Move over NBA, here comes T20 cricket

Fort Lauderdale - The two Twenty20 Internationals over the weekend will be the first instance of India being involved in a competitive match in the United States

Cricket will seek to reach out to the untapped American market when the sport's most followed practitioners, India, lock horns with the West Indies in their maiden international game in the US on Saturday.
The two Twenty20 Internationals over the weekend will be the first instance of India being involved in a competitive match in the United States.
Days after India cruised to victory in the four-match Test series for their third successive triumph on the Caribbean soil, the team's seasoned campaigner MS Dhoni will return to lead the side in the two limited overs games at the Central Broward Regional Park, the only purpose-built cricket stadium in the US.
The 14-member Indian team will see the return of as many as 11 regular players who were rested from the tour to Zimbabwe in May earlier this year.
Dhoni's last assignment was against Zimbabwe where he led a young Indian team, sans the stars, to victory in both the ODIs and T20I series in Harare in June.
The two-match series is going to be the first of what will develop into an annual event in the US as part of efforts to reach out to new markets and audiences.
Even though India won the Test series 2-0, players from the Test squad are coming with hardly any recent match practice because of the rain-affected fourth Test in Port-of-Spain where the last four days didn't see any play.
As far as the West Indies team is concerned, the focus will be on Carlos Brathwaite, who was elevated to captaincy in place of Darren Sammy.
They may be the reigning world champions in the format, having triumphed in India earlier this year, but that didn't save Sammy's job as skipper. Brathwaite, on the other hand, etched his name into West Indies cricket folklore by smashing four sixes in the final over against England to win this year's World T20 final for his team in Mumbai.
"I think a team like this will be pretty easy to lead, from the point of view that the dressing room is a fun place to be," said Brathwaite.
"I don't think it's a case where I have to negotiate too many egos."
But despite his heroics in Mumbai, the 28-year-old Brathwaite is yet to become a force to reckon with when it comes to international experience, having played just three Tests, 14 ODIs and eight Twenty 20s.
India have no issues on the confidence front heading into the weekend.
They have enjoyed a solid run in the T20 series in recent times, winning in Australia, Sri Lanka and claiming the Asia Cup before recovering to beat Zimbabwe 2-1.
Twelve of the 14-man Test squad will be in Florida with Test skipper Virat Kohli handing over the leadership duties to Dhoni.
They will have revenge on their minds having lost to the West Indies in the semi-finals of this year's World Twenty20. - PTI
Teams (from):
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Stuart Binny, Umesh Yadav, Virat Kohli
West Indies: Carlos Brathwaite (capt), Andre Fletcher, Andre Russell, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Evin Lewis, Jason Holder, Johnson Charles, Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Marlon Samuels, Samuel Badree, Sunil Narine.