Can Cricket Overtake Football?

[Jungle Jumbo]

Simplicity - and the lack of equipment required for play - is the key.

Football, simply put, is probably the most logical team sport ever invented (except for handball perhaps, Hakon could tell you more about that).

Sports such as the various disciplines of athletics are the most simple and most logical. The 100m sprint is basically an assessment of who can run from A to B the quickest; the long jump is who can jump the furthest; the shot put is who can throw the furthest.

Football in essence involves trying to score more goals than your opponents without using your hands (simplified further, using your feet).

Try summing up either rugby code or cricket in such a sentence and you see why it will never have the same popularity.

 

[slugger]

Simplicity - and the lack of equipment required for play - is the key.

Football, simply put, is probably the most logical team sport ever invented (except for handball perhaps, Hakon could tell you more about that).

Sports such as the various disciplines of athletics are the most simple and most logical. The 100m sprint is basically an assessment of who can run from A to B the quickest; the long jump is who can jump the furthest; the shot put is who can throw the furthest.

Football in essence involves trying to score more goals than your opponents without using your hands (simplified further, using your feet).

Try summing up either rugby code or cricket in such a sentence and you see why it will never have the same popularity.

it didnt seem to bother baseball/ softball

 

[LA ICE-E]

Simplicity - and the lack of equipment required for play - is the key.

what about tag? real simple, no equipment except may be clothes?

Football, simply put, is probably the most logical team sport ever invented (except for handball perhaps, Hakon could tell you more about that).

Sports such as the various disciplines of athletics are the most simple and most logical. The 100m sprint is basically an assessment of who can run from A to B the quickest; the long jump is who can jump the furthest; the shot put is who can throw the furthest.

Football in essence involves trying to score more goals than your opponents without using your hands (simplified further, using your feet).

The fact that it's simple and requires little equipment i think it helps but not necessarily the key. Football I imagine would be difficult for people from the subcontinent to understand but here it's the most popular sport but we think cricket's too complicated. I think it has to do with the culture, hype, trend, how the game's being handled etc that decides if a sport is going to be popular or not instead of it being necessarily because of the game itself.

Try summing up either rugby code or cricket in such a sentence and you see why it will never have the same popularity.

cricket in essence involves trying to score more runs than your opponents. (that was a smaller sentence than the football one.)

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

it didnt seem to bother baseball/ softball

Which are both incredibly popular throughout the world...

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

The fact that it's simple and requires little equipment i think it helps but not necessarily the key. Football I imagine would be difficult for people from the subcontinent to understand but here it's the most popular sport but we think cricket's too complicated. I think it has to do with the culture, hype, trend, how the game's being handled etc that decides if a sport is going to be popular or not instead of it being necessarily because of the game itself.

Cricket is popular only really throughout the former British Empire. I would doubt very much if India would be any stronger than China at cricket if the sport had not been introduced by the British. Football, on the other hand, has been exported to virtually every country on the globe - in fact, outside of the USA, Canada, the cricket-playing subcontinent, Australia and New Zealand, it is probably the most popular team sport in virtually every other country. Why would people in the subcontinent find football difficult to understand? I can't see how anyone can possibly argue that it is more complicated than cricket.

cricket in essence involves trying to score more runs than your opponents. (that was a smaller sentence than the football one.)

Uh, what is a run? A goal can be defined by a space in between two posts of equal height. How do you score them? That definition could be used to define both baseball and softball as well.

I'm not getting at cricket at all, it's easily my favourite sport and I enjoy it lots more than football (maybe not live actually, but that's an atmosphere issue), just trying to point out to you the immense complications of cricket and the reasons why it won't become the world's favourite sport.

 

[Goughy]

Football, on the other hand, has been exported to virtually every country on the globe - in fact, outside of the USA, Canada, the cricket-playing subcontinent, Australia and New Zealand, it is probably the most popular team sport in virtually every other country.

