adharcric
International Coach
It certainly is.
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cricket vs rugby vs baseball vs others...
- Thread starter LA ICE-E
- Start date
LA ICE-E
State Captain
Actually Basketball is the most popular sport in China even more so then Soccer. There are 74 countries in the FIBA here are the top 30.
1. USA
2. Argentina
3. Spain
4. Yugoslavia
5. Lithuania
6. Greece
7. Italy
8. France
9. Germany
10. Australia
11. China China
12. New Zealand
13. Puerto Rico
14. Angola
15. Canada
16. Turkey
17. Brazil
18. Russia
19. Croatia
20. Slovenia
21. Venezuela
22. Nigeria
23. Israel
24. Lebanon
25. Korea
26. Qatar
27. Dominican Republic
28. Japan
29. Algeria
30. Panama
Based on the spread and participation i would say Basketball is the second most popular game.
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Thats because of 1 billion Indians.
LA ICE-E
State Captain
really? And indians don't count why? And like i said it's not just indians who likes cricket, and that there's atleast one top nation from each continent.
LA ICE-E
State Captain
Really so the top ranking automatically means it's popular in that place? Cause we were seeded high in fifa world cup but it's still not that popular although its gaining popularity. Also, if the rankings are anything to go by then do you want be to post the top 30 for cricket's ranking?
Soccer is fairly popular in US with few Soccer channel dedicated to it on TV. MLS games are shown on free National Broadcast on Weekends and ofcourse the US National Team or other top National teams play on National TV. Even Champions League matches are shown on ESPN so yes it does have some widespread coverage (not as huge as the Big 3 but not too shabby). As for the FIBA ranking i put it there because there's player from each of that country playing in the NBA can you find me an Argentinian cricket player playing first class matches in England or Australia?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Basketball_Association_players_by_country
Heres a list of good basketball players from each country whether they played in the NBA or not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Basketball_players_by_nationality
LA ICE-E
State Captain
Oh yeah, that really makes it big. Guess what there was a Chinese guy playing for the West Indies long before china was trying to adopt cricket. That's irrelevant. And as for soccer what i'm saying is yes it's gaining popularity but it's definitely not close to the others, and it too is mostly popular through expats like cricket is popular here with expats but not saying that americans don't like soccer, yes they do and a big number of it does but not majority. If the # one sport is taking so long to break the ice you can imagine for other sports. But soccer is slowly making it's ground here. That saying our team being highly ranking in the fifa world cup doesn't make it that popular.
Stefano
School Boy/Girl Captain
Sorry to contradict you. But in FIBA there are 213 countries. However, only the top 75 are shown in the ranking.
You are saying that in Argentina cricket is well established, despite being amateur. So that means that there is some interest in cricket in Argentina. Well... I can tell you that in several european countries (outside the British Isles), cricket is well established. In Italy we have a League and a National team, and the same can be said that about several other countries. However, there is one problem: nobody cares about cricket. In no newspaper will you find news about cricket. And that not only in Italy, but also in the other European countries. The NEtherlands? I read an article where it said that cricket was the 30th sport in the Netherlands. I have been to several european countries and I have many friends in continental Europe: cricket is absolutely unknown. I would say the same about Argentina: there is a team, a league, but how many Argentinians are really involved and interested in cricket?
But let's say that Argentinians are interested in cricket. Why can't you say the same about basketball in Australia and New Zealand, where the National Basketball League (in Australia) is professional and the NZ National Basketball League is semi-professional. You don't create a pro league if there is no interest in one sport. I am not saying that Australia and New Zealand go crazy for basketball, but undoubtedly there IS some interest. And I would say that Australians and Kiwis are more interested in basketball than Argentinians are in cricket.
About the American continent: the interest for cricket is very low. You say that in Argentina people are interested in it. I doubt it. But I am not Argentinian, so I might be wrong. About Canada: Canada is involved in the World Cup, it is one of the best minnows, so cricket must be established there. However, how many Canadians follow cricket? Let me tell you this: if you want to find some news about cricket in www.tsn.ca, you have to go through the OTHER SPORTS section and (maybe) you will find a little article. Nothing more than this. This makes me thing that cricket in Canada is not popular at all.
For the rest of the continent: there is real interest only in the English speaking Caribbeans. And if you count the overall population of these countries you barely reach the population of Paris. Which is nothing!
And I also think that you underestimate basketball in China. It always had a good tradition and it is professional. So, it is well established, much more than cricket in Argentina. Chinese people follow basketball not only because of Yao Ming. Only in Africa is basketball really weak, although there is Angola, where the discipline is well established.
And at the end, I re-write you this. 213 are members of FIBA, 97 of ICC. Ok, this means that basketball is established in twice as many countries as basketball.
