they just bench their starters and put in the second stringers.
Speaker: they were They were definitely competitive players. But yeah, you could you could tell they were... rotating the bowlers and the all -rounders. Yeah. How do those guys all look to you? It's important to get game time for folks, and so I totally get that. Yeah.
Speaker: It did feel like... even if the Even if the USA gave away fewer extras, even if they, um you know, actually had decent... decent economy rates weren't getting wickets. And I think your strike polling really comes from people like Kinjige and Neteroelker. Pretty consistently, right? You always see their names up there.
Speaker: I think Ranjanay didn't get off the the way that we would normally see him, right? Like in the last match against UAE. He took several wickets this time. He didn't take any.
Speaker: um and continueio there's There's always some variance here and there, but I think the folks coming in... just didn't You know. didn't didn't hit the stumps, didn't target the stumps. There was a lot of wide line bowling.
Speaker: Which, by the way... That's what That's what you kind of learn from T20. That's how you handle T20 death polling. And, ah you know, targeting the stumps is is sort of where where you kind of open up more opportunities for wickets, whether it's LBW or cramping the batsman or something like that. So it's all surprising.
Speaker: maybe to see that, but it's good to see more of the team get game time. Win or loss, I guess. and say that. They did. It did. very clearly looked like they were going for more batting depth.
Speaker: But with the batting not coming off, at least from the top order... middle order lower order had to had to come in um and so you had you know, fewer dedicated bowlers.
Speaker: and more all -rounders, some part -timers like Milim Kumar Jayasuri are getting between the two of them five or six overs. and incidentally bowling decently. But as you said, I really do think it's about not just... not just physical sta ah stamina, but also mental stamina. You have to.
Speaker: you know you're fielding out all day in the hot texas heat right dallas isn't Even even at this time of year, Dallas isn't chilly. And you've got to keep your head on straight. You've got to keep playing the game. and i don't i I don't blame him. I don't think that's easy.
Speaker: I mean, ODI is tough. It's ah it's a long day. right like it's It's even longer than a test day. Of course, it's more it's it's more also intense than a test day. And obviously way, way longer than... the 1920 day. And yeah, as you as you said, right, also when... when You know, you go up to your number nine batsman, right? like you're you're You're batting hard.
Speaker: Right. The whole morning you're baking out. in the heat then you're trying to expect to go around turn around and bowl um that's tough and like especially in terms of just like mental focus stamina like It's one of the risks of kind of taking the ball second, right?
Speaker: uh is that You guys may not be in top shape after having put up 50. overs already. especially, you know, then then then the light starts changing, right? It gets a little bit darker. It's it's tricky, right?
Speaker: I can see why you would struggle in that case. But again, as we said, right, like this match didn't really matter. right and we were on their case last time about you know hey they they didn't uh you know put up a target they only chased right and this is good this is how you get that kind of experience and you know, especially with As far as I'm aware, Team USA has absolutely zero cricket. of any kind. until I think next year. uh That's when the the the qualifier, remember the qualifier league that we qualified for by virtue of winning this sub -qualifier, the best, right?
Speaker: That's the next action I think Team USA is going to see, right? So, you know, it's good. You you get them right now you got you get the whole next several months to just kind of think about, hey what what happens, right? It's not a crushing loss, right? It's just like...
Speaker: garbage time right you know it's like you you can think about it right you can think about okay maybe we should do a scrimmage or something right and just see if we can bat 50 overs and then go out and see how well we can feel right like i'm not I'm not too concerned about it.
Speaker: but Yeah, it was a good experience, right? And, you know, knowing how to play a well on a loss. Again, as I said, those guys going out there say, all right, you know, we didn't really have a great platform, but we have 10 overs. Let's just. You might be the last, you know, true batsman or I'm going to all round it. But like, you know, the last guys who can really swing a bat.
Speaker: Let's just go out there and spend and take 10 overs. You know, that's a good experience, even in defeat. and you know, with With these teams like USA, right, where you're not really going to get.
Speaker: that many games to play. Like it's important to kind of make the most of all the opportunities that you get. Yeah, that qualifying tournament isn't until February, and i yeah I think I agree with you. I think for the next four months, there's I don't see anything out there, which is...
Speaker: You know, which is disappointing. And I think as an associate nation, you know, we were thinking, you and I were talking a little bit about earlier, the different formats that... that Cricketers get to play.
