With the ICC T20 World Cup just over three months away, ground was broken on February 13 for renovation of Central Broward Park & Broward County Stadium in Lauderhill, South Florida. It is one of three venues in the United States that will host matches for the June 1-29 tournament.

The Broward County Parks and Recreation Division will conduct the US$8.4 million project which, according to a statement from its office, “will significantly update infrastructure at the stadium for the International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup.”

The ceremony was attended by City of Lauderhill officials including mayor Ken Thurston, Broward County commissioner Hazelle Rogers and Chris Dehring, an advisor to the county for the tournament which starts in Dallas, Texas with the United States playing Canada.

Central Broward Park & Broward County Stadium will host four matches. The first takes place June 11 with Sri Lanka playing Nepal.

Thurston, an American who has been mayor since 2020, described the return of international cricket to South Florida as a “very large deal”.

He added that, “The cricket stadium improvements play a large part in the development of the city of Lauderhill; it is important to the county. Tourism is global, and there are people who play cricket all over the world. With these improvements, it’s going to encourage more cricket matches to come to Lauderhill.”

Rogers, a stalwart Jamaican legislator in South Florida, told the Observer Online that cricket is the biggest winner.

“It’s good for the USA, because when the US has interest in any sport, it makes the Olympics, it makes for economic development. It’s not just one region, everyone has a stake in this T20 tournament being played here,” she said.

Dehring, who led organisation of the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean, agrees with Rogers. He pointed to cricket’s growing popularity in the United States as part of a bigger plan by major financial interests.

“When you see the spread of Cricket World Cup here to the United States, it’s not a coincidence, it’s all being planned. We see cricket coming back into the Olympics in Los Angeles; the dominoes are being put in place,” he noted.

The US against Ireland on June 14, India versus Canada the following day, and Pakistan versus Ireland on June 16 are the other matches scheduled for Central Broward Park & Broward County Stadium which has capacity seating for 8,000 spectators.

Known locally as Jamaica Hill because of its massive Jamaican community, Lauderhill has hosted a number of matches since the stadium opened in 2007. The West Indies, India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have played T20 and one-day internationals there; the venue also had Caribbean Premier League matches in 2018.

Defending champions England, Australia, India, West Indies, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ireland, Afghanistan, the United States, Canada, Scotland, Namibia, Uganda, Nepal, Oman and Papua New Guinea are the competing teams in the ICC T20 World Cup.

The Grand Praire Cricket Stadium in Dallas and Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York are the other US venues for the tournament which will have its final at Kensington Oval in Barbados.

Matches in the Caribbean take place in Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, St Lucia, St Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago.