Star India batter Virat Kohli on Friday said that he had never thought of playing cricket in the United States and the T20 World Cup happening there shows the growing impact of the sport in the world.
The USA and the West Indies are hosting the T20 World Cup starting on June 2.
Kohli landed in New York on Friday evening (Indian time) and will get busy with the preparations for the tournament.
“Honestly I never thought we would be playing cricket in any form in the states (USA), but now it's a reality,” Kohli said in a video shared by US Consulate Mumbai on X (formerly Twitter).
“That tells you about the growing impact of the sport in the world and the United States is more than willing to accept the change and be probably the first ones on a global scale to accept it, in a way, with the World Cup,” he said, before his departure from India to link up with his national team-mates in New York.
Terming it as a ‘great start', Kohli hoped that the T20 World Cup in the Americas will set off a domino effect as the game's governing body ICC aims to promote and expand cricket in other parts of the world.
“It's a great start. It's the ideal way to begin and it's going to have a huge impact. In starting off, a kind of a domino effect and I hope it carries on for a long period of time,” he said.
Kohli also said that people from South Asian region residing in the Americas are capable enough to take forward the momentum.
“We have enough people from our regions to keep the game up and alive in the States and make the others more aware about what it feels like to play and watch cricket,” he said.
“It's got great potential, with the MLC (Major League Cricket) as well. There is already franchise cricket happening there. It's moving in the right direction,” said Kohli, referring to the T20 league which recently got List A status from the ICC ahead of its second season.
