India has to play big role in spreading game in US – Thakur

The BCCI has reaffirmed its commitment to make this past weekend’s T20 series in the USA an annual event for India, with board president Anurag Thakur calling the series “a great success.” Thakur also said the BCCI was eager to strengthen its connection with the US market.

“We need to come, I can’t say many times a year, but yes on annual basis we have to be here if we really want to develop a market and want locals to play and participate, not only to watch cricket,” Thakur told ESPNcricinfo. “We have to play a much much bigger role and India is up and ready to play that big role. BCCI is here to deliver and will make it a big success.

“I think there needs to be more focus in countries like US, Canada and others where we have a lot of population who is from Asia who understands cricket, could be more involved and can get more locals involved. So we are not here just to play a couple of games.

“We will come out with a long-term plan after this success, how to make it work in US, how to have more and more local people playing the game of cricket. If they can play in early 18th century, what made cricket go out of America? We have to bring it back. No other country than India can do that.”

The two T20 internationals in Lauderhill were officially sold-out, though actual attendance figures are yet to be released. Saturday’s crowd was near to the 15,000 capacity set for the event while Sunday’s turnout was smaller and estimated to be close to the 12,000 range. On both …

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