The Holywood hills are alive with the sound of willow and leather Fred Waters / © Getty Images

The United States will be home to a global cricket tournament for the very first time next month, as co-hosts of the T20 World Cup alongside West Indies, with matches being played in Florida, Texas and New York. The US had a taste of franchise cricket in 2023, with the resoundingly successful inaugural season of Major League Cricket, but international cricket history in North America goes back a long, long time. So far back, in fact, that the first ever international cricket match on record was played here, at the St George's Cricket Club ground in New York, between United States and Canada in 1844 (and Canada won).

In 1859, the US also hosted the first international cricket tour when an England XI travelled to the country - three years before the first England tour of Australia - to play five matches and three exhibition games against local cricketers, one of whom was later baseball pioneer Harry Wright.

An illustration of a match in progress in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1851, between the New England and St George's cricket clubs © Corbis via Getty Images

Cricket's popularity dwindled after the American Civil War, as baseball's began to grow, but clubs across US and Canada continued to play each other intermittently well into the 20th century.

Members of the Winnipeg Junior Cricket Club play a game in Lincoln Park in Chicago in 1935 © Getty Images

Philadelphia and Pennsylvania remained thriving hubs of cricket in America where matches still drew sizeable crowds.

Impeccably turned out spectators at a game at Merion Cricket Club in Haverford, Pennsylvania in 1938 © Getty Images

By the mid- to late 20th century, cricket was reduced to being largely a novelty sport, though expats would often hold exhibition games, as Eddie Phillips, a cricketer from Brighton in England did on his holiday in St Louis.

"You wouldn't believe the pitches in New Orleans. Right roads they were!" Fred Waters / © Associated Press

Not even the more famous expats were able to rekindle interest in the States.

English author and actor Joan Collins attempts to teach Bob Hope (batting) and Bing Crosby (behind the wicket) some cricket in vain Frank Martin / © Getty Images

In 1963, jazz singer Nat King Cole returned from Britain with a bunch of new fans and a cricket bat.

Bat King Cole: an introduction to cricket and all that jazz Fred Waters / © Associated Press

In 2015, Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne hosted a series of exhibition matches featuring some of the biggest names in cricket, including Brian Lara, Glenn McGrath and Wasim Akram, that played to rapturous crowds, but the series was scrapped after the first year because Warne and Tendulkar couldn't see eye to eye.

Citi Field in New York got a makeshift cricket pitch in front of the baseball diamond for the 2015 All Stars series Alex Goodlett / © Getty Images

Staten Island Cricket Club in New York is currently the oldest continuously run cricket club in the United States. It once hosted the likes of Don Bradman, Pelham Warner and Everton Weekes, and continues to hold matches today.

Sweet spot: Every Sunday, the SICC plays 30-over matches in New York National Cricket League Peter Della Penna / © ESPNcricinfo Ltd

If MLC's success was any indication, the World Cup could be a turning point for the sport in America. Might we soon see Sunday games on the maidans of Manhattan?

Texas or Tamil Nadu? The Dallas Cricket Connections and the Kingswood Cricket Club play a local league match against the backdrop of a temple in Frisco © Associated Press

Deepti Unni is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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