History of cricket in the United States

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The history of United States cricket begins in the 18th century. The first game was between the USA and Canada and held in 1844 in front of an audience of 5,000 spectators in New York.^[1] Among early Americans, cricket was as popular a bat and ball game as baseball. Though Americans never played cricket in great numbers, the game grew for some time.^[2] Around the time of the United States Civil War, the game began competing with baseball for participants, but then slowly declined in popularity. This was followed again by a brief golden age with the Philadelphian cricket team. This lasted until roughly the start of World War I; at this time, cricket again became less popular. In the latter part of the 20th century immigrants from cricket-playing nations in South Asia and the West Indies helped spark a resurgence in the game's popularity. This led to participation and success in several International Cricket Council events. In 2007, the United States of America Cricket Association was suspended by the ICC because of problems with its administration, but was again recognized beginning in 2008.

The USACA was expelled as the recognized national governing body by the ICC during its 2017 AGM. USA Cricket is now the ICC-recognized national governing body, and is responsible for administering Minor League Cricket, which is currently the highest level of domestic competition in the USA. It is played in the relatively recently invented T20 format of cricket, with games lasting roughly three hours, separating it from the longer-format cricket played throughout most of American history.