Cricket shock: Pitch to hit the highway in Florida to save this year’s T20 World Cup co-hosted by the United States

If you’re travelling in the United States and driving through Florida this month keep an eye out for a large truck – it might just be carrying the World Cup cricket pitch.

IF you reckon the 2032 Brisbane Olympics are racing the clock spare a thought for the curator whose cricket pitch is about to be cut in half and taken on a scenic 24-hour drive through Florida.

In two month’s time that pitch will be the focus of the cricket world when it hosts World Cup T20 matches including the showstopping contest between sport’s two greatest rivals – India and Pakistan.

But as you read this story that same deck is sleeping quietly in a tray at Florida’s Boynton Beach where it’s been growing and looked after in a climate similar to Brisbane.

Later this month it will be cut in two, wrapped up, put on the back of two semi-trailers and driven 24 hours up the coastline to Long Beach, New York, where it will take pride of place in the hastily constructed Nassau County International Cricket Stadium.

The #T20WorldCup 2024 fever is gripping New York 😍

The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium celebrates its one-month construction milestone 🏟️

Details âž¡ https://t.co/ldyYDpSA5Cpic.twitter.com/SSQxrPIX0o

— ICC (@ICC) March 5, 2024

There will be some heaters in the back to keep it warm but no-one really knows whether the deck will emerge like a long distance traveller hopping off a long bus ride that dulls the senses.

Sound a bit rushed?

It is but this is life in the T20 World Cup where organisers have handed Australian master curator, the Adelaide Oval’s Damian Hough, the biggest challenge of his career.

Hough, whose curating prowess has seen him nicknamed The Boss of The Moss, must somehow find a way of bringing this new set-up up to – or at least somewhere near – world class despite the fact that five months ago where the stadium stands was a barren patch of earth.

Aerial view of construction of the stadium at Eisenhower Memorial Park, New York, in March. Picture: Conrad Williams Jr./Newsday RM via Getty Images

The International Cricket Council this week released an aerial video of the stadium which, construction wise, looks reasonably impressive but there was one thing missing … grass!

The grass will not arrive at the venue for a couple of weeks.

It’s been grown locally by a highly respected firm but cricket officials have their fingers crossed that the final product will be suited to a game the locals know nothing about.

This World Cup, which also includes the West Indies as host nation, means more to cricket than any another T20 World Cup because cricket has high hopes of cracking the lucrative American sports market.

The eternal challenge for cricket in the United States is an unstable administration which, true to form, has been eating its own in the countdown to the Cup.

Looking good 🤩

The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York gets closer to completion 🏏

Details ➡️ https://t.co/UOjEOQEBaXpic.twitter.com/RaooVygESd

— ICC (@ICC) April 2, 2024

ESPNcricinfo’s American correspondent Peter Della Penna has been despairing of the fractures in local administration in the lead-up to the Cup.

“Less than two months until USA co-hosts the Men’s T20 World Cup,’’ he said on social media this week.

“Not only has USAC fired its CEO, had two key employees quit and been unable to hire a full-time men’s-womens coach, USA cricket has also seen all of its key sponsor abandon them.’’

Things are so concerning that it makes Brisbane’s jumbled path to the 2032 Olympics seem like a well-oiled machine.

Brisbane at least has eight years to get ready – World Cup organisers have eight weeks.

Interesting days ahead.

Originally published as Cricket shock: Pitch to hit the highway in Florida to save this year’s T20 World Cup co-hosted by the United States