Speaker: At the end of the day, I think You almost see these cricketers left on their own playing a lot of franchise cricket, whatever they can get into, whether that's, you know, up in Canada, US, sometimes CPL. A couple of these guys play for some of the UAE leagues.
Speaker: But... You know, international cricket is... different and you know it doesn't it's not clear that there's a whole lot of bilateral t20 it's not clear there's a whole lot of odi what do you think What do you think the future of some of these non -test players? nation.
Speaker: um you know bilaterals and and formats look like. Yeah, like... On the one hand, right? uh you know you don't really see bilateral t20s that much outside of like a but let's do the world cup but that doesn't count right like just like friendly just bilaterals yeah i think you most of the time you see these kind of i call them the variety pack tours you know USA India goes to New Zealand you play like tests and some ODIs and T20. Those are more just like...
Speaker: just because they just they can say they did everything right the real draw i think i would say in that case is the test series right For sure. So you don't really see much of that. and I don't really think Team USA in this case and other associations really do bilateral T20s or ODIs unless unless they're for qualification for a World Cup.
Speaker: Uh, You know, I think we might see is, yeah, I think they'll like kind of. you know, let's just go play just because, right? um those matches I think you'll start seeing less and less and less of. And associations, you really don't see them in any way.
Speaker: I think the extremely long and convoluted and messy and multi -stage World Cup qualification process, that actually might be intentional. right because it basically means they can do bilaterals. They they effectively are bilaterals. right USA to Libya is just like a match.
Speaker: But it has stakes, right? So maybe what we're going to see is... I think maybe I'm a little more sanguine on the future of these formats. than you. Bye. they'll be for something now granted maybe it's like oh hey now you will have a chance to qualify for a qualifier for a qualifier to a qualifier right Which is kind of silly, but like at least there's some stakes to it. And even even tests, right? my Tests still count towards the test championship. right yep so there's not really anything left without Stakes.
Speaker: if you want to put it that way. Yeah. Which, I mean, this is the natural rotation of the formats, right? I think, you know... Look, if bilateral T20 just kind of dies out outside the World Cup, it doesn't really matter. It's every two years. like It's fine. yeah And you get so much franchise credit. You'll see these guys play each other anyway. I think what I would be more worried about is ODI. right And...
Speaker: what What do you think? What does the future look like for that? because You don't see a franchise ODI. like Where are we going to get this from? I mean, How long does ODI continue? after the fab four or maybe specifically Virat retired. Like... Honestly, like who is watching?
Speaker: Even now with Virat playing and and with others, like... I'm not sitting there watching all nine hours, um especially, you know, the time zones that we're in. You know, maybe the Champions Trophy, maybe the World Cup, like I'll watch.
Speaker: And i think it really does I think it really does come up to... How much do we think the ODI World Cup is? the World Cup. And if we want to give folks game time, we want to give them some reason, you know, to watch, maybe we do have to do what you said, you know, you were suggesting this earlier, like have associate nations play India A.
Speaker: had them play england lines yeah Have them play play, you know, Prime Minister's Eleven or something like that from Australia. I think that's a great idea. Because people would watch those. people don't It's not like everybody watches NDIA matches, but...
Speaker: more people than, you know, USA, Namibia are probably watching. yeah right And so. i don't think that's a bad idea and ultimately my goal is to get The team... Game time. I think that really matters. like I don't think franchise cricket is a replacement even to even to international because it's it's a different team. It's a different structure. Rules can be slightly different too. um And so it really matters to be able to get to play some of these international uh like
Speaker: level games, but ODI I don't even know if it's worth it outside of World Cups. i Eight. i think a lot of the skills like it is a different gear like obviously you see so you see cricketers that aren't all format that really do succeed the most in ODI because it is a different gear.
Speaker: But... with t20 having so much more of the money for both players and for broadcasters and for Teams. I don't know how long it survives me.
Speaker: Yeah. the the The problem for ODI has always been that, you know, most sports, there's a format. There's a formula, right? Like soccer. match. baseball, football, like these are all things like.
Speaker: You can play it in three or four hours, right? In T20. was designed i think very intentionally to like fit in exactly in that time frame And then tests are cool. It's like a festival, right? It's like five days and you wake up in the morning and it's like, oh yeah, you know, everyone's had written their newspaper article about how it's been going, right? but like nine hour for a marathon over the course of a day, like I can't, I really can't think of another sport.
