Major League, Minor Spectacle

James Bell has watched Major League Cricket so you don't have to

Hard to beat

For better and for worse, the United States has been the capital country of sport for the last month.

The twenty-third edition of the FIFA World Cup is unfolding before our eyes. The National Basketball Association just wrapped up a thrilling finals series in Texas in which the New York Knicks win their first title in over 50 years. Even the White House Lawn has served as a venue, with the Ultimate Fighting Championship hosting an event to….it’s still hard to believe I’m writing this….celebrate the semiquincentennial of of American independence. Or Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. Whichever you regard as more important.

You would be forgiven for hardly noticing that there is also cricket underway. Major League Cricket’s fourth season has been cruelly swamped by the general tsunami of sport. The MLC started a week before the World Cup and will finish a day before the final, leaving the burgeoning T20 tournament to pine away for lack of attention.

That said, those distracted by the quadrennial event haven’t missed a lot. Thus far, it has been a strangely even tournament with all teams losing their second match and all but one side winning their second and fourth matches. The bottom side is just two points, or one win, off the top spot, and there have been no clear standout players – although Mitch Owen’s 68-ball 155 and Dasun Shanaka’s death over double hat-trick deserve mention.