I am based in the UK and youngsters are least interested in cricket here. Its soccer, soccer and soccer only with rugby being the next popular sport. They probably think cricket is a waste of time and they may be right in fact! The game's popularity is definitely on the decline ever since the match fixing contoversy came up and the players dont seem to be helping its cause either. Sorry, cricket lovers- the world is moving fast. Dont waste time on a lazy game!
Yeah.. i do agree that the popularity of cricket is going down and may be in the coming 4-5 years there will be time when everyone will be following football, tennis and formula one because of the excitement and charisma involved in these sports. The professionalism and level of competition involved in these games is much higher than in cricket which only boast of a few good nations like Australia, India, South Africa, England, Pakistan, Newzeland and srilanka. Cricket can be exciting but only when we have an equal opposition and no one sided games like England taking on bangladesh or Australia. Another reason for cricket losing ground is the quality of coverage and telecast on TV. I'm sure no one luvs to watch any sports whether cricket or football on Doordarshan (call it boredarshan) which is pathetic and surely incomparable to espn starsports telecast of any sports. 4 to 5 yrs back i used to follow cricket all the time but now i hardly watch it and my favourite sports are now football (EPL), tennis and formula one. If cricket needs to survive than we definitely need some big time changes in rules and regulation to make it more exciting like twenty-twenty cup.
Deepti the harbinger of bad tidings for cricket- the one and only reason you cant see cricket thriving is because you dont understand it and bless you it needs grey matter to understand which can be sorely lacking in the so called self styled 'writers'. may your ilk diminish
RE:what a woeful piece of writing
by Ramesh on May 31, 2005 02:18 AM
EPL is not FA Cup ... and mind you , only a miniscule population (in big cities) watch EPL in India... You must be crazy to think that EPL is watched worldwide ... it doesnt even cause a stir anywhere ... each country has its own league ... and they cud hardly care for the EPL ... and FA Cup, lesser said the better...
We have cricket if the germans have soccer .. i am not cribbing that we are not good in any other sport .. i am only cribbing because we arent prmoting CRICKET at other levels than international level.. we need good local teams .. may be cricket should take a cue from PHL ...
As lng as we do well in Hockey and cricket, we should be fine ... stop cribbing abt lack of interest in other sports.. who cares
RE:what a woeful piece of writing
by raz on May 28, 2005 04:45 PM
excuse me! i think people all over the world watch english premier league!! though its not entirely true that cricket is not popular around the world but saying no one cares about english premiere league is just being rather unaware of the other sports...
I think if the number of overs are limited to a max of 20 per innings, cricket will attract more international audience. Also, there should be efforts to popularise domestic cricket in cricket playing nations including India. This should include quality video coverage and ways to attract more audience for Domestic matches. Forming a National Cricket League consisting of clubs rather than states could further add strength to domestic crickets popularity. Because this will give us the opportunity to strengthen teams and give a good show. We have to learn from club soccer in Europe and National Football (American Football) League in the United States. Also a National College Cricket Tournament, and scholarship and special quota to cricketers in large universities and colleges can also help popularise cricket and develop talent in youngsters. This will also help stop talented players giving up the game to go to college. Also we can prevent youngsters losing cricket spirit after college. Because rooting for their college team will instill a special spirit for cricket. Consider the success US colleges have in popularising basketball and football through the NCAA tournaments
1. There is a widely held erroneous that "cricket is just another game".
2. A true cricket fan (like me) would still prefer watching a Bangladesh vs. England instead of old timerz golf...the zeal of watching a "test match" with thr 66th over in progress (that too being a maiden over in the making) with