Speaker: that. does anything like that and maybe you can baseball doubleheader but that's like two separate and that's two separate games right it's different Yeah. Um, So... in this day and age of like you know tv franchise like i think there's a reason you don't see a franchise odi league as cool as that would be i would love to see a franchise odi That would be super cool.
Speaker: But it just doesn't really fit the format. and and the formula that we're used to. for sports i think t20 is Yeah, T20 fits with... kind of the normal format.
Speaker: That's because it's Owen. you know, really, really cool thing. It's unique. You know, you know how you you talk about Talk to like non -cricket fans about cricket. You would say, hey, you know, there's this format that takes five days. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You take a lunch break, you take a tea break.
Speaker: And there's me that's so cool. They love that stuff, right? Yep. ODI doesn't have the the factor of cool. That's how we compose. No. i think Speaking of test cricket, I think it's doing fine, which is great. That's my favorite format, right?
Speaker: I think he's doing great. I think it really helps that domestic. leagues right i'm ah i'm still kind of surprising the sheffield shield and all that right yeah about All these domestic leagues, they still play tests. i mean Sometimes they're four -day tests, not five -day tests. yeah But they're still tests. You would think that they would have pivoted to ODI or something, right?
Speaker: I'm glad they didn't. But that really helps the test format, you know. Yeah. Continue. yeah technically they're first class matches technically they're first class matches uh if we're if we're if we're being technical about it uh yeah i mean you do see like if you're playing for club cricket in in international like you are also playing you know They have a T20 playing 11. They have a... they have a um
Speaker: For List Day. Yeah. Playing XI, it's not not... it's not to the level of... a You know, it's not to the level of care that they give first class. They've just... Like, it's just...
Speaker: it is amazing how much we do to keep that format alive in the best way possible Yeah. Yeah, like just just just just Just to to sum this all up, right? I think... yeah i mean maybe we'll see like oh days already are kind of getting phased out right like You don't really see it on except for these qualifiers. And again, the qualifiers are so long and complicated that even if all we have is World Cup plus qualifiers, that's still ODI cricket. Right?
Speaker: Yeah. If you are just a fan of ODI cricket, you're not going to get it. outside of these. these kind of qualifiers. So it's going to be limited. Will they ever kill it off officially? Will they kill it officially? Like, I think with what...
Speaker: you know The core way to all we're saying is... if they do get rid of the ODI World Cup, where they kind of... downgrade it once we're out for tires and all that. then yeah, you're not going to get ODI cricket. Because if the only way you get it is qualification for the World Cup, if the World Cup stops mattering or goes away, then... There you go. You're not going to have that.
Speaker: Yeah, I completely I'm completely with you What are you? What do you think it would take? to get the USA to play either first -class cricket domestically or test cricket internationally.
Speaker: What do you think? So I think one thing that's really interesting is that to have a To be a test plane nation, you have to have a domestic. first -class league, not franchise. You've got to have a domestic league, but again, the Sheffield Shield, Bounty Trophy. all these things, right?
Speaker: So. If we're just talking about it from a mechanics point of view, the U .S. would have to set one of those up first. And we talked about this last week. Like, I would love to see, ah you know, you're not going to have every state play each other. I don't think there's enough interest for that or not. farm system. I'd love to see...
Speaker: I'd love to say Montana play New Hampshire, you know? Yeah. The same way that in Australia you go off and see, you know, Tasmania play Victoria, whatever. That's not going to happen for a while. I mean, you could maybe see. West Coast, Northeast, Midwest. but You have like six, seven, eight different teams, right? sure I would love to see that. I mean, just mechanically, that's what you'd have to do. And I think once you have that, then there's a... relatively short path.
Speaker: to getting up to a test. i mean in In terms of... like you know, actually like how you build the the skill set and the interest and yeah you probably would want to do like a test series or it's not technically a test, whatever you want to call it, right?
Speaker: um of you know, We could bring that back the idea of, you know, associate nations playing the kind of second string. You have a nation. Right? I mean, you can also just have associations play each other.
Speaker: Mhm. that'd be great and and again as you said the the kind of technicalities about like what it means to qualify for test playing status because again it's kind of a it's a prestige thing right Like Ireland and Afghanistan were like real nations once they achieved test playing status. It's not just like, hey, like.
