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A latent cricket fan, or an ignoramus about Indian culture (and, indeed, of non-American cinema)? You be the judge.

From the transcript of Bush 43’s round table interview with Indian journalists in the White House last Wednesday:

Q Between a cricket match and a Bollywood movie, what would a —

THE PRESIDENT: Cricket match and a —

Q You like watching?

THE PRESIDENT: What was the second?

Q It’s between a Bollywood movie and a cricket match.
THE PRESIDENT: I’m a cricket match person. (Laughter.) I appreciate it. As I understand it, I may have a little chance to learn something about cricket. It’s a great pastime. (Laughter.)

One wonders if Bush has ever met Gladstone Dainty, or even heard of him. I bet he knows Allen Stanford…

Three items about cricket on America’s NPR (National Public Radio) over the past couple of weeks.

A couple of brief post-Ashes mentions on September 17: one on Weekend Edition Saturday (links to RA and WMA clips), and one on WBUR’s Only A Game (direct link to the RA clip). Neither are terribly complementary about the length of Test matches. However, neither makes the observation that your average PGA tournament is almost as long.

More positive is the report on Tuesday evening’s All Things Considered about cricket in northern California. (Link to page containing RA and WMA clips.)

My thanks to Robert for pointing some of these out for me.

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is on the pork barrel trail in the lead-up to the November 8 city elections.

Bloomberg kicked off a busy meet-the-people Saturday with a photo op at St Alban’s Park, Queens, which he announced would receive $1.5 million of city funding for the building of a dedicated cricket ground. It will only be the second specialist cricket venue in contemporary New York.

Here’s the official press release from the Mayor’s office, which also provides links to a 14-minute video of the announcement. News reports from NY Newsday and Hardbeatnews.com.

It’s worth noting that on Monday, Bloomberg announced a $6 million redevelopment in Staten Island to create a complex including four soccer fields.

And while we’re on the subject of photo-ops, here’s His Bloomness playing stickball at the annual NYPD versus FDNY game.

Bloomberg is the only Republican Party nomination for Mayor and thus doesn’t have to endure a Primary election on September 15, unlike almost everyone else running for public office in NYC.

The US papers are starting to catch wind of their nation’s latest cricketing debacle. Even if the Baltimore Sun chooses to package it all under a Jiminy pun.

The Sun’s sports columnist, Mr and Mrs Side’s little boy named The Flip, is more taken by the fact that, bearing in mind that cricket games can take a long time, “the man in charge of the sport is named Speed”. If only The Flip realised that the man running (ruining?) the sport in the States is a man named Dainty.

America’s embarrassment could worsen if, as now seems likely, their under-19 team can qualify this week for a berth in next year’s World Cup in Sri Lanka. My only source at this stage is an anonymous (but seemingly informed) post to the uscricket.com message boards, but it reports that the USA U19s won their second game of the qualifying tournament in Toronto on Tuesday when they defeated Bermuda. Having already beaten Canada on Monday and with games against Argentina and the Cayman Islands still to come, the US team looks set to finish in top spot in the Americas group.

In a few months there will be the selection of a national world cup under-19 squad to fret over.

There’s a blog entry written last month by Mr and Mrs Umpire’s little boy, Fourth, commenting on the USACA situation.

The USACA Council of Leagues has its own website, and its Interim Committee issued its own statement on Monday following the ICC announcement of the expulsion from the Intercontinental Cup. The USACA establishment’s website is saying nix.

Meanwhile, they’re happy over on the Cayman Islands, as reported today by Caribbean Net News.

It’s a hundred years since Bart King, America’s greatest cricketer of all time, graced the playing fields of both his own country and of England as a world-class all-rounder. It was Sunday, August 6, 1905, that five thousand people watched a New York XI lose by fifty runs to the MCC in a two-day game at the Staten Island Cricket Club. American cricket has had its ups and downs since then, but yesterday brought one of its lowest moments.

The USA’s expulsion from the 2005 ICC Intercontinental Cup for failing to provide its selected team on time - the legacy of continued internal squabbling - deserves to be ranked as one of the most embarrassing events in the history of American sport. That is, of course, if the vast majority of Americans could care or even be aware of it.

The immediate cause of the US expulsion was the failure to announce by August 1 its squad for the Intercontinental Cup matches against Bermuda and Canada at the end of the month. This, after the USACA had been given an extension of time from July 22. It’s curious to see on the USACA website today that there is a squad of thirteen players dated August 4.

The deeper cause is that there are two warring groups struggling for control of US cricket - the official governing body, the USACA and the Council of League Presidents, which is entitled to one place on the USACA board.

CricInfo’s USA website documents the recent sorry turn of events. This is one part of CricInfo which is truly outstanding these days. If only the incompetence of some other, higher profile, national cricket boards was pursued with such vigour.

While USA’s Intercontinental Cup campaign has been dashed for this year, their Under-19 national team is currently competing in Toronto in the Americas qualifying group for the 2006 ICC U19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. They beat Canada in their opening game on Monday. Bermuda, Argentina and the Cayman Islands are the other teams taking part, only one going through to the World Cup next year.

Not surprisingly, USA’s cricketing shame has not received any attention in its mainstream media. There’s one Associated Press item that is turning up on most news websites, and that’s about it for now. Perhaps if more Americans (say, about a hundred million more) cared about their cricket team, we might see some more accountability and better governance at the top.

