The name
Maidan is the Urdu word for an open field — the ground where the game gets played. In Karachi, Lahore, Boston, or Toronto. On a cricket pitch or a baseball diamond, a football field or a hockey rink. Wherever the game is on, the maidan is where you find it. We borrowed the word because it does what we want this publication to do: hold space for the game, in any form, on any continent.
Why you're here
If your sports brain is bigger than the Big Four, this is for you.
If your group chat oscillates between Knicks injury reports and IPL playoff debates and World Cup qualifying drama. If you've ever had to switch between ESPN and Cricbuzz and a Premier League blog in the same morning. If you've ever felt like every sports newsletter in your inbox is covering half of what you actually watch — Maidan is the briefing you didn't realize was missing.
The beat
The NBA. The NHL. The NFL. MLB. Cricket — IPL, Tests, T20Is, Major League Cricket. The North American sports that don't always get the spotlight but have real followings here: lacrosse, field hockey, NCAA where it matters, MLS, the NWSL, F1's stops in Miami, Montreal, Austin.
And the global tournaments that actually land here. The 2026 World Cup is running through stadiums in Toronto and East Rutherford and Mexico City. We'll be there. The Olympics. The Cricket World Cup. Selective Premier League and Champions League — because plenty of North American fans are already watching, and pretending otherwise is its own kind of dishonesty.
The rule is simple: if a meaningful slice of North American fans is watching it, Maidan covers it. The publications haven't caught up to that reader. We're going to.
The reader
You're not just one of these:
A Knicks fan whose roommate got you into the IPL three years ago. A cricket lifer in Toronto who started watching the Raptors during the bubble and never stopped. A Premier League sicko in Chicago counting down to the World Cup. A Mets fan in Queens who finally googled what your neighbors keep yelling about. A college kid in Austin who follows F1 and Indian cricket and argues about both. A dad in Vancouver who watches more sports than there are nights in the week and has stopped pretending some of them don't count.
You're all of them at once, depending on what's on. You don't need someone to teach you these sports. You need someone to keep up with you.
What an issue looks like
Three or four minutes. The scores where the scores matter, the storyline where the storyline matters. Which seed is in real trouble. Which contender quietly looks dangerous. What to actually watch tonight, and why.
Opinion when opinion is earned. Restraint when it isn't. No filler. Sports media's biggest sin is content for the sake of cadence — we'd rather skip a day than waste your morning.
How often
Maidan publishes regularly, building toward daily. Often enough to feel like a habit. Not so often that issues stop being read. We'll earn our way into your inbox.
What to do now
If Issue #1 lands and it's for you, forward it to someone you know who'd recognize themselves in this letter. They exist — they're already watching Test cricket and the Stanley Cup final without anyone writing for them. The only way Maidan finds those readers is through readers like you.
If it's not for you, hit reply and tell us why. Founding readers shape what this becomes.
Issue #1 is coming.
— The Maidan team
Maidan covers North American leagues, global cricket, and the global tournaments North American fans actually watch. readmaidan.com