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New York - A new attempt to bring limited-overs cricket to American audiences has started signing talent in hopes of a breakthrough in a land where baseball is the national pastime.
The American Premier League (APL), a planned six-team, Twenty20 league set to play in October at a minor-league baseball stadium in New York, is unsanctioned by cricket's global governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Richard Hadlee, who played 86 tests for New Zealand, has signed a three-year deal as an executive consultant to the APL while former England internationals Graeme Hick and Adam Hollioake have reportedly signed to play in the US league.
An APL website indicates only that the league plans to conduct a campaign much like the rebel Indian Cricket League and players from that event were being sought for the venture.
Matches would be staged at the home venue of the Staten Island Yankees in October, when the city's Major League Baseball New York Yankees and New York Mets might be contesting in the playoffs or World Series.
American Sports and Entertainment Group Incorporated, a New York sport promotion firm whose president is entrepreneur Jay Mir, promises "A Cricket Revolution in America" and "A Cricket Festival Like None Other".
Teams listed on the website include Premium Pakistan, Premium Indians, Premium West Indies, Premium Bengalees, Premium World and Premium America.
A similar 1990s venture, also unsanctioned by the ICC and tied into a planned US cable network mainly aimed at South Asia immigrants, lasted only one season in minor-league parks nationwide.
US hopes to stage a match in the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies flopped, but the timing might be right for cricket with US President Barack Obama taking some batting lessons from Brian Lara in a Trinidad visit earlier in April.
The move also comes on the heels of the collapse of Allen Stanford's financial empire, which included hefty sums boosting West Indies cricket and his controversial Twenty20 match between England and his Caribbean All-Stars.
Cricket has a long US history, with pioneers importing the sport and many workers in the 19th century adopting the game as a leisure-time activity.
Even though the sport is seldom played on US soil at an elite level, the first international cricket match was staged in New York between US and Canadian lineups in 1844.
