Cricket was first played in America in the 1700s with the first documented competition played in Manhattan in 1751. And while it continued to be played as an amateur sport for many years in certain parts of the country, Americans never played the game in great numbers. After the Civil War, baseball grew quickly in popularity while cricket declined.
In the early 1900s, a cricket team from Philadelphia toured England and while the game’s resurgence was short-lived, there was enough interest during the WWII years for a tour to be taken of Australia. A report on a match in Sydney in 1943 during that tour, appeared as follows in a local newspaper.