NOTE: Kartik Krishnaiyer was a venue Press Officer for the Broward County Venue of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. This column reflects his opinions alone.

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup coming to the USA has been a success. Not only did the US team play well, but the international media that traveled the country were impressed the amount of interest in the nation that barely knew this sport existed not long ago.

But unfortunately, the weather wrecked havoc on the South Florida venue in Lauderhill. And that’s what we will focus on here.

Washouts in the World Cup

Three of four World Cup matches at the Broward County venue were washed out as the region experienced record rainfall. However, with Major League Cricket (MLC) being largely staged over the summer, questions persist about whether the Fort Lauderdale area should be a staging ground for the competition or have a franchise.

A significant issue could be whether Broward County is willing to give Parks and Recreation a budget to fix the drainage issues at Broward County Stadium. The facility which was the first purpose-built Cricket Stadium in the US (built in 2007), has long been seen as USA Cricket’s crown jewel. But now as interest in the sport is picking up in other parts of country, South Florida is no longer guaranteed to get top cricket matches.

Three of four matches in Lauderhill had good advance ticket sales- ironically and cruelly the one that actually got played had the slowest sales. This is no doubt a dose of bad luck but as extreme weather becomes more common in southern Florida. But as a result, arrangements have to be made to mitigate storms as much as possible at the venue. If the venue is to keep up with the times and increased demand for summer cricket in the US, improvements must be made.

In the case of all three aborted matches, fans arrived at the venue and waited patiently for the start of play as the pitch repeatedly failed inspection. Not only did the fourth match have lower advance sales but also suffered from fatigue from both fans and media who had shown up for washouts the previous days. Many of these people opted to skip the Sunday match between Ireland and Pakistan which was played. Still all things considered, that match drawing over 4,000 fans was a bit of a miracle and shows how much local interest there is in Cricket.

Tournament in the USA was a success

Overall however, the tournament in the USA was a success. Obviously the US’ performances in advancing to the final eight in the tournament helped. However, Cricket’s popularity as an underground sport which has been growing for years stateside contributed as much.

ICC Head of Events, Chris Tetley said: “We are absolutely delighted with how the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup has gone in the USA and the unprecedented level of interest in cricket in the country. To see 190,000 people in stadiums across the USA enjoying the experience is fantastic and the traffic on the ICC website and app has shown the increased appetite for the sport as a result of the World Cup.

“The extraordinary levels of media coverage in the USA was also great to see from Good Morning America to the front page of the New York Times, the event was covered by all mainstream media in the USA which bodes well for our long term strategy in the USA.

“With the USA being a priority area of the global growth strategy, we couldn’t be happier with how the World Cup has been received on our first step into the biggest sports market in the world and we will look to build on this over the next four years towards the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 and beyond.”

Where does South Florida go from here?

Unfortunately, as I have seen with soccer, not having proper venues can doom an area. In the 1980’s and early 1990’s South Florida was seen as the defacto home of US Soccer. It was where national team matches and international events were played. But once a track was put in Lockhart Stadium and baseball began being played at Joe Robbie Stadium, things changed. Between 2002 and 2012, South Florida was barely registering for international soccer even as the sport became wildly popular nationally.

This presents a challenge for Broward County. Let’s hope they can meet it.