Speaker: you know. Technically, yeah, we could put Team USA on a plane and send them off to you know Italy and have them play a bunch of these matches, but... The thing about Test Cricket is that it's like a... it's It's a privilege, right? It's like, oh, you've earned test playing status.
Speaker: So it's more about how do they get to the level of being able to do it. Um, You had a fun fact for me, which is the team USA, or USA actually is a test flying nation. yeah but the same of technicalities technically first class because it wasn't five days but the first international cricket match ever was a first class match between the usa and canada um And ah and.
Speaker: the US has had a couple of test playing players uh we we a couple of american borns ken weeks was boston born and played for the west indies back in the 30s and 40s and then jehan mubarak ah was a dc native local to me uh and played for sri lanka and only recently retired about 10 years ago so you know we've got we've got some test players and technically and I saw this on reddit so credit to them the leeward islands
Speaker: are part of the u .s virgin islands in american territory and a part of the West Indies. and any Anyone who, any cricketer from there could play for the West Indies. Has that happened? Not to my knowledge. But could it happen?
Speaker: America's a test plain nation, baby. Right, yeah. So an American born. in the U .S. Virgin Islands would be able to play for the Leeward Islands and by therefore be able to play it for the West Indies. i would love to see it happen yeah as you said we've never had someone like that but ah that' be so sick That'll be so sick. But i do I do feel like... My hot take here is that the whole concept of test playing nations is dumb. Like, you either have nations or you don't have nations.
Speaker: Like I... you know the The concept of associate versus test doesn't make any sense to me. And I understand why it exists, right? There's maybe a little bit of old boys club there, a little bit of racism sp sprinkled in there, a little bit of like...
Speaker: Who the hell are these guys? I don't know what's going on over there. yeah I'm sure there's ah there's a little bit of that. But look. The way you solve this is not by eliminating other cricketers. They're at Cricketing Nations. It's by... creating a tiered system. That's how every other sport is solved. this I think like imagine like you have the top eight right you have you know,
Speaker: playing playing the World Test Championship. I think that's 10 teams. And, you know, keep that going. And then have a Tier 2 with promotion and relegation. And these these tiers are super fluid, right? like West Indies. used to be the number one nation that people couldn't beat um and has you know has bounced back and forth between that. And now they're...
Speaker: struggling, at least in test. um Pakistan is a great example of this where sometimes they're super hot and sometimes they're super not. um South Africa just won the World Test Championship after never winning an ICC trophy ever before. its so That's not to say South Africa has been a bad team by any means. but these are These are the ways that I think you artificially create them. opportunities for these um uh associate nations to find
Speaker: Growth? And then also to to, you know, go against some of these teams. Like imagine the revenue that a USA versus India or USA versus England match. could create for USA Cricket.
Speaker: Right. So... that's that's the kind of thing that i think you really unfortunately miss out on when you are Stuck. uh, When you are stuck Creating these barriers against I love the idea of the multiple tiers.
Speaker: the and The thing is... In cricket, there's a big drop off. Right. So like if you did, for example, let's say, Let's let's say the the top tier was 12 teams, right? We have 12 current destinations, right?
Speaker: Like the drop off from like Ireland and Afghanistan to like the next guy I don't know what that would be would be like Namibia or something, right? Like... i ganda maybe right like the drop -off is pretty steep right so if you did 12 and let's say another 12 I don't know how much promotion relegation you would see. If you drew the line at like six, I would definitely see it. You can see Pakistan bouncing up and down. if you see the West Indies bouncing up and down. That would be kind of neat.
Speaker: But then if you have six in the top league, then you might have six in the bottom league. Then it's just a worse version of what we currently have. right I'm not sure how you would set it up, but you know. I know you said that the tears are... Pretty fluid.
Speaker: um or or you the ranks are pretty fluid. i guess so but like they're still very clearly like tears right you got like you know India, England, Australia, New Zealand. South Africa, right? hot Tier one. right then you got pakistan sri lanka West Indies, right? And then you got I'd say maybe Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, then... Ireland, Afghanistan, and everybody else. Right. So like.
Speaker: I think these top couple weeks, like yeah, you you you wouldn't be shocked to see the bottom of the day should be New Zealand or whatever. way That happens, right? Yeah. but it ah Even especially once you get past Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, like there's a real, real drop off.
