NCL ? National Cricket League | The Sports Life

Let?s be honest, many of you readers probably do not know what Cricket is, and if you do, you might be referring to the little insect. If you are one of those people who actually know the sport called cricket, you may skip the video below. However, if you have no idea what cricket is, follow the instructions.

Step 1: Read about Cricket on Wikipedia (and for your convenience, I am going to post the link:?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket)

Step 2: Watch this video:

You?re probably thinking, ?Why on earth would you want Cricket in the United States of America when it already has the MLB???Now, if you have read some of my other articles, you probably know I like to divide every idea into three parts:

1. My personal experiences in the Cricket World

2. The facts about Cricket

3. My plans for the NCL ? if it were to exist

Many people probably don?t know I was born in Nepal, the small country cradled by China and India. I watched and played Cricket since I was a little kid. In Nepal, influenced by India and United Kingdom, cricket is one of the major sports, besides Futbol (or Soccer). I remember going to my cousins house and playing cricket with his friends. Of course, we did have the best equipment but we made the best of it. One time, we used tin barrels for wickets. Long story short, my cousin managed to fall on top of it and cut his forehead. Yes, he was ok afterwards. But, even with this horrific accident, we continued to play. In 2001, I moved to New Zealand. During the first couple of months, I usually just played soccer but after a ?while, I got into Cricket even more. ?Eventually, I played for the school (or community, I don?t remember), and I was dubbed the best bowler. It also helped me make more friends and I had a good time. I remember watching most of the games with my dad as we made bets on who would win(some matches took 3 days to complete). Soon, I moved out of New Zealand and I stopped playing Cricket and moved to other sports. I never really thought about cricket like I used to, but every once in a while, I would catch up on it. Lately, I really haven?t watched any cricket; I have forgotten many of the rules, but I still love the sport.

Now, on to the facts about cricket. According to many statistics, Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world coming behind none other than Football, or Soccer. If soccer is becoming bigger and bigger in the US, imagine how Cricket would be in ten or twenty years from now. If we compare the 3 major sports of the USA to Football (Soccer) and Cricket, we can see the following:

Courtesy of Google Trends. Note: Football could mean Australian Football League, NFL, Soccer?.

As for popularity, it as popular as NBA, NFL and MLB. Cricket is popular in countries such as United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies and many, many more. There are many leagues around the world, but none as great as the ICC, or the International Cricket Council. Similar to the FIFA for soccer, the ICC rules over international cricket plays. Similar to baseball, cricket is an interesting and fun sport once you learn the rules and even play a game. Having experienced both sports, in my opinion, Cricket is a much more demanding sport than baseball. I am a fan of baseball, but it is a slow sport. In Cricket, you have to be constantly moving and aware of your opposition. Cricket requires thinking while baseball, all you really need to do is swing and hit the ball. Not putting down baseball by any means, but cricket is much more complicated and takes more patient. That is the biggest reason Cricket is not as popular in North America than other parts of the world. As humans, we don?t have the greatest patience, which Cricket requires a lot of; Even though Cricket is a sport that requires constant motion, the sport can take hours and hours to finish. However, the best thing about Cricket is that anyone can play it. Most sports in North America are dominated by buff guys who are usually over six feet and 220 pounds. On the other hand, Cricket does not require a ton of muscle strength or being tall and buff. It might sound clich? but all you need is a field, a desire to play and know how to play.?Even though the USA has tried to implement a Cricket league and it was not very popular, there should be a bigger effort to expand it. After all, most of the world plays it anyway. If America wants to be a true melting pot of cultures, it should include a Cricket League. There should be an effort to have recreation Cricket leagues throughout North America, starting out in elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and even universities. As with every other major sports, it will be complicated and frustrating in the beginning, but if it were accessible to all, it would become a major sport in North America.

Lastly, if there were to be a NCL and I were the commissioner, this is what I would do (this is assuming that it gains popularity within the next couple of years):

First of all, as with all professional sports, you need to start out small. If you allow kids to grow into a cricket era, it will gain popularity, much like everything else in our society. So, my plan would be implementing cricket in high schools and community in?each town or city. Expand it to state-wide leagues and add tournaments as it gains popularity. ?Thus, in the cities with the most people, culturally diverse, make cricket leagues. For example, in New York City, make a city-wide league with 10 to 20 teams. Thus, as it gains popularity, it can be changed into a nationwide league. So, each city picks the best of the best and makes a team, similar to any other professional sports. So, I would take cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas and San Jose (ten of the most populated US cities) and create a season with each team playing each other a certain amount of times. At the end of the season, there could be a tournament including all the cities. As the game gains more fans, more teams would be added, thus allowing the league to add more divisions and conferences. Overall, there would be 30 to 40 teams with 2 conferences and 4 divisions in each conference.

West				East
Northwest	Pacific	Southwest	Midwest	Eastern	Southeast	Atlantic	Central
Seattle	Los Angeles	Phoenix	Oklahoma City	Charlotte (NC)	Miami	New York	Chicago
Portland	Las Vegas	San Antonio	Minneapolis (MN)	Baltimore	Orlando	Boston	Detroit
Denver	San Francisco	Dallas	Kansas City	Philadelphia	Atlanta	Washington DC	Indianapolis
Salt Lake City	San Diego	Houston	New Orleans	Pittsburgh	Nashville (TN)	New Jersey	Cleveland
Vancouver	Sacramento	Austin	St Louis	Toronto	Tampa Bay	Brooklyn	Cincinati

After that is set up, the season could be similar to that of the MLB season. Each team would play each other at least once with teams in the same division and conference playing more games. The playing style would be similar to that of the test matches or ODI (one day international). Assuming cricket gains and maintains the popularity, it could become a huge source of income from tickets, merchandise, sponsorship on merchandise worn during games and such. The playoffs would be the two best teams from each division thus having a 16 team playoff similar to the NBA. The series in the playoffs would be one game elimination, with the loser going home and ultimately one champion.

And that, my friends, is where I leave it to you. What else would you add to the league? Do you have better ideas? Would you make a better commissioner??than me? Comment below your ideas!

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Source: http://isportslife.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/ncl-national-cricket-league/

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