This article is more than 11 years old How Philadelphia became the unlikely epicenter of American cricket

The Guardian ^ | 28th March 2015 | RAf Noboa y Rivera

[Cronos]

cricket was America’s first modern team sport.

These may be strange words to write; even stranger to read them. The United States of America, as recently as the turn of the last century, possessed cricketing talent on par with England, Australia, and other cricket nations.

And then it all ended.

Cricket’s American roots run deep and gnarled through the soil of American history. In fact, it predates the establishment of the United States by nearly a century, if not more.

The New York Weekly Gazette and Post Boy from 29 April 1751 has a report of a match played between New Yorkers and Englishmen. That match report tells us – over 250 years later – that the game was played in line with the “London method”

By the time the American Revolution began, there were already specific cricket clubs in operation. We also know that an American regional variant, wicket, was widely played. In his Military Journal, Ewing mentions that George Washington himself “playd a game at ‘wicket’ with a number of Gent of the Arty” while the Continental Army bivouacked at Valley Forge.

by the time of the Civil War, historical records show that cricket was played in around 20 states, in towns and cities as divergent as Baltimore, Savannah, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee and even San Francisco, all the way in the far west of America.

In the midst of all that, the first international cricket match was played. On 24 and 26 September 1844, in what is now land occupied by the New York University Medical Center the United States squared off against an all-Canada team.

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[Cronos]

Cricket was the most popular summer bat-and-ball sport in the United States before the American Civil War. The war devastated the sport by scattering players to the front lines and halting club activity

Up until the Civil War, baseball was considered a children’s game. But as the war raged, and armies demanded recreation, baseball neatly fit the bill. In contrast to cricket, which demanded carefully maintained fields and where matches could last for days, baseball could be played in a simple clearing, and quickly, at that.

[Cronos]

Before the 1860s, cricket boasted roughly a thousand clubs and was played in around 20 states. Southern cities like Savannah, Georgia, actively formed cricket clubs in 1859, just before the outbreak of hostilities. A prominent English professional team toured the United States in 1859, further cementing the sport's footprint.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Cricket is what I always thought about when I drove through North Philly.

[cowboyusa]

there is a big Cricket Field in Fairmount Park.

[Sicon]

Cricket was popular in the U.S. until they realized it’s a game played by bloody wankers and sheep shaggers.

[KingLudd]

Last fall I played a couple of cricket matches on the Bowling Green at Mount Vernon. It was a pick up match with kids and adults during their Colonial Days events. Living history instructors guided us. It was a BLAST!

[x]

The Merion Cricket Club has been around since 1865. I suppose they spend most of their time and money on golf now, but they must have had something to do with cricket all these years.

[libertylover]

Cricket is a great game and is the world’s second most popular sport (behind soccer).

There is a (U.S.) National Cricket League. The trouble is there’s only 6 teams scattered across the U.S. I tried to become a fan a few years ago, but I could no longer find the games on TV and there’s not a team anywhere close to where I live.

[allendale]

In NYC due to the massive migrations from the Caribbean, there are far more cricket is played among the population than baseball. Baseball fields that were once the hallmark of most city parks now host mostly cricket matches.

[Carriage Hill]

Ping.

[Flavious_Maximus]

There are a half million Hindu Indians in the Philadelphia area. They are most of the players.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

As a baseball fan, I’ve tried to appreciate cricket, but it just doesn’t compute.