Corey Anderson, Team USA Cricket

But we gotta talk to someone who just came through with a major upset yesterday in Dallas, Texas.

Team USA Cricket beat Pakistan. We need to talk to someone who's representing Team USA. Corey Anderson. Corey, how are you, man? I'm good, thank you, mate. How are you? I'm very well. Thank you for taking the time to hop on.

No problem. Now, there are a lot of people listening coast to coast who have no idea about cricket. They're learning about cricket. I understand for the past few years that you've been participating in the brand new Major League Cricket. It has helped you participate with Team USA. Fill us in on your own journey coming over from New Zealand to what you're doing now. Yeah, I mean, that's all great, what you've got. It's been a pretty fascinating journey to be fair. I'm married to a Texan, so I live in Dallas, and I've got a couple of little boys now.

It'll be strange when they have American accents and they get up for me, they get a little bit older for me. But yeah, it's been an interesting journey the last few years and pretty thankful that USA Cricket and Major League Cricket's creating some pathways to allow other players to come in and show their talents. All paths have led to here, and we've got the biggest stage right in our own backyard. Thankfully, the first couple of games we've had have gone fantastically well, obviously, and we've started to create a bit of a buzz around it. Those who are familiar with cricket, they've been fans, I guess, from day one, but those who aren't familiar with it, jump on and enjoy the ride.

Yeah, hopefully we can take you to a place where you're proud of. And Corey Anderson is joining us from Team USA Cricket. Explain to us the differences, or the major difference, between T20 cricket, which is the current World Cup, and traditional cricket. Is it a matter of just the timing and the length of the matches?

Yeah, it's a combination of stuff. I guess here in the States, we predominantly play T20 cricket, so that's format, which again, I think anything longer than a handful of hours is probably going to start to make the American fans kind of walk away from it a little bit. But yeah, the longest format test match cricket, or first class cricket, can go for five days.

It doesn't obviously go all through the night, but normally start at 11 o'clock and go through at about five or six. Yeah, those are long days, and first class cricket for a reason, because it is a test. So yeah, that's the longest format. And then there's one day cricket, which probably lasts for about six hours or a lot. So we do play a little bit of that here as well. But yeah, our main focus the last few years and moving forward will be T20 cricket, the shortest format.

And Corey Anderson is joining us representing Team USA Cricket. Man, I know coming from New Zealand, you have played cricket all over the world. I have spent time, I used to go to Bangalore multiple times.

Well, I have been multiple times. These experiences that you've had, is there a particular memory that stands out to you? Is it something that's taken place on the pitch?

Is it off the pitch? What's the best experience playing cricket? I guess I've been fortunate that taking me to some incredible places and I've got to meet some incredible people and, you know, those experiences are kind of all bundled into it.

And it's hard to sort of think of one off the top of my head. I was lucky to play in the 2015 World Cup Final with New Zealand against Australia. Unfortunately, we didn't quite win that one.

But that's a pretty big memory for me. I mean, anytime you get to play on the biggest stage in the world and test yourselves, it's always fantastic. And I'll probably say honestly, the game we just had against Pakistan, it's such a different feeling for me to be involved with a different team, a team that I'm now extremely proud of. But to be able to take down a team like Pakistan, one of the best in the world, it was a bit of a shock to us. But I know the talent we have and you know, we just need opportunities to show people that we can compete against the best. And I think we've done that and we're not finished yet. Hopefully we can continue to surprise a few more people as well when we face India in less than a week's time as well.

Yeah, we see all the action is going on down in Dallas. Corey, for listeners here in the States, what is the equivalent? At Team USA, as you just said, this is one of the highlights of your career.

You guys beat Pakistan. Is there an equivalent that you would make for a lot of our listeners to understand the magnitude of this? I mean, it's probably difficult, I'm trying to think in terms of an American sport sort of analogy for that. But I guess you could argue, imagine if the playoffs in any form, whether it was the NBA, whether it was the NFL, whatever it may be, think of probably whoever's at the very bottom who's maybe, you know, they've won one game or season, they've been a rider, so they're trying to tank to get a grass pick. I wouldn't say that's our mindset, obviously, but the equivalent of it in terms of performance-wise and I guess capabilities and feeling.

Yeah, it would be like one of them taking down, you know, the Super Bowl winner or the NBA Finals champions or, you know, the World Series champions, whatever it may be. So it's a huge feat. Pakistan is, like I said, one of the best teams in the world, and when they're on, they can beat anyone in the world as well. So yeah, thankfully we got them on a bit of a day where they probably weren't at their best, and that's cricket as well. It's a pretty fickle sport and you have a couple of things slightly go against you and it makes it a tough day. But on the flip side of that, you have some stuff go for you and yeah, you just try and make, okay, well, the sun's shining.

Yeah, you got to make the best of what you have in front of you. Corey Anderson is here with us from USA Cricket. And Corey, you also play for the San Francisco Unicorns. You were on the inaugural team as MLC got started last year. How has that helped in your transition towards the USA squad or has it? I assume it has, right? Yeah, that's been a massive part.

I'd say that's probably been, for most guys here, the biggest influence on, I guess, creating the environment that we now have. We've still got, you know, multiple guys who are yet to become available for USA Cricket because they're still going through their, I guess, eligibility phase. But we've still got guys waiting in the wings and creating depth and Major League's been a huge influence on that. So it's now created a pathway for people in America who are wanting to play cricket.

It actually gives them access to see what the kind of final product looks like. And it's at its very early stages and it's got a lot of room to grow and there's a lot of hurdles that we have to jump over as well. But again, it's a long-term play for all of us and we're in a great spot at the moment and with stuff like the World Cup going on at the moment, obviously, and then the Olympics coming in a few years time as well. You know, cricket's in a really good space and we've got some big events to be able to kind of show off and hopefully put ourselves in a position where we can, you know, do well and again, show what kind of talent America has.

Most definitely. Corey Anderson is here with us from USA Cricket, also plays for the San Francisco Unicorns. You talked about just the investment and the advancement and the exposure to cricket.

I mean, I've been on the air here talking to the whole country for four or five years now. This is the first time that we've talked about a cricket. For people here listening, where can they find out more information about Major League Cricket? Where can they follow you guys in your next match?

Phyllis and Corey? I mean, any outlet in terms of usacricket.com, you can go to majorleaguecricket.com as well. You'll find plenty of stuff there. Major Leagues coming up in July. I believe the first game's on the 4th of July.

So that's going to be between Dallas and Morrisville in North Carolina. Those games will be played. So people are wanting to get down to those games and, you know, experience the cricketing culture and what America has, you know, the best of what America has to offer in terms of cricket. We've got some of the biggest names of overseas players coming over as well. So again, it just drives that talent pool and, you know, makes the domestic guys be able to play against the best and test themselves. And obviously the World Cup, we've still got games to go.

We've got India and then Ireland as well. So, you know, that'll be on t20worldcup.com. Tickets, slash tickets, I believe. Go and check that out. There's tickets available, which I'm sure there's a handful there.

Yeah. Get them up, jump on board and yeah, hopefully we can make you proud. I gotta get out to a match, Corey.

I gotta see this in person. Now, this is a very important question, maybe just for me. When I go, I can have like a couple of beers, right? Two, three, I can have a couple of beers when I go. Yeah, it depends how many you can handle, I guess.

You know, you want to have a good time. Yeah. Okay. All right.

My main man, Corey Anderson. Corey, thank you for filling us in on cricket. It is a lot of learning to be done and I appreciate you for laying a lot of the groundwork and good luck. And again, congratulations on beating Pakistan, man. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.