Agencies
BRIDGETOWN, June 24: Their fairytale run was cut short by the "Big Boys" but USA batter Corey Anderson says his assorted team is signing off from the T20 World Cup here with its head held high and "heaps of learnings".
The USA were knocked out after losing their Super 8 stage matches to South Africa, West Indies and England.
This was after a reasonably good run in the group league encounters, during which they beat Pakistan and gave India a scare.
"I mean sky's the limit really...the last few years there's always been whispers around what's happening in America with cricket...hopefully in years to come as well, we can kind of grow that," Anderson, who is from New Zealand and even played 93 games for that country before shifting base to the USA, said following their campaign-ending loss to England on Sunday.
" I mean there's probably a lot of areas that we need to improve on. We are still an Associate nation, growing, trying to get a bigger player pool. Making it through the Super 8s was obviously a historic occasion for the USA," he added.
Asked to explain the USA's loss of momentum after a galvanising league run , Anderson said it was a case of 'Big Boys' raising their level when it mattered against a mostly novice team.
"The last couple of games have just been not quite there, but that's what happens in the Super 8 competition is the bigger boys start to really show up and they're kind of hitting their stride right at the back end of this competition," he said.
"We don't get to play against these big teams often or at all. So, anything that we can play against these guys is hugely valuable. It's probably a little bit raw at the moment obviously, but yeah there's heaps of learnings out of that," he added.
The 33-year-old Anderson is just one of the acquired talents for USA.
The team is made up of players of West Indian, Indian and Pakistan origin players. One of their top performers was Indian-origin pacer Saurabh Netravalkar, who is a full-time software engineer with Oracle.
Anderson said there is understandable disappointment in the camp right now but there is also a feeling of accomplishment.
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