Avinash Gaje, one of the Individual Directors of USA Cricket, has revealed that Houston, Lauderhill and San Francisco could be the likely cities to host T20 World Cup games in 2024.
In a wide ranging interview with RevSportz, Gaje spoke about the board’s upcoming plans to stage the event, which could involve hosting around fifteen games shared between the three aforementioned cities. He also voiced the tantalizing possibility of the massively popular Indian Cricket team playing the tournament opener at a packed 70,000 seat venue in San Francisco.
While USA has eight ICC accredited T20 cricket grounds at its disposal, in cities like Lauderhill, Morrisville, Chicago, Indianapolis, Houston, Dallas and Los Angeles; it’s only The Central Broward Regional Park Stadium in Lauderhill and either Smart Choice Moosa Stadium or Prairie View Cricket Complex in Houston that Gaje mentions as likely World Cup host venues.
The Bay Area, which houses many cricket loving immigrants from South Asia, does not yet contain a proper cricket stadium. Although, USA partner Major League Cricket plans to redevelop the Santa Clara County fairgrounds in San Jose into a 15,000 capacity stadium in future. All of which leads to speculation that the 70,000 venue that Gaje is referring to is the Oakland Coliseum, home of the Oakland A’s baseball team, which could accommodate upto 64,829 spectators depending on the stadium configuration.
The interview also centered on Gaje’s passion for cricket and his desire to provide a proper pathway for the local youth, which has led to his involvement with the USA cricket scene for the past twenty years.
Lastly, there was talk about cricket’s potential inclusion in the Olympics, which would give a major boost to grassroots development of the sport in the nation. Gaje stated that he is 99.9% sure that ICC’s application for the LA 2028 Olympics will be approved, although the final decision will be officially made in March 2023 by the Olympic committee.
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