As Steve Smith’s embrace of New York becomes ever greater, he openly muses about representing the city of his infatuation in the game he loves.
“Definitely, that’d be pretty cool,” Smith replied when asked if he would consider finishing his cricket career in the Big Apple.
This is not the fanciful dream of an elite sportsman wondering what’s next. As Smith himself pointed out, Major League Cricket has been formed in the United States, a six-team franchise T20 competition with the backing of wealthy Indian businessmen and celebrities.
“Launching in 2022, Major League Cricket will deliver the highest quality professional T20 cricket for U.S. cricket fans,” says MLC’s glossy website. “The league will feature top international players from the U.S. and around the world, underpinned by a focus on pathways to develop a homegrown player pool for cricket in America and the league.”
Smith sits in the lobby of the team hotel in Cairns, about as far away from New York as possible in all sorts of ways, gazing into the middle distance, wondering whether the City of Inspiration could one day add the final chapter to a remarkable career.
“I mean, yeah, there’s obviously [T20] leagues popping up everywhere around the world now, and I think you’ll probably see more players in the back end of their career going down that route, so it’s potentially something I’ll look at in the future,” Smith said. “There’s no reason why cricket can’t work [in the US] I wouldn’t think.
Steve Smith goes on the attack against Zimbabwe in the second ODI.Credit:Getty Images
“The US has been a market that cricket’s been trying to get into for some time. So yeah, I think it’d be interesting to see how it goes.”
While the competition’s launch date has been pushed back to 2023, MLC issued a press release in May claiming that Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft and a part-owner of the Seattle Sounders franchise in Major League Soccer, was a lead investor with $44 million.
In all, backers have contributed $120m, mainly for stadium development, which include former baseball venues.
Former England fast bowler Liam Plunkett, who now lives in the US, told the UK Daily Mail this week that MLC would “explode.”
“With how many people love cricket here and the way Americans put on a show, you will get packed-out crowds,” he said.
One of those backers is Bollywood acting icon Shah Rukh Khan, who owns the Kolkata Knight Riders and is aggressively taking the franchise around the world.
Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan has acquired one of the six US T20 franchises.Credit:Getty
“I want to thank American Cricket Enterprises and USA Cricket for inviting the Knight Riders to become part of this new and exciting journey to establish cricket in general and T20 cricket particular the US market,” Khan says in a video on the MLC website.
The Knight Riders have already acquired one of the six franchises, which will be based in Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC.
Smith first discovered New York in 2015, enjoyed it as a place where he could be completely anonymous, and has been going back with ever greater regularity since. He and his wife Dani announced their engagement there in 2017. Given the choice of coming to Townsville and Cairns to watch her husband play cricket or staying in New York, she stayed.
“My wife and I just really, really love it,” Smith said. “We love the lifestyle, the speed of the city. We’ve got quite a few friends there now.
“I can get around and live kind of normally. It’s a nice where you can just go and forget about everything else.
“There’s just so much to do there. I like the option of living the fast life, but you can still chill if you want to. It’s just a cool city.”
So when more trophies are collected and Ashes won, would Smith eventually consider living there?
“Definitely,” the 33-year-old replied. “My wife’s actually still there at the moment. It’s certainly something that we’re looking into. I’m getting a bit older now, and certainly closer to the end of my career than the start. So yeah, we’ll wait and see.”
But there is a caveat for someone who has spent their adult life following the sun playing cricket.
“I think it’d be difficult to live there full time through a winter, it’s pretty brutal.”
There has always been a significant interest in cricket throughout the USA, mainly due to expats from South Asia and the West Indies, but administration has been a basket case. If media releases on USA Cricket’s website are any guide, the bickering continues.
However, as the cricket body in the US officially recognised by the International Cricket Council, all MLC and its wealthy backers needed was the blessing and cooperation of USA Cricket, and they have that in spades.
Cricket interest in North America is highlighted by the fact that together the USA and Canada provide the third most lucrative overseas broadcast rights deal to Cricket Australia after India and England. This has traditionally been through Willow TV, which streams cricket into about four million homes.
Willow TV’s founder, Vijay Srinivasana, is MLC’s co-founder.
“We are very fortunate and in a unique position that we have a large and passionate audience for our sport in the U.S.,” he told The Athletic recently. “We think we’ll be an immense success if we’re successful with that audience.”
That audience has been consuming Smith’s imposing feats for Australia over a decade. One day they may be supporting him as a local.
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