Wicked Googly

Get your wickets ready. Last Thursday, the USA Cricket Association and the Pennsylvania-based Global Sports Ventures LLC announced that cricket will join the U.S.'s professional sports scene as part of a $70 million licensing deal. The multiyear agreement will create a league with franchises that play Twenty20 cricket (a short form of the game that takes about three hours), though the number of teams and their home cities have yet to be determined. Earlier this year more than 1.4 million U.S. viewers tuned in to the International Cricket Council's World Twenty20 competition. "We're confident in the strength of the consumer demand," said Global Sports Ventures CEO Jignesh Pandya. "This agreement allows us to grow the world's second most popular sport right here in our own backyard."