Our once and future president is targeting a takeover of Greenland. He has the wrong island in his sights.
Instead, he should aim at a larger bull’s eye: Great Britain.
Alpha DOGE Elon Musk, who has been appointed to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency under the incoming Trump administration, believes so.
The tech billionaire posted on social media the other day that the U.S., “should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.” Musk understands we should be at the ready before the Brits totally overwhelm us.
The latest instance of this creeping British invasion is the plan for a 24,000-seat cricket stadium in once-tiny Oswego. Cricket, spread across the world by the British to its former colonies during their imperialistic forays, is the second-most popular sport in the world, trailing only soccer. Pickleball doesn’t come close to cricket’s global adoration.
The jolly sport has been rising in popularity in the U.S., where hundreds of cities and villages — about 30 in Chicagoland — now have grassy cricket pitches. In June 2021, the Gurnee Park District opened Lake County’s first public athletic field dedicated to cricket, ironically next to baseball fields.
It must be making Anglophiles in the Chicago region giddy, and the rest of us muzzy, over the prospect of the very British-sounding Breybourne Stadium set for the Kendall County community. It once was known to many of us for the acclaimed Oswego Drag Raceway off Route 34 near the Fox River, where muscle cars raced the quarter-mile back in the 1960s and ‘70s.
Americans once thought crickets were insects, or the backup band for Buddy Holly. Now, thanks to the rising tide of the sport’s U.S. aficionados we now know of stumps, bails, batsmen and bowlers. It’s an old sport which has been around since the mid-16th century.
Besides Great Britain — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — the sport, akin to baseball, is revered in Australia, India, Jamaica, New Zealand, Pakistan and other portions of the Commonwealth. Cricket players use an odd-looking bat, which looks like a wooden blade. A leather-bound hardball is thrown (bowled) at a batter and two wooden bails which stand on three wooden stumps, form the wicket.
The ball is thrown (bowled) at batters standing in front of the wicket, who can hit it to fielders who can cause outs, like in baseball. Games can last for days, which is why this former British colony adopted baseball as its national pastime.
Cricket will get a wider audience when it is to be reintroduced at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. It will be the first time since 1900 the sport will be played at a Summer Games, with men’s and women’s teams to be fielded. The U.S., as the host nation, automatically qualifies its teams.
Despite being a mystery sport for many of us, Gurnee Park District officials, urged on by a nascent Lake County cricket community, happily dedicated their pitch four years ago. Previously, Abbott Laboratories once hosted a cricket pitch at the company’s Abbott Park campus, just off Waukegan Road.
This present fascination with cricket is a continued indication we’ve yielded another share of American culture to making Britain great again. It started when the Beatles first landed in America, which begat a whole slew of Anglo-Saxon offerings we’ve gobbled up like sponge cake and Yorkshire pudding.
Especially considering our forefathers threw off the yoke of John Bull’s tyranny with the American Revolution in 1776. The latest British invasion is like them coming back for their War of 1812 visit.
This growing import from across the pond comes as many of the Public Broadcasting System offerings in the U.S. are supplied by the British Broadcasting System, or the Beeb as the Brits call it. Yet, who among us hasn’t awaited the return of All Creatures Great and Small on WTTW’s Masterpiece on Sunday evenings? Some have referred to the BBC programmes as “British crack.”
That being said, tears are being shed in some area households with the end of the 14-year run of the British detective show “Vera,” which is seen on the streaming service Britbox. Then, there are the scores of English cozy (and deadly) mysteries offered on the other streaming sites of Acorn and Netflix. Indeed, “The Detectives” can be intoxicating and addicting.
Of course, there’s our continuing fascination with the British royals, including those new emigres to the U.S., Harry and Megan. We’ve found those Windsors can be a fun bunch.
President-elect Donald Trump has threatened military or economic action to pursue the acquisition of Greenland and the Panama Canal — both of which don’t want anything to do with normally friendly Americans — once he takes office Jan. 20.
It’s certainly a sticky wicket for the incoming president, and it’s the wrong pitch. He should be promoting the dividend of an offensive focused on Great Britain. They already speak our language.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
sellenews@gmail.com
X: @sellenews