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LA ICE-E
State Captain
No, i never said cricket was a major sport in argentina, just said it was well established there. But you seem to focus on that and ignore my other points. Ok lets leave the argentina one but can you go back an read the other point i made. Also i never compare China with argentina in cricket, i compared china with ireland in cricket and i would say it's the same. I don't count basketball being popular in australia and nz either just because there's interest there, hell there's interest in cricket here too. And i never compared argentina to any of these things so i don't know why you're bringing it up in every point you're making but you don't contradict the other points i have made. Also you keep bringing up the canada, get this, i know it's not a major sport there and also they are not one of the best minnows, they are second to last. And that goes to show you too that just being high up in the rankings and in the wc etc doesn't necessarily make it a popular sport in any country for any sport. And you're now saying that the % of interest in america is low right? so now you're not going by countries there so let me ask you what's the % of interest in cricket in the whole world, and that includes the subcontinent. And I don't know what's the criteria for FIBA to be a member etc so i can't comment on that but for the a country to be a icc member the icc have to recognize it as a country that plays cricket by the laws, but that says there are other countries who are not members of the icc but are members of regional cricket boards but are yet to be icc members. Also, know this about the icc, when it was created, it didn't allow countries to be a member outside the commonwealth. It discouraged other countries then and like it is now with some people, they didn't think it should be expanded and were content with the commonwealth. It excluded countries like the usa when it was once a popular sport. it was about 50 years later they changed the rules to allow other countries otherwise i reckon the # would be bigger. And point is after i found it on wikipedea that cricket's the 2nd most popular sport this is pretty pointless. 1 point i would like to make it cricket is played in all the continents with countries that has cricket as a major sport and 2. cricket has the population. Basketball is played in australia and new zealand but isn't a major sport, it's not a major sport in africa either bar, going by what you say, one country. It's popular in america and europe and china(by what you say) but isn't a sport that's by far the most popular like cricket is in the subcontinent. So in % of people's interest in the world cricket wins but in terms of variety of nations play, basketball wins but in popularity cricket wins.
But i would say that it's either basketball or cricket but any other sport come to mind?
Thats my point all these basketball players in other country learned the sport there then played in the NBA so there a huge difference. There was also an Asian (Chinese) batsman playing domestic cricket in Australia in the 90's that doesn't mean China can produce batsman able to play in domestic cricket in England or Australia but he was born in Australia and adopted the game. If soccer was popular through exapts then the US NT would have mid-aged South Americans dominating their team which is the case with cricket here.
Cricket isn't a well established sport in Argentina just like it isn't a well established sport in US, if by well established you mean amatures who have a full time job but play cricket on the weekends then fine it is "well established". Also if basketball is China's most popular sport then shouldn't it be the most the second most popular in the world since around 1.4 billion Chinese along with Asians (South Korea, Philippines) Europeans, Oceanic, South and North Americans follow it?
Here is a list of basketball leagues around the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_basketball_leagues
Smudge
Hall of Fame Member
Basketball has a strong following in New Zealand, originally as a result of the NBA but now due to our own team's exploits. The best atmosphere I've ever experienced at a pub was when the Tall Blacks were trying to beat Puerto Rico to get into the FIFA world championship semi-finals in 2002.
Kriketer
School Boy/Girl Cricketer
www.thestar.com/sports
The Star, is the most popular newspaper in Canada, and they always cover cricket news with quite a number of columns from Ashes, to India-Pak series, to World-Cup and many more. Not just TheStar, but other Canadian newspapers also cover cricket news. Interest for cricket in Canadaians is increasing pretty quickly. Scotia Banks, one of the major Canadian Banks, is also the main sponsors of Cricket World Cup. And I can bet, interest and awareness of cricket in Canada is a lot more than U.S.
LA ICE-E
State Captain
Well soccer here is more popular to women than man and i'll bet you that latino people are the majority that plays it here but that not necessary all expats some are from here. Also for soccer, they were trying for a long long time while for cricket it was only recently they tried with the usa project but now we're suspended again.
LA ICE-E
State Captain
fifa or fiba?
LA ICE-E
State Captain
but i have a question for the aussies and europeans and etc, how big is baseball over there? because i know we have been recently trying to spread out games out and with a lot more cash than the icc has. also we been trying with american football in europe, are those anything there yet?
Smudge
Hall of Fame Member
FIBA. I made a typo. Are you going to ignore the rest of the post because of that?
LA ICE-E
State Captain
i'm not one those people, i got that was just confused cause 1st you were talking about basketball then all of a sudden soccer but soccer its world cup and not world championship so it got confusing...so basketball is one of the major sports there? what are they? 1.rugby 2.cricket? 3. basketball? i don't know a lot about nz sports
Smudge
Hall of Fame Member
Winter sports for men in terms of popularity among the general public (not playing numbers):
1) Rugby
2) Rugby league
3) Soccer/football
4) Basketball
But, at the same time, I'd say more people would watch a Tall Blacks (basketball) test than an All Whites (soccer) international.
1) Rugby
2) Rugby league
3) Soccer/football
4) Basketball
But, at the same time, I'd say more people would watch a Tall Blacks (basketball) test than an All Whites (soccer) international.