Where is cricket the national game??

[Zinzan]

I got told by someone that cricket is considered to be the "national game" of England. The person did acknowledge that football is obviously bigger, but said historically.........cricket is considered England's national game....perhaps English fans can clarify this.. Seems kind of strange though because one would naturally think the most popular game is the national sport....but not according to this guy.

It got me thinking about the main cricketing nations and what is their national sport ....and without knowing I'd think.....

AUSTRALIA - Cricket (aussie rules massive in some parts but cricket everywhere, swimmings pretty big to.)

ENGLAND - Cricket/football?? not sure

SOUTH AFRICA - Rugby (tradionally, some may argue soccer)

NEW ZEALAND - Rugby (no doubt)

PAKISTAN - I'd think cricket, but apparently Hockey???

SRI LANKA - Surely crickets no.1

INDIA - someone tried to tell me weightlifting but surely cricket??

WEST INDIES - seperate countries ...but some say Basketball ..again not sure

ZIMBABWE - cricket/soccer??

BANGLADESH - cricket ?? do they play other sports??


Firstly I wonder if countries do always actually acknowledge they have one "national sport", and if so I'd appreciate any comments on the above countries..

 

[Barney Rubble]

Both cricket and football can lay reasonable claim to being our "national game" - however, they both make the claim for very different reasons.

Football makes the claim because it is a subject of almost universal interest, and although the numbers of fans going to Premeirship matches of a weekend is dwindling, interest in the game remains extremely high, and the England side always get huge audiences (despite awful performances) when they're on TV.

Cricket makes the claim because it is an almost inescapable part of British summer time - for the casual observer, it frequently seems like every time you turn the TV on during summer there's cricket on (although that won't be the case any more, sadly). The interest may not be as high, but cricket remains in the public consciousness, and cricket attendances are skyrocketing with the success of the England team and the emergence of Twenty20 cricket.

The simple fact is that both are the English national game - sport is a huge part of our culture and as such, there is a need for both a winter game and a summer game to keep the country interested. Long may it continue.

 

[Zinzan]

Both cricket and football can lay reasonable claim to being our "national game" - however, they both make the claim for very different reasons.

Football makes the claim because it is a subject of almost universal interest, and although the numbers of fans going to Premeirship matches of a weekend is dwindling, interest in the game remains extremely high, and the England side always get huge audiences (despite awful performances) when they're on TV.

Cricket makes the claim because it is an almost inescapable part of British summer time - for the casual observer, it frequently seems like every time you turn the TV on during summer there's cricket on (although that won't be the case any more, sadly). The interest may not be as high, but cricket remains in the public consciousness, and cricket attendances are skyrocketing with the success of the England team and the emergence of Twenty20 cricket.

The simple fact is that both are the English national game - sport is a huge part of our culture and as such, there is a need for both a winter game and a summer game to keep the country interested. Long may it continue.

Cheers for that....Do you buy into the idea of countries having "1 national game"?? or is it just more obvious for some countries, like NZ with rugby or Canada with Ice Hockey

 

[Pedro Delgado]

Cricket is the summer game, footy the winter one. Is "swimming" really one of the National sports in Aus??

 

[Retox]

Rugby = Winter
Cricket = Summer

this is for NZ

 

[greg]

Cheers for that....Do you buy into the idea of countries having "1 national game"?? or is it just more obvious for some countries, like NZ with rugby or Canada with Ice Hockey

I think the situation is complicated by the fact that we invented most things ;-)

Really Football, Cricket and Rugby can all make claims to being national (team) sports. However due to its universality (rugby is generally VERY regional and class based, and complicated by the union/league split, and cricket just never seemed to develop as much for historical reasons in certain areas.(so no county teams in, say for example, Liverpool) football is undoubtedly THE national sport.

Cricket is the national summer sport, but this has obviously suffered for the encroachment of the football season into its time.

 

[James90]

Bangladesh won the South Asian soccer title a couple of years ago and their number 1 cricket ground, Bangabandhu National Stadium is now used only for soccer.

Even so I'd still say cricket is the national game

 

[sledger]

Rugby = Winter
Cricket = Summer

this is for NZ

same in england really.

 

[Zinzan]

Rugby = Winter
Cricket = Summer

this is for NZ

true cricket is our summer game ...but overall you'd have to say Rugby by a long way

 

[Pedro Delgado]

same in england really.

Not really, footy is the big one.

 

[Deja moo]

Hockey for India. Far richer history and better results than cricket has ever produced for us.

 

[Slow Love™]

In terms of sports we play internationally, cricket is definitely the national game in Australia.

I know there's a cult of personality around Thorpey, but for the most part I don't think most people here actually follow swimming in any great detail.

Aussie rules is very big here too - rugby league people would probably disagree, but it's played on a more participatory level from state to state across the country.

I dunno whether hockey is the national game in Pakistan, but I think I remember that Australia and Pakistan dominated the sport for quite some time around the 80's - I don't follow it that closely though.

 

[archie mac]

In most of the old Cricket books, they often refer to Cricket as the national game (England)

In Australia Cricket would be No1 but tennis is also very popular in the summer. And Horse racing attracts big crowds in the spring.

The three footy games Aussie Rules, League and Union are the big games in the winter in that order. Soccer is played by a lot of people but does not rate that well on the box.

The No1 sport for women would be Netball with Softball, Hockey and Soccer also popular.

 

[Shoaib]

Pakistan's national sport is Hockey but not many people like it lol.Cricket in Pakistan/India is not a sport rather its a passion,religion & .................................................so on.And this is evident when u see both the teams in the ground.Both of these teams r very emotional & senseless when competing against each.U dont see this kind of spirit even in The Ashes.By the way,hockey is the national sport of India also.According to a survey in Pakistan, here r the percentages of different sports that people like

Cricket 84%
Hockey 9%
Soccer 5 %
Others 2%

 

[Langeveldt]

Wouldn't say Rugby is South Africa's national sport.. It would probably have to be soccer.. Cricket or Soccer for Zimbabwe and probably Cricket or Rugby in Namibia (seeing as they've got further than soccer in terms of performance)

 

[superkingdave]

(so no county teams in, say for example, Liverpool)

Liverpool is considered part of Lancashire - usually play at least one match at Aigburth every year

 

[Beleg]

Hockey is Pakistan's national (and my favorite ) game. (That is because at the time of independence, it was probably THE most popular game among the educated, followed closely by cricket and football) India dominated the Hockey scene throughout the first half of the 20th century and we took the mantle from them after the 1960 Rome Olympics, only to see it being usurped by the more advanced Europeon Nations of Netherlands, Germany and Spain (and Australia) with the introduction of synthetic turf. Even still, Pakistan has always been among the top 5-8 teams of the world since independence and though the interest in Hockey flagged off after the late eighties (conciding with the rise of the cricket mania), our public school and college system still produces enough decent players for us to stay among the upper echeleon and win the odd tournament or two.

There's no third popular game in Pakistan. Our squash team has a distinguished history on the international level but hardly anyone plays it apart from a few educational institutes and certain families.

Volleyball is pretty popular in Punjab and NWFP and we are a decent team on the Asian level but It has never quite caught the public concious like cricket did. The less said about the state of Soccer the better.

 

[Protea]

Soccer's popularity is falling a bit and because the Springboks are far more consistent than Bafana Bafana (who are shocking at the moment) rugby seems to be overtaking it. Even the township schools have more rugby players than they do soccer players lately.

 

[roseboy64]

It's definitely association football down here. Cricket was up there during the Windies mighty days but atm football reigns supreme.

 

[thierry henry]

I find it interested that Pakistan and India apparently claim hockey as their national game while admitting that cricket is the national obsession and most closely followed sport.

imo "national game" should not be defined by some official status but rather a realistic look at which game most permeates the public consciousness (this does NOT mean looking at player numbers- e.g. in NZ rugby is well down the list in terms of player numbers but is CLEARLY the national game.)

Just to add my few cents into the debate about Australia's favoured winter game, while Aussie Rules has done a better job of expanding than rugby league, Sydney TV ratings for the AFL are embarrassing in comparison to even the lowliest NRL fixture. I think rugby league has some sort of a case when you consider it still totally dominates the public psyche in the nation's biggest city.