In the summer of 2007, my family moved to the United States. I was ten and had spent the previous three years playing cricket for my school in Mumbai. Cricket was the dream, and life revolved around it.
In Oklahoma, that structure simply did not exist. There were no school teams, no coaches, and no obvious place for a young cricketer to develop.
It became just my brother and me, sometimes joined by a couple of friends, playing makeshift Test cricket on a basketball court in the neighborhood park.
That absence is why Liam Plunkett’s work in America is worth paying attention to.
This piece looks at the second act of World Cup winner Liam Plunkett. No longer just a cricketer, he is now also a coach, commentator, businessman, and one of the driving forces behind grassroots cricket in the United States.
What Cricket in America is Missing
Investors often view the United States as a potential goldmine for cricket. Critics, on the other hand, point to administrative issues within USA cricket and dismiss the American market as a hopeless cause.
Both views hold some truth. The reality sits somewhere in the middle.
The launch of Major League Cricket (MLC) four years ago, the construction of new stadiums, and the arrival of international names such as Corey Anderson and Liam Plunkett helped jumpstart the conversation. Club cricket is already well established across major metropolitan areas, driven largely by expatriate communities. Journeys like Avinash’s in Iowa show the range of competitions that exist within American college and club cricket.
Yet two important pieces are still missing: cricket as an official NCAA college sport and genuine grassroots structure for young players.
Plunkett’s path toward addressing this imbalance began long before America entered the picture.
Liam Plunkett’s First Act
Liam Plunkett began his County career with Durham in 2003, shortly after turning eighteen.
He broke through quickly, taking 50 wickets in the 2005 season and earning an England call-up soon after that 2005 Ashes. County success followed, including a starring role in the 2007 Friends Provident Trophy and back-to-back County Championship titles in 2008 & 2009.
His international career, however, was far less linear. After his first stint with England in 2006-07, he went nearly seven years without a sustained run in the national side. Even then, he was a valuable contributor, an exceptional fielder and also featured in England’s highest 9th wicket ODI partnership with super-sub Vikram Solanki in just his 2nd ODI.
Things changed after 2016.
Plunkett re-emerged as a permanent fixture in England’s white-ball teams, first at the 2016 T20 World Cup, and then more decisively in ODI cricket. From 2016 to the 2019 ODI World Cup Final, he took 90 wickets in 53 innings at an average of 27.02, establishing himself as one of the game’s most reliable middle-overs bowlers.
He played a defining role in England’s 2019 World Cup win, finishing the tournament with 11 wickets. His spell of 10-0-42-3 in the final removed Kane Williamson, Henry Nicholls, and Jimmy Neesham, keeping England in the contest. Not to forget the 17-run crucial partnership with Ben Stokes in the tense chase.
Plunkett’s first act was shaped by adaptation, finding a role, refining it, and remaining relevant.
Dropped, But Not Done
As it would turn out, the World Cup Final was his last appearance in an England jersey. At the peak of his powers, Liam Plunkett was dropped with little communication. In his own words, “disappointment is an understatement.”
The pandemic soon followed, bringing international cricket to a halt. For a time, it was easy to assume that his career was over.
Then began the second act.
Plunkett’s wife is American, and Philadelphia had long been familiar territory. He spent a few months there each year even before his England exit. After the axe, he began playing Minor League with the Philadelphians, a team with deep historical ties to the American game.
When Major League Cricket followed, Plunkett became affiliated with the San Francisco Unicorns. What initially looked like a farewell began to resemble a transition instead.
America as Opportunity, Not an Exit
Three years on, Plunkett is still playing in MLC, with at least one more professional season left in him. America has helped him to branch out further.
In an episode of Under the Lid by The Cricketer, Plunkett spoke how his involvement with the game has expanded well beyond playing. This has taken several forms:
When Plunkett signed for MLC, his role was not limited to playing in the Minor League and Major League. It also included a stint as a national development coach and coaching at the local academy level. That exposure made one gap impossible to ignore.
“In terms of the coach education, it never was there…And it sparked like…Why is there not a platform to coach coaches, to coach kids properly?…It’s our job to get kids strong and fit to complement their cricket skills…We want to help make cricketers healthy and fit, not just for cricket but also outside of cricket, healthy, faster, and stronger.”
– Liam plunkett
LPC is built around that gap. The focus is not only talent, but structure, helping young players learn correctly, and helping coaches learn how to teach.