Then again, look at the Bush administration… Which reminds me: Condi, are you taking notes?

Sensational but not entirely unexpected news from the ICC (that’s International Cricket Council, not the International Criminal Court). The USA has been kicked out of the 2005 Inter-continental Cup, with the Cayman Islands taking their place in the Americas group.

This just in:

ICC WITHDRAWS USACA ICC INTERCONTINENTAL CUP INVITATION, CAYMAN ISLANDS OFFERED PLACE IN GLOBAL TOURNAMENT

The International Cricket Council today withdrew the invitation to the United States of America Cricket Association to send a team to contest the ICC Intercontinental Cup after the factions disputing who controls the USACA were unable to agree on a unified team to represent the country.

In its place, an invitation has today been extended to the Cayman Islands to join the competition as the next ranked country from the region.

ICC Chief Executive, Malcolm Speed, wrote to both factions in the USA today withdrawing the invitation and expressing his regret and frustration at their unwillingness to reach a compromise that would have allowed an American team to take part in the only global multi-day cricket competition for teams outside the Test arena.

“It is now clear that agreement has not been reached on a team to represent USA in the forthcoming ICC Intercontinental Cup,” said Mr Speed in the letter.

“ICC has been extremely patient in seeking to enable the two parties to agree on a team. It is very disappointing for all concerned that you have not been able to agree on the final composition of the team.

“We are not able to wait any longer as it is necessary to finalise details of the competing teams. Accordingly, please be advised that the invitation to USA to take part in the ICC Intercontinental Cup for 2005 is withdrawn with immediate effect.

“An invitation will be extended today to Cayman Islands to take the place previously offered to USA.

“By way of comment, neither party should see this outcome as a victory. Regrettably, the game of cricket in the USA and the cricketers who seek to play cricket for USA at the highest level are again the losers.”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4724238

We’ve heard much over the years of Ted Hayes and his work in organising street kids into cricket teams in Los Angeles. NPR’s (National Public Radio) News and Notes program on Thursday did a feature on Hayes’ latest project - the Dome Village of Compton, California - and its cricket team, the Compton Homies.

NPR’s brilliant website (which, in my opinion, is superior in many ways even to BBC Online) has links to the audio report, in both RA and WMA, as well as further audio material which didn’t get to air. Plus a photo gallery, links to the Dome Village website, and links to earlier NPR stories on cricket (six in the last four years).

The Discovery Channel in the US is set to announce its choice of the all-time Greatest American next Sunday. Despite my campaign on this website earlier in the year, Bart King is, disgracefully, not among the final five nominees. Indeed he wasn’t chosen in the top 100.

The greatest cricketer the United States ever produced, and thus the greatest sportsperson in American history, King was snubbed by Discovery Channel viewers whose choices for the top 100 included Hugh Hefner, Martha Stewart, Mel Gibson, Michael Jackson and FOUR members of the Bush family.

Just two sportspeople made the top 25: Muhammad Ali and Lance Armstrong. (Other sporting figures in the top 100 were Brett Favre, Michael Jordan, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth and Tiger Woods. Yes that Brett Favre.) Neither Ali nor Armstrong could make it to the Top 5.

Surely Bart had the credentials to top them all. Consider some of his achievements:

• In a first-class career spanning nineteen years (1893-1912) he took 413 wickets at 15.65 and scored 2134 runs at 20.51 - achievements no other American has matched;
• He topped the bowling averages in the 1908 English season whilst on tour with the Philadelphia side, taking 87 wickets at 11.01;
• He took 10-53 in the first innings of Philadelphia’s crushing innings victory over Ireland in September 1909;
• He scored 98 and 113 not out for Philadelphia against Surrey at The Oval in August 1903 (as well as taking six wickets for the match);
• He was a member of the last team to beat Australia in a first-class match on American soil, taking nine wickets in the match for Philadelphia in September 1912;
• He played in Philadelphia teams which defeated Australia on three separate occasions. Not even Bangladesh has done that.

Surely a great American who could stand alongside the likes of the official final five nominees, Benjamin Franklin, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and George Washington.

Well, certainly alongside Ronald Reagan.

The Discovery Channel in the US is conducting a poll to determine the Greatest American of all time. (Update: Nominations are now closed and the Top 100 countdown begins on April 18.)

You have until 2400 ET on January 31 Polls appear to be still open as at February 6 to cast your five nominations. Whoever gets your votes 2-5, don’t forget to Vote #1 for the USA’s greatest all-round cricketer of all time, Barton King. (Check out his stats.)

Let’s see if he can outpoll L Ron Hubbard, Lee Harvey Oswald and Pee-Wee Herman. Vote 1 Barton King!.

WBUR Boston’s weekly “Only A Game” radio program is doing a feature on Pro Cricket on Saturday September 11. That should be available to hear live at 7am EST (1100 GMT, 9pm in Sydney) and archived later for listening on-demand.

The audio link is on the WBUR home page, and there is more information on WBUR’s Only A Game site.

For the record, the San Francisco Freedom won the inaugural (or should I say, only to date) Pro Cricket final last Saturday, defeating the New Jersey Fire by three wickets in the twenty over-a-side competition. The rather oddly-constructed Pro Cricket website has more information.

(Update 29/11/05: See the Only A Game website for the audio and photos from the 2004 final.)