I can’t believe that the USACA and MLC between them can’t make a case for broadcasting cricket. As I’m typing this I’m watching a really entertaining game between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Ridiculous

I dont know if this statement by Percy Sonn was 100% accurate about US (read south asian expats in the US) being the second largest market for cricket…. I fail to understand how $1million in the US can be more lucrative than, say, Australia, England, even SA or Pakistan…….

This statement may have been given from the perspective of India….. that for India, US is the second biggest cricket market……..

Now to explain this a little bit…… the only reason why US is a big market for cricket is the exhorbitant pay per view pricing of the cricket matches…….. You are talking to ’stupid fan #1′ here…… for the current World Cup, I paid $200…… for Pakistan’s Tour of India in 2005, I paid $250, and then also stayed up all night on weekdays to watch the matches…….. the only reason why US is a lucrative market is because people are willing to pay tonnes of money to view the games, even at odd hours……. you only have to see the standard of the advertising, and the number, to see that the networks are not making a killing by the ads, like it is in the sub continent…….. hence, taking away the pay per view model will not cut it for the network……. they will not make a cent that way in profit……

In what respect? It certainly isn’t the 2nd most valuable, and in absolute numbers there are hardly more South Asian Americans than there are English, Australians, Bangladeshis…

I find it strange that even broadcasters, who’re driven by viewership numbers, can remain so ignorant of the potential benefits of exploiting newer, hitherto unexplored markets for the sport and the channel!!…It’s scarcely believable that the ICC hasn’t recognized this when other sports did so 15 years back!!!…However, it remains to be seen if the securing of ICC’s TV rights by ESPN STAR and the subsequent acquisition of Cricinfo by US-based ESPN will make any difference to cricket entering the mainstream US and/or other foreign markets…

After where UAE are with top notch facilities, and 50% of the country as expats, the reality is hitting ICC in the face, but they still choose to beat around the bush…….

The truth is very simple…. there are only 5 teams in the world right now that have a chance of doing well….. they are Ireland, Scotland, Kenya, Uganda and Nepal……. Afghanistan if they have some stability and some infrastructure…….. Netherlands if they can increase their playing numbers……. I dont buy the crap about the game having too little of a profile in Netherlands….. however low the profile of cricket is in Netherlands, it cannot be lower than Germany, Finland, Denmark and Italy, all of whom have in the last 2-3 years had junior programmes involving 3000, 2000, 6000 and 5000 kids respectively……. they all achieved that with associate or affiliate funding…….. Netherlands can do more, and if they can increase their playing numbers up to 10-15K, they have the rest of the structure in a pretty decent shape by associate standards…….