Obama and Cricket

It’s true you know, Barack Obama does want to un-make the United States of America. First he takes a quick cricket lesson from Brian Lara, now he’s reading Joseph O’Neill’s (splendid) Netherland – a novel that is, at least in part, about cricket in New York City. Could anything be more un-American? Of course not. Except, of course, cricket has a long and proud history in the United States and, for a while, it seemed as likely that cricket would become the national pastime as baseball. Indeed, the world’s first international cricket match was contested by teams representing the United States and Canada.

Personally, I blame the decision to move the capital from Philadelphia to Washington DC for cricket’s eclipse. Philly, after all, was the home of American cricket and in more fanciful moments I like to think that had it remained the capital then cricket might have become the sport of choice for the republic’s political elite when Philadephia cricket was ascendant in the 1850-1910 period.