Competitive crowd-pulling cricket has traditionally been predicated on international contests in which national pride and parochial allegiances have generated intensity. —AP/File photo

Some of the most interesting news from the United States recently isn`t that they finally have an African-American as president, nor that their humongous economy is on artificial life support, nor even that in a couple of decades they will be a majority non-white nation.

For cricket followers, the most exciting news from America is that New York will stage an international Twenty20 league later this year.

In case you missed it, here are the details an American entrepreneur of Pakistani origin named Jay Mir has drawn up plans for a T20 tournament comprising six teams - including Premium Pakistan, Premium India, Premium West Indies, Premium World and Premium America - to be staged in a converted baseball stadium in the Staten Island borough of New York City. Mir, who is CEO of American Sports and Entertainment Group, Inc., has already been in contact with Pakistani legend Inzamamul Haq to start preparing Premium Pakistan.

This development should give every cricket observer pause, because the implications are enormous. The US represents the most lucrative sports market in the world, but it also happens to be the most insular. American sports are centered on intense seasons of baseball, basketball, and American football (a variant of rugby), with some golf and motor racing thrown in. Tournaments comprise regional teams from the larger American cities or colleges; international competition is secondary and minor. Forget cricket, even a sport like soccer, which holds universal appeal in virtually every other corner of the planet, hasn`t found traction in the US.

Although cricket does get played across the US, it is utterly marginalised, and remains limited to either immigrant communities or to college campuses which have foreign students from India, Pakistan, and other major cricket-playing countries. The sport is never covered in mainstream print or broadcast media. Mir`s company has estimated a fan base of approximately 15 million people for cricket in America, but virtually all of them have picked up their love for cricket in another land.

There are, however, important signals that cricket could well succeed where soccer has failed. America`s sporting public demands unstoppable thrill, action, power, and strategy, delivered in a television-friendly package that fits conveniently within the tempo of modern life. Although soccer could never successfully reinvent itself along these specifications (too many boring interludes, say the Americans), cricket just has, through the revolution of T20. This innovative new formula has already produced an upheaval in cricket`s existing world order, with clear indications that what we have seen so far is merely an appetiser.

Competitive crowd-pulling cricket has traditionally been predicated on international contests in which national pride and parochial allegiances have generated intensity.

On the other hand, in T20 cricket, nationalism has been rendered irrelevant. While successful T20 tournaments, such as the Indian Premier League, do comprise regional teams, the player s often have no regional connections. Yet the arrangement still works fabulously, because the 20-over format forces constant risk and thrills. During last year`s IPL season, when Rawalpindi Express Shoaib Akhtar took the field for Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens, he was cheered like a native son of Calcutta. It was a magical moment that could not have been imagined prior to the advent of T20.

In parallel to Mir`s bold American stroke, two other developments are also set to transform cricket as we know it. One is the ease and enthusiasm with which the Indian Premier League has just become an exportable commodity. Any negative security-related impact of the IPL being forced out of India has receded, as South Africa`s ready acceptance to host this money-spinning extravaganza opens up new ideas and possibilities. Cricket seems to be on the verge of breaking the shackles of national barriers and conventional sporting models.

The other major advance, the impact of which may not be so obvious but is surely no less far-reaching, is the interest being shown in cricket by China. During a cricket-based visit to China by Javed Miandad, who was sent as an envoy from Pakistan with ambassador status, the Chinese government declared its keenness to become an internationally competitive cricket force.

While Test cricket and even 50-over one-day international cricket remain very much an acquired taste, the great advantage of T20 cricket has been its ability to attract new followers into the fold of cricket lovers. China, with its rising superpower status and 1.5 billion people, will be the biggest catch bar none.

All this speaks volumes for the versatility of cricket. Only great versatility can enable a transition where one of the most sedate and eccentric games of the 20th century could be well poised to take root in America and China, the global powers of the 21st century. The prospect is enough to make any cricket fan vertiginous. When will we wake up?