Press Trust of India
Fort Lauderdale (Florida), August 26: Cricket will enter into unchartered territory to reach out to the untapped American market when the sport’s most followed practitioners, India lock horns with the West Indies in their first international T20 game here Saturday.
Had it been an India-Pakistan game, the 22,000-odd capacity Central Broward Regional Park and Stadium (the only ICC certified ODI ground in the US) would have been full to the brim. But then that cannot be said of Saturday’s game as still some tickets remain unsold. Last month when six matches of the Caribbean Premier League were played here, the response had been lukewarm. The two T20 internationals over the weekend will be the first instance of India being involved in competitives matches in the USA.
Days after India cruised to victory in the four-match Test series for their second successive triumph on Caribbean soil, the team’s seasoned campaigner Mahendra Singh Dhoni will return to lead the side. The 14-member Indian team will see the return of 11 regular players who were rested from the tour to Zimbabwe in May earlier this year.
The two-match series is going to be the first of what will develop into an annual event in the USA as part of efforts to reach out to new markets and audiences.
Even though India won the Test series 2-0, players from the Test squad are coming with hardly any recent match practice because of the rain-affected fourth Test in Port of Spain where the last four days didn’t see any play. The West Indies T20 side will also wear a different look altogether with the return of players like Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Samuel Badri – all of whom are match-winners in this format of the game on their day. Also they have an advantage over India — having been involved in the CPL in recent times.
It will no doubt, be a closely-contested series with players of both sides aware of each others’ strengths and weakness. Most of the players are regulars in the IPL, hence there will an air of familiarity between the two sides.
Eyes will certainly be on the new West Indies T20 skipper Carlos Brathwaite, who has replaced T20 World Cup winning captain Darren Sammy. The all-rounder played a massive role in West Indies’ victory in the final against England, hitting Ben Stokes for four successive sixes in the last over of the game at the Eden Gardens in April, this year. But experience-wise he is not a force to reckon with having just played three Tests, 14 ODIs and eight T20s. But then Brathwaite is not worried.
“I think a team like this will be pretty easy to lead, from the point of view that the dressing room is a fun place to be in,” said Brathwaite here Thursday. “I don’t think it’s a case where I have to negotiate too many egos.”