Speaker: is a But maybe this is just a thing of like, well, this is drop -off because they haven't gotten a chance to play. Maybe if you gave... Canada. right the same experiences of playing all these top teams, then maybe they would develop. right And they would be able to get themselves into that conversation.
Speaker: i Mean does it happen though right like Bangladesh just recently be Australia. Yeah like that is super ripped. yeah that doesn't happen in test and part of that is because they don't play that many tests even though these are a part of Even though they're a part of the World Test Championship, the way that that breakdown works is actually not that equitable.
Speaker: It's not that Bangladesh is like... you know has to play a certain number of tests against australia and uh you know India has to play a certain number of tests with Afghanistan. And that's just not, it's not how it works. And so you don't actually end up with even amongst test plane nations.
Speaker: a whole lot of equity and you see a ton more you know for the Ashes. You see a ton more for the BGT or something like that. um ton more energy, ton more stability in in a way that.
Speaker: does cut out other other nations, disproportionately Asian nations. which I think is... Everything is really disappointing even New Zealand actually doesn't play that test even though they've got an incredible test team right they're the ones that whitewashed india in india just a couple of years ago right and that that doesn't happen so um I uh... you know I'm I'm a little bit more confident that if you get people playing in a format that...
Speaker: is genuinely, like... genuinely accommodating and well structured you can probably get some really successful You can probably get some really successful test promotion and relegation.
Speaker: But who knows? I think you're right. that There's something that ICZ would have to do here of forcing the issue, right? Because I think the current situation, the countries are kind of arranged among themselves or whatever if they want to do it.
Speaker: that's how you get india versus like south africa england the usual suspects all the time But yeah, if the ICC came in and said, hey, like, you know. West Indies, you got to play. two tests or whatever against him. every single one of these other countries, right? I don't care how much you like playing India for the money, but like you got to play against it get other people, right?
Speaker: Uh... That's... That's a way that ICT can come in and like use their power and their organization capabilities. Like, yeah, as you said, force teams to play more, get that kind of more even playing field.
Speaker: And that's maybe when you would start seeing kind of teams move up and down. right like If the West Indies got to play more tests, maybe they would regain their ah old. for them. The knock on the West Indies, of course, is that they just their guys just play all kinds of 220. you don't really have much of a test side right like you could change that You can change that. And again, that's how you'd get.
Speaker: you know Netherlands, Namibia, Canada, USA, whoever. Those reps. Again, even if they're just playing against each other. Okay. right like I don't want to see these three -month gaps on the schedule. you know, of like no cricket whatsoever. and Obviously no tester. whatever, right?
Speaker: picking it all. If you came in and forced it. That would be great. That'd be great. And I think we'd all love to see more test equipment all the time. Yeah ah Completely agree. I'm completely with you. um Speaking of more cricket all the time, a little bit of a topic shift.
Speaker: Minor league cricket's coming back, huh? Yeah, this is this is weird. You know how I said last week, like American sports have the wackiest playoff formats. This is, this continues in that long tradition. Every team had three bye weeks. Okay. In the NFL, you kill for one biweek. These are the three biweeks. Anyway. So basically what happened was, Minor league cricket, as we we talked about them last week. Their regular season ended end of September.
Speaker: And they still haven't done the super eights. So they actually have three weeks in between. I think that's designed to intentionally so that these Team USA guys can go off and play you know these ODI matches. yeah Now that's done on Wednesday, which is the 25th. first.
Speaker: of October. They're going to start the Super Aces for three days. but you have all those matches kind of crammed in so it's kind of funny you have three week break and then a bunch of action for three days. Kind of kind of strange format. I mean you probably want to get it in before it gets any colder than it already is.
Speaker: Sure. But... Yeah, man, a little bit odd, a little bit odd. But that'll be fun. I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes. And, you know, next time we can talk. about that. who ends up taking the trophy away. Yeah finals on the 25th, so yeah I'm excited to see I'm excited to see what happens Yeah.
Speaker: what What happened to the USA Women's Cricket? We haven't talked about them. at all. like What have they been doing? Hi. Have they been doing anything, dude? Like that. The last I saw... There was a women's T20 challenge trophy in May of this year where the American women played. They actually won. They won that tournament.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, listen. It was Nepal, Rwanda, Italy, Vanuatu, and USA. So it's not a murderer's row. You know, like, but hey, they want. They won. They won. pretty pretty well.