Philippines? 90 million+ people and no football or cricket

 

[Ikki]

I think Football is the most played sport in Australia. I've read that somewhere, I'm sure you can find it in Google, where there is an article with specific stats. And TBH, whenever there is an important Socceroos match everybody turns out in support. In Australia we have a lot of ethnicities and most of them identify with Football. The domestic league may not be of as interest, probably because of the quality, but even here it seems if it is not #1 it will soon be.

 

[LA ICE-E]

Cricket is popular only really throughout the former British Empire. I would doubt very much if India would be any stronger than China at cricket if the sport had not been introduced by the British. Football, on the other hand, has been exported to virtually every country on the globe - in fact, outside of the USA, Canada, the cricket-playing subcontinent, Australia and New Zealand, it is probably the most popular team sport in virtually every other country. Why would people in the subcontinent find football difficult to understand? I can't see how anyone can possibly argue that it is more complicated than cricket.

exactly it has to do with culture and other things more than the game itself. And not necessarily the traditional culture....

oh i was talking about our football not soccer. traditionally baseball use to the most popular and stuff but now football is and that has to do with the trend, new cultures like superbowl sunday is like a holiday for us aand hoiw the nfl is is handling the game and how the hype kept around it.

Uh, what is a run? A goal can be defined by a space in between two posts of equal height. How do you score them? That definition could be used to define both baseball and softball as well.

I'm not getting at cricket at all, it's easily my favourite sport and I enjoy it lots more than football (maybe not live actually, but that's an atmosphere issue), just trying to point out to you the immense complications of cricket and the reasons why it won't become the world's favourite sport.

i wasn't being serious.

 

[GGG]

I think Football is the most played sport in Australia. I've read that somewhere, I'm sure you can find it in Google, where there is an article with specific stats. And TBH, whenever there is an important Socceroos match everybody turns out in support. In Australia we have a lot of ethnicities and most of them identify with Football. The domestic league may not be of as interest, probably because of the quality, but even here it seems if it is not #1 it will soon be.

I think it is in New Zealand to, a lot of kids play football up to 10-12 then switch to rugby, also alot of social teams.

 

[Fusion]

No way. Even when you look at large markets where Football or Cricket have yet to establish themselves, Cricket lags behind in popularity. In the U.S, Cricket is almost non-existent in the national conscience, mostly followed by expatriates from the Sub-continent while Soccer/Football has a large market and a high profile league. In China, Basketball is ahead of Cricket, probably followed by Football and then Cricket. If anything, I think in the battle for number 2, Basketball has a clear edge over Cricket.

 

[Migara]

No way, Unless cricket fever catches china, like in India.

 

[LA ICE-E]

No way. Even when you look at large markets where Football or Cricket have yet to establish themselves, Cricket lags behind in popularity. In the U.S, Cricket is almost non-existent in the national conscience, mostly followed by expatriates from the Sub-continent while Soccer/Football has a large market and a high profile league. In China, Basketball is ahead of Cricket, probably followed by Football and then Cricket. If anything, I think in the battle for number 2, Basketball has a clear edge over Cricket.

Soccer is catching on here because of the Latino expats/immigrants...and may be cause of so many illegal aliens. and plus they have been trying to spread here for a long time...it has a big market but isn't close to being as high profile as the top 4....

i would bet soccer is more popular in china than basketball...i don't think cricket is that far off from being the 2nd...one advantage it has from other sport is, it has a established international system unlike many other sports...

 

[slugger]

plus NZ soccer team has been sent to the olympics.. whether it will be a success is yet to be proven..

which brings us to another point cricket isnt in the olympics.. however recently they did drop baseball..

 

[bond21]

no way in hell, not in our lifetime at least.

Cricket is only played mainly by Aus, NZ, Ind, SL, Eng, Pak, Sth Afr, and probably one more im forgetting.

Football/soccer is played in basically every country in the free world. Even though its not as popular as cricket or rugby league in Australia, heaps of kids still play it, its definately one of if not the most played junior sport in the country.

