USA's Aaron Jones on their stunning achievement to reach last eight of T20 World Cup after draw with Ireland

Hi everyone, Aaron Jones, Vice Captain, Team USA. Please introduce yourself before asking your question and raise your hands if you can. We'll start with. Hi Aaron, made it to the Super 8 quite happy it must be but match didn't happen. What is your thought going into the Super 8 you will be now faced with, you will be facing a lot of senior teams now test playing teams in the Super 8. How does how do you look forward to that? I'm definitely looking forward to the challenge for sure. Over the last couple of weeks we've shown that obviously we we could definitely compete and beat some of the full emanation. So definitely looking forward to playing against them for sure. Aaron Ashwin from The Hindu First of all, congratulations to you and the team for making it to the Super 8 for cricket at the USA and and for yourselves as players entering the Super Eight of the World Cup. What does it sort of mean to you? Say the last part again, please. Sadhguru entering the Super 8, what does it mean to players and for cricket in the USA? It's a big thing for us, to be honest. Over the last couple of years we've been speaking about playing in World Cups, playing more games against it for member nations and stuff like that. And here we are doing it right now and obviously qualifying for the Super Eights is really good, not only for us right now in the moment, but I think we'll qualify for the 2026 World Cup as well. So I think it's a big thing for us, It's really good for us and not only for us but the fans around America as well. We really appreciate them for sure, and not only for the fans but for the younger generation in America as well is really good. Is it a little bittersweet considering how this day happened and from 10:30 in the morning to 130, was the playing field in your opinion not playable or were you surprised that they didn't get you out on the field? In my opinion, for me personally, I think it was too wet to play, to be honest with you this morning. We, we didn't really have like a whole day of sun or whatever case would be to really and truly dry up like fully. So it was a bit tough to be honest. You in terms of like the conditions and stuff to play the game. I, I the other part of the question, is it a little bittersweet to advance this way without being able to prove it on the pitch? Once you play proper cricket that we can beat any team in the world for sure. Right now he has a bit of a niggle, but he should be good in a few days for sure. No, he wasn't going to play today. Yeah, I think it's very possible to be honest, if the schedule permits. I think for the boys, we want to play as much cricket as possible and we will love to play more cricket against it for nominations. That's that's where we're going to test ourselves best against the best in the world. So definitely let's see how it goes. But we really and truly will love that for sure. Yeah, I think that's the plan. Long term plan to be honest to you. Right now we'll be using, we played a few series at Musa, probably we'll play a few series at the Dallas Stadium and probably a few preview. But yeah, we definitely have that in the plan for sure over the next couple years, try to get some more facilities and stuff. It's really good for me to go back home, to be honest. You I'm really happy right now. I think I'll get a lot of support for sure, especially in Barbados. So definitely looking forward to it. I mean, I don't think it's going to change much. We going to go through our processes like normal practice and stuff like now we've played in the Caribbean in the original Super 50 competition in Caribbean a few years. So majority of the boys know how to play in the Caribbean and stuff already. So just to stick together as a team and keep doing what we're doing. Just given that this is the only question by the facilities, this is like the only change in the field for cricket here and it's been a long time since the US has played here. Would you like to play here more often? Me personally, I do like this stadium. I've scored a lot of runs here. I think the facilities are great. But I think it just comes down on depends depending on who we're playing against. Because this wicket is not the same as the Dallas wicket and it's not the same as the preview wicket. So it just depends on who we're playing against. But definitely we'll we'll play more cricket here for sure in the future. I want to say better. I just think it's slightly different. I want to say better. I think both are good for cricket to be honest. I know at least one of your players thought you might be going back to work on Monday and there has to be any last arrangements to make sure they're available all the way through the situation. No, everybody is good right now. Everybody is up to date right now as it relates to the traveling to the Caribbean, so it's all good in the camp. I think the Super Eights is obviously the biggest step for the USA. What else do we need to be done at the Urban School here in this stage? I think a bit of a bit more promotion will be better as it relates to getting cricket into the school system. I think if the cricket get fully into the school system in all the states around the around the country, that's very important because then the youth will understand what is cricket. And if they like cricket, they'll get the friends to come and play. They get a family to come and play. And that will grow the interests of the the game in any country. So I think that's one thing. And then outside of that, I think promotion can be better to be honest with you as it relates to cricket being a a, a, a sport in the country.