Speaker: But that was in May. I mean, you know, they had some good players. but That was in May, last thing we saw. I don't think they have anything left on on the schedule. We can talk about the Olympics at some point later. But. That's two years, right? I don't know what else I have.
Speaker: um going on. We should probably do a bit more. examination of kind of what women's cricket is going to look like. Fire. I don't really see much, which is a shame, you know, and... Does, am I, mind if we could have a women's side? I feel like I saw something like that. I think the Canada one had a women's side.
Speaker: So... yeah these you know you know these women players. <unk> say since may i've probably gotten a little bit of chance to do stuff but it's definitely been kind of slim pickings for him. Yeah, it's this that's disappointing I mean Minor League Cricket says they will start a... ah
Speaker: a women's cricket league and MLC also hasn't even started a women's cricket league, but you know, it's probably going to. government takes some time. yeah It's not even clear how successful MLC men's is yet. That's true.
Speaker: The thing about women, so... Americans... women's team. We actually lost ODI status in 2025. To the u UAE, actually. So what happens is I think the top 16 women's teams.
Speaker: of ODI status. and USA lost it. Funny enough, there's like random countries like Thailand who actually have a pretty good women's team. and I think they're in the top 16. So they have ODI status. We lost it. And this is the thing where, you know, it's a vicious cycle where if you fall, if you get bad, you fall in the standings, you lose a chance to play cricket. and Now you get even worse, right? so I think a tier 2 system would be terrific, but... yeah we were we already went on that hobby horse there Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, like... Yeah. I think TV is going to maybe try and climb back into that. on the women's side. I think it's really cool that you know these smaller nations can excel in women's. cricket right and this is we talked about the last week too right like Women's cricket is a great opportunity for these smaller countries. to kind of show their self. Good side. It's a lesser drama format.
Speaker: But yeah, that that's... Unfortunately, that's all that we really can can say about... women's cricket right now. And then to wrap up, you had some interesting drama, didn't you? the governing boards and all that.
Speaker: Oh, man, there's so much more we have to get into when we maybe do some more research and figure it all out. but ah For the second time in, I think, 10 years, USA Cricket's getting dissolved.
Speaker: again Again, before it was the USA Cricket Association that then became USA Cricket. And now it looks like it's going to be a combination of the ICC and... uh the olympic ah us olympic association creating a board to manage usa cricket temporarily as they come out of bankruptcy.
Speaker: They tried to terminate this contract with Ace because Ace was making too much money. American Cricket Enterprises, which runs MLC, was making too much money. and so now you know maybe that's a more Maybe that's the more negative way of putting that, but you know I'm sure they they had ah had a more solid legal argument. but You know, there's... there's It just seems like there's a ton of unnecessary conflict here. And look, you and I both know this instability breeds failure, right? so
Speaker: for the usa for for USA Cricket to succeed. We've got to get Kind of got to get over this kind of... the political drama here. If it makes you feel any better... like Every country's like, uh...
Speaker: picket board is a mess right like zimbabwe had the whole mess right that was horrendous right uh Pakistan's always just had all kinds of corruption problems. right I'm sure India's got all kinds of stuff going on under them. I don't know. too right So. That's just kind of how it is. But yeah, you would hope and wish for a...
Speaker: a nice quick kind of resolution when we researched this i found a really funny article it was titled usa cricket transparency and accountability series the breach of trust published last year. um Incredible. like It's one of those things where like, if you have to put out a press release with a title like that.
Speaker: You already kind of lost. You're in trouble. Yep. We should probably do a special episode on this at some point. We definitely should. It's it's it's a mess. And. you know besides just the entertainment value as you said you You really want Team USA to have a good governing board, right? And again, to our point about I'd love to see domestically come out. Right. We got it. first class league, right?
Speaker: You got to have a stability. You got to have. you know these boards work together. Um, So it actually does matter. it doesn't matter that just being kind of fun so yeah maybe we can talk about that later I think it's been great. We've had a We've had a a fun fun week. um and it does this.
Speaker: There's some good stuff to look forward to. Yeah, absolutely. A ton of stuff going on soon in the next few weeks, and I'm excited to talk about it with you, Neil, later. I guess for now, that's our time. Over and out.
Speaker: Over and out.
