Cricket as a World Sport
- Thread starter Wombat
- Start date
Speed it up
Crickwet as it standss does not lend itself well to audiovisual media coverage. Not even many Brits I know follow cricket live broadcasts. You have to be there to enjoy it, I'm told.
Now, if someone invented a variant of cricket that is faster and a little more spectacular, that could change its fortunes worldwide in the course of the 20th century. It would still have to reckon with football (Association Football, that is) as a contender for mass attention, but I think it would have chances.
Plus, in terms of numbers I think more people worldwide follow cricket than either baseball, basketball, or American Football. It's only association Football that's bigger statistically IIRC. Problem is. most cricket fans are too poor to be good advertising targets, living in India, Pakistan, ZImbabwe, Kenya and other places like that.
Crickwet as it standss does not lend itself well to audiovisual media coverage. Not even many Brits I know follow cricket live broadcasts. You have to be there to enjoy it, I'm told.
Now, if someone invented a variant of cricket that is faster and a little more spectacular, that could change its fortunes worldwide in the course of the 20th century. It would still have to reckon with football (Association Football, that is) as a contender for mass attention, but I think it would have chances.
Plus, in terms of numbers I think more people worldwide follow cricket than either baseball, basketball, or American Football. It's only association Football that's bigger statistically IIRC. Problem is. most cricket fans are too poor to be good advertising targets, living in India, Pakistan, ZImbabwe, Kenya and other places like that.
carlton_bach said:
Not true - there is a variant called one day cricket which is just that - its played in one day. Each team bowls 50 overs and whoever has the highest score wins - pretty obvious. And some of thos scores are pretty impressive. For example in the second final of the tri-series being played in Australia today Australia scored 359 runs. India has to score at 7.2 per over (6 deliveries in an over) to win
carlton_bach said:
In most of the world cricket and football/soccer wouldn't compete as they are played in different seasons - cricket is a summer sport (or in England what passes for summer
).A cricket team from the US tour Britain before the ACW and thrash all the county sides they play. This gives a lot more coverage back in the state and cricket takes off. During the war a shorted version (one day) is developed by soldiers playing against each other. American cricket is looked down on by the purists at the MCG in England, however the skills to play are the same and a transatlantic cricket rivalry developes over some piece of silverware. Baseball sadly becomes an obsure sporting footnote and the states and proviences in North America battle it out for the World Shield. Australians and Americans argue their way north to japan during WW2 over who was the better batsman Don Bradman or Babe Ruth.
Wombat said:
Cricket is a world sport. Played on every continant of the globe. The international cricket council represents national cricket bodies from over forty countries and if you count only those that play cricket as a profesional sport, you are talking about a quarter of the world's population. If you consider population as a determining factor, cricket is probably the second most popular sport in the world, behind soccer. And as for holding on to the USA for longer, a team representing the USA regularly competes in the world cup qualifying tournament and based on it's most recent form is probably ranked about 18th in the world.