Nassau County, Long Island played host to its first official T20 World Cup 2024 cricket match on Monday, where South Africa emerged victorious over Sri Lanka by six wickets. The match drew thousands of fans from all around the world who flew in to witness this historic event at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in East Meadow.
The stadium saw long lines of eager spectators, and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman expressed excitement about hosting one of the premier sporting events in the world at the temporary 34,000-seat stadium constructed in just four months. The upcoming match schedule on Long Island includes games between Sri Lanka and South Africa, India and Ireland, Canada and Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa, India and Pakistan, South Africa and Bangladesh, Pakistan and Canada, and USA and India.
Cricket is the second most-viewed sport in the world after soccer and is played by over 200,000 Americans across more than 400 local leagues. The new cricket stadium on Long Island will host warm-up matches for the T20 Cricket World Cup as Major League Cricket launched last year in the U.S., featuring six professional T20 teams. The Associated Press wire services contributed to this report.