Even though I like cricket a lot more, I would rather watch the Soccer world cup any day of the week and twice on sunday, its so much better. France vs Italy, that tension just doesnt happen in cricket, not even in the piss weak world cup. Seriously, the cricket world cup is made up from the 7 countries i mentioned, plus minnows like Kenya, Ireland, Zimbabwe, Canada lol.

They have no chance at winning, theyre just there to make up the numbers. the Fifa world cup has intense qualifying for their cup, you have to earn your place in the 32 sheet line up, the ICC practically begs countries to field a team in the WC so they can make a tournament from it.

 

[LA ICE-E]

no way in hell, not in our lifetime at least.

Cricket is only played mainly by Aus, NZ, Ind, SL, Eng, Pak, Sth Afr, and probably one more im forgetting.

Football/soccer is played in basically every country in the free world. Even though its not as popular as cricket or rugby league in Australia, heaps of kids still play it, its definately one of if not the most played junior sport in the country.

Even though I like cricket a lot more, I would rather watch the Soccer world cup any day of the week and twice on sunday, its so much better. France vs Italy, that tension just doesnt happen in cricket, not even in the piss weak world cup. Seriously, the cricket world cup is made up from the 7 countries i mentioned, plus minnows like Kenya, Ireland, Zimbabwe, Canada lol.

They have no chance at winning, theyre just there to make up the numbers. the Fifa world cup has intense qualifying for their cup, you have to earn your place in the 32 sheet line up, the ICC practically begs countries to field a team in the WC so they can make a tournament from it.

you have to be ashamed of yourself for you just said in the last part...first there's 10 countries that's it mainly played in...well more than that....but we'll go with that...cricket is played in a lot more places that the elite know of...because basically the elitism through the class of membership...if cricket wasn't a elitist sport in the beginning then i bet more would be competitive...but the elite just kept it to themselves and the imperial cricket council didn't care about spreading it...if there was no class of membership like full member, associate etc from the beginning...and everyone was equal i bet there would be more competitive teams because there would be this big of a gap between the standards there is now between test and associate teams...your funny saying the icc begs countries to field teams in the cwc when they barely even let associates play in it...cutting the # from 6 to 4...and guess what? you have to earn your place in the line of 4 out of some 90 teams and there's you gotta go through the intense system to qualify for the cwc too...

if cricket wasn't so elitist, it would be in a way better position today...how do you think baseball killed cricket here...cricket was portrayed as a elitist sport///

 

[slugger]

it was pretty big in Fiji at one time...

 

[laksh_01]

you have to be ashamed of yourself for you just said in the last part...first there's 10 countries that's it mainly played in...well more than that....but we'll go with that...cricket is played in a lot more places that the elite know of...because basically the elitism through the class of membership...if cricket wasn't a elitist sport in the beginning then i bet more would be competitive...but the elite just kept it to themselves and the imperial cricket council didn't care about spreading it...if there was no class of membership like full member, associate etc from the beginning...and everyone was equal i bet there would be more competitive teams because there would be this big of a gap between the standards there is now between test and associate teams...your funny saying the icc begs countries to field teams in the cwc when they barely even let associates play in it...cutting the # from 6 to 4...and guess what? you have to earn your place in the line of 4 out of some 90 teams and there's you gotta go through the intense system to qualify for the cwc too...

if cricket wasn't so elitist, it would be in a way better position today...how do you think baseball killed cricket here...cricket was portrayed as a elitist sport///

Hail La-Ice-E, Thanks for the support...

 

[Richard]

if cricket wasn't so elitist, it would be in a way better position today...

There's little to no evidence to suggest that.

 

[LA ICE-E]

There's little to no evidence to suggest that.

to suggest it's a elistist sport or that it would be in a better position?


nothing elitist is a good thing specially when you are trying to popularize it.

 

[Richard]

to suggest it's a elistist sport or that it would be in a better position?

Nothing to suggest if it were less elitist it'd have been in a better position.