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The significance of the Pearls Cup between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Florida is just sinking in among thousands of cricket fans across USA.  Those who got a taste of T20 action on American soil over the weekend are already clamoring for more and the NACL T20 may be the answer.

In a conversation with DreamCricket.com, Mr. Gladstone Dainty, President of USA Cricket Association, spoke of the worldwide tender that had been floated in 2009 to attract investors and to expand USACA’s working budget.  Mr. Dainty said: “A lot of companies showed interest in that.  We have an agreement with a particular company that we are negotiating with and hopefully we can finalize that very quickly.” 

Pic (Right): Gladstone Dainty, President of USA Cricket Association.

Confirming that USACA was in discussions with the North American Cricket League (NACL), Mr. Dainty said: “They are seeking exclusive rights to a domestic T20 league in America. There is an agreement to talk [with NACL] and there is an agreement that we are working on to finalize. Things are moving very quickly and within the next month or so, we should be on our way.”

NACL’s spokesperson, who wished to remain anonymous because the agreement was still being worked on, was in Lauderhill and was seen watching the proceedings with tremendous interest.  

Speaking to DreamCricket.com, he had this to say about the Pearls Cup: “For a long time people have been developing an idea to bring big, international matches to US and finally the dream has come true. I would like to congratulate Mr. Dainty and his entire team, USACA board members, the CEO and everybody who worked diligently to make this happen. I truly believe it’s history that’s being created.”

Speaking about NACL’s mission, the spokesperson said, “NACL was basically formulated to promote cricket in the USA and Canada.  The intention of the Company is to work in close association with USA Cricket Association and with the support of the International Cricket Council to organize, host, promote and develop Twenty20 format cricket, develop cricket and cricketing infrastructure in the United States.”

Pic (Right): USA flags and signs such as “USA loves cricket!”, “Bring it to Chicago!” were everywhere!

On the success of the Pearls Cup, the NACL spokesperson was extremely positive.  “I feel T20 is the perfect format and it suits the American population and we will develop this format in USA.  Our team at NACL is very confident and we have a wide range of expertise to pull this off, both from the fields of cricket and entertainment. The time has come to bring T20 into the USA," he said.

The spokesperson said that cricket was going to be the main draw for NACL and development of the game was the biggest goal.  “As we plan to promote T20 cricket, what really needs to be understood is how we can take it to the grassroots level, which is very important.  It’s good to say that we will formulate a domestic T20 league with different regions and come up with “x” teams, but without a good development plan, it is not sustainable.”

As reported in an earlier article, the league's website claims that “team composition rules [which] are geared towards a 60% - 40% domestic/international contingent to ensure the participation of and the development of American talent.” 

When asked about this, the NACL spokesperson said: "We will be bringing an IPL kind of a format but it will have groomed players in competition with others.  We would like to promote our domestic players and we would like to get US team players playing."

“In the last two years we have gone around from east to west to every possible place in with the help of the current board members, advisors and Mr. Dainty, and we have collected a lot of information about what really needs to be done at the grassroots,” the spokesperson said.

NACL plans to have a school level and University level development program and provide opportunities for local home grown talent to earn lucrative League contracts.  "This is consistent with the International Cricket Council’s mandate on globalization of the sport," the spokesperson said.

“There is a lot of incredible talent. There are local schools and universities that we would like to explore and create an awareness and preparedness to make it a career sport."

Elaborating on this, he said: “The goal is for cricketers in the USA to be able to make a living by playing cricket. There will also be an ecosystem surrounding these cricketers that will include several other jobs that will be created. These will all go towards making cricket a professional sport and not just a weekend beer league.”

NACL's promoters, the spokesperson said, were well networked in both Hollywood and Bollywood - which is the Indian entertainment industry, and his league would be power-packed with non-cricket entertainment as well.

The game had to be promoted outside of its expatriate base, the spokesperson said, “If we want to bring people to the stadiums to watch cricket, to spend $50 on tickets, then we need to bring in people who have never experienced cricket before, we need to attract families and have something for the kids.  Everything we can to draw people to the sport, we should.”  

Speaking about the need to build the correct infrastructure, he said: “We need to look at what the full members are doing. We need to have certain core infrastructure – proper grounds, facilities for international matches. We strongly feel that by building that infrastructure, going to schools, making this a career sport it will definitely help the sport. It is going to take some time but if we work diligently and have the right people and the right team, we can do it.”

When asked when the full details of the deal would be shared, he said: “We are working with the President and his team who have been working with us very diligently.  We are making sure we are all on the same page, a month’s time is quite good and who knows, it could be earlier as well. Most of the work has been done and it is just a matter of crossing some dots.”

As for the timeline, he said, “I’m very hopeful, 2011 was our goal but 2012 is a more realistic timeline for the T20 league.  We will start our grassroots activities sooner.”

Coming back to the Pearls Cup, the NACL spokesperson said that he was happy with how things turned out: “We have a beautiful stadium with so much capacity.   USACA has brought New Zealand and Sri Lanka here and a big crowd showed up.  A good portion of them stayed back for USA-Jamaica T20 match. It is a privilege to see people who appreciate and follow quality cricket!”