Can Cricket Overtake Football?

[slugger]

Try and explain the LBW law to someone who has never watched cricket... and then look at their face.

Cricket will never become bigger than football/soccer.

thats a good point.. however you could assist in the understanding of this rule by painting lines from the stumps to the end of the inside crease line.. of aalways thoughthis strange myself its like remving the 3 point line in bball and leave it up to the ref to judge.

[slugger]

I was watching the ICL final the other day on youtube they had a bowl out to decide the winner of the 2 of 3 finals because it tied.

Afterwards I thought why dont they just have a ball out prior to the start of all matches.. this gives a chance for the umpire to judge the bounce of the ball + turn. (knowledge for the game).. furthermore if the game does tie your just refer back to the team that won the ball out.

[PhoenixFire]

Not in England, never. Football has a foothold in which basically every adult in the country has at least a basic knowledge of things such as Leagues, Teams ect.

Cricket is watched by a minority of people, much less than football. I don't really see why this would change.

[Richard]

Countries cricket is bigger than football ("soccer") in:
Australia
New Zealand
India
Pakistan
I presume Sri Lanka
Possibly most of the countries of the Caribbean - though much has changed in the last 15 years or so

In the UK and South Africa, matters are not even close. And in any country that is not a major cricket-playing power, obviously things are more divided still.

[BoyBrumby]

No. Football is #1 because of its simplicity.

That's it, basically. Small boys, jumpers for goalposts, isn't it? Football's hard to play well, but is one of the easiest sports to play badly.

The advantage cricket does have is India; the three big marketplaces to crack for any sport are the US, India & China. The US generally like their own sports, with only really basketball (which I would guess is probably currently second to association football worldwide in terms of participation & nations playing it seriously) having any genuine global appeal; China looks to be going either basketball or football's way at the moment but in India cricket is the only show in town.

The big hope for cricket would be China deciding to throw its considerable political will behind the "oriental" game over the decadent western sports. Cricket could then have an absolutely massive potential block of audience & players a couple of decades down the line.

I think outright second is the more realistic ambition for cricket & that is achievable IMHO.

[Athlai]

Countries cricket is bigger than football ("soccer") in:
Australia
New Zealand
India
Pakistan
I presume Sri Lanka
Possibly most of the countries of the Caribbean - though much has changed in the last 15 years or so

In the UK and South Africa, matters are not even close. And in any country that is not a major cricket-playing power, obviously things are more divided still.

Sadly soccer is growing rapidly popular in New Zealand, cricket goes hot and cold and rugby is on a gentle decline (until we win a world cup and they stop over saturating the country with rugby).

I also apologise for admitting that I think soccer is a bad thing by saying sadly soccer is on the increase, it just doesn't butter my bread.

[Richard]

Doesn't with me any more either TBH - loved it between 1991/92 and 1998/99, but just gradually lost interest. Still follow Man Utd as closely as ever, but don't really give a damn about much else, whereas '94-'99 I kept an eagle eye on everything in at least the top two divisions.

Never could tell why I drifted off, I doubt it was much to do with the fact that I got into cricket big-time around the exact same time, but it could possibly be a factor.

[Flem274*]

Sadly soccer is growing rapidly popular in New Zealand, cricket goes hot and cold and rugby is on a gentle decline (until we win a world cup and they stop over saturating the country with rugby).
I also apologise for admitting that I think soccer is a bad thing by saying sadly soccer is on the increase, it just doesn't butter my bread.

Rugby is doomed then.

[BoyBrumby]

Rugby is doomed then.

I'm glad a kiwi made that joke.

[GGG]

Sadly soccer is growing rapidly popular in New Zealand, cricket goes hot and cold and rugby is on a gentle decline (until we win a world cup and they stop over saturating the country with rugby).

I also apologise for admitting that I think soccer is a bad thing by saying sadly soccer is on the increase, it just doesn't butter my bread.

It was also huge around 1982 when we were in the world cup, almost every kid at my school wanted to play soccer instead of rugby, they were saying then that soccer is going to be huge ....

[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.