NY Bloger

British director Sam Mendes is hoping to adapt a story of cricket in America for the screen.

The director has his sights set on Netherland, a book by Joseph O’Neill about cricket-playing expatriates in post-September 11 New York.

Mendes, 44, is the director of American Beauty and a cricket nut who is jumping at the chance to turn the acclaimed novel into a movie. The book became a bestseller in the US after President Barack Obama recommended it in a newspaper interview.

Netherland, according to the UK Independent newspaper, is “not dissimilar to a cricket match; intricate, absorbing, compelling, and with the occasional longueur that sends you to the beer tent”.

Christopher Hampton will write the screenplay for the film. He said: “I don’t think it is possible to make cricket clear to people who don’t understand the game. But, luckily, there isn’t much ball-by-ball stuff in this novel, and it is actually more popular in the US than we imagine.”