Now in the US, Liam Plunkett is introducing a new generation to cricket & also helping coaches learn how to effectively teach it
Another great example of a member enhancing their personal development during #FuturesMonth
Listen to #UnderTheLid https://t.co/qdZ5g4Q2Fd pic.twitter.com/xtKVvY0Vzs
— PCA (@PCA) November 24, 2025
Technology, Training, and the American Sports Model
I recently got into golf and indoor soccer this year, and one thing stood out immediately: how central training infrastructure is to both sports.
Golf has invested heavily in technology from indoor simulators to tracking apps like TopTracer Range, used by both professionals and amateurs alike. Indoor soccer follows a similar model, with organizations such as TOCA Soccer offering year-round training, coaching, and leagues for kids.
These high performance training centers are essential to those sports develop talent. Cricket, by comparison, has largely lagged behind.
On That’s Cricket, Stuart Giles spoke about efforts to introduce indoor simulation facilities to the United States through Century Cricket, his company based in Australia working in partnership with Bangalore Tech Labs in India. Their simulators aim to allow cricketers to train year-around, regardless of weather. A training center has opened in Houston with another planned for Manhattan.
Why Manhattan? Beyond its cricket playing community, Steve Smith spends significant part of his year in New York City and is eyeing a spot in the LA28 Olympics.
As Giles put it:
“If you put your Australia hat on, our best player and probably the key to our Ashes success, spends six months of the year in New York with nowhere where he can train or get better.”
Following Steve Smith’s journey in New York can further engage the audiences.
Jomboy, Baseball, and the American Fan
Infrastructure along is not enough. Awareness matters just as much.
For most Americans, cricket remains unfamiliar. That’s where platforms like Jomboy Media come in and help bridge the gap.
What began as a baseball podcast has grown into a full-scale media operation. His cricket breakdowns are iconic and the Warehouse Games, a hybrid format between cricket and baseball are bridging the gap between audiences. Plunkett’s Beach Cricket initiative featured Jomboy, and they have since collaborated on various podcasting gigs.
We are already seeing crossover moments: Grand Prairie Stadium baseball stadium converted for MLC, retired baseball players trying out cricket, Steve Smith & KP testing out baseball bats, Harry Brook learning cricket in Europe, and data-driven comparisons between Shohei Ohtani & Tim David‘s hitting range.
The intersection of audiences is where the future may lie in commercializing cricket in America.
How Can You Get Involved?
Liam Plunkett and his coaching staff cannot be everywhere. That is why LPC was designed to scale coaching across the US. At present, LPC offers two core pathways:
- Rookie Player Course – Designed for beginners, this course covers the fundamentals of batting, bowling, wicketkeeping, and fielding.
- Coaching Courses – This is for both Rookie Coach (Level 1) and Development Coach (Level 2). These courses are well suited for up and coming coaches that want to learn how to structure their sessions and to learn how to really coach cricket effectively.
For readers interested in exploring these programs, you can use code PlunkettBCD2025 to receive 20% off.
Disclosure: This is an affiliate link, which means we may receive a small commission, at no additional cost to you. This helps support our efforts in bringing you valuable content. Thank you for your support.
Here is a glimpse at what kind of online training you may receive.
Why This Second Act Matters
Liam Plunkett is still bowling bowling fast, and we may yet see one more season out of him sending down absolute rockets.
“82, 83 on a good day…I’m 41 next year. You know, I would love to actually bowl one more ball at 90 miles an hour. I’m not sure if I got it in my locker, but I’ll do my best training to get to that point.”
The story of Liam Plunkett has been one of re-invention, and I am excited to see what all he pursues behind the scenes in building American cricket.
These efforts will not on their own solve American cricket’s infrastructure problems, but at least, it is a start. It is a recognition that visibility, business investment, and grassroots programs are needed if cricket has any chance of surviving in the United States.
Perhaps 30 years from now, a kid in Oklahoma will fall in love with cricket the same way, but won’t have to stop there because coaching, facilities, and a pathway to pursue the dream will already exist.
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Thank you all for reading! I’ll leave you with this, Liam Plunkett rattling the stumps.
BCD#407 © Copyright @Nitesh Mathur and Broken Cricket Dreams, LLC 2023. Originally published on 12/14/2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Broken Cricket Dreams with appropriate and specific direction to the original content (i.e. linked to the exact post/article).
