T20 World Cup 2024: How US vs Canada cricket rivalry is older than Ashes?

Associate nations in cricket are a rarity that comes into the main picture only when a World Cup is around. Not often does one talk of history while talking about the associate nations of the International Cricket Council (ICC). But this time, the stakes are high as one of the associate nations is getting to co-host a World Cup, and it is none other than the biggest economy in the world—the United States of America.

But the US and cricket have not been named together too frequently. It, therefore, becomes important to know the history of the game in the country. While going through the history of cricket in North America, we find the oldest rivalry in cricket existed even before the Ashes.

 

The US cricket history

A cricket club called the St George’s Club was founded in Manhattan, New York by English elites residing there. However, the locals were not allowed. Even after being super exclusive, the club managed to invite Toronto Club from Canada for the three-day game.

The match was called ‘Canada vs USA’ in 1844 and could be called the first-ever international cricket game. The rivalry that started back then continued in the form of the Auty Cup.

 

The Ashes, however, started in 1877, 33 years later, and thus the US vs Canada rivalry becomes older than the oldest known cricketing rivalry in the world.

The Auty Cup

The two teams did not initially play for a trophy. After the first match in New York, the rematch between the US and Canada happened in 1845 in Montreal and Canada, which had won the first match by 23 runs, beat the US again, this time by 65 runs.

The sport captured the imagination of the Canadian public so much that when Canada became an independent nation (still considered the British Monarch as the head of state) in 1867, the first Prime Minister, Sir John MacDonald, declared cricket the national sport.

The rivalry continued albeit without a trophy, and it was sometime in the 1830s that a cricket enthusiast, Karl Andre Auty, presented the winning team with a trophy. Since then, the series of matches between the two sides, hosted alternatively by Canada and the US, is known as the Auty Cup.

 

Rivalry in the modern era

There were no official ODIs or Tests played between the two nations as sometimes Canada had ODI status and the USA didn’t, and sometimes the US had ODI status and Canada didn’t until the 2023 World Cup Qualifier Play-Offs in Namibia.

The two teams met for the first time in an official ODI on March 29, 2023, and it was Canada that came up trumps by 26 runs. Just like the Auty Cup, the first blood in the ODI rivalry was also drawn by the Canadians.

As far as the T20s are concerned, the two teams first met in a T20 international at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi during the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier 2014. The match was held on November 15. The USA won the game by five wickets. So far, in eight matches between the two sides, the USA leads the head-to-head battle 5-2, with one match ending in a tie.

USA vs Canada head-to-head in T20s

First Published: Jun 01 2024 | 1:23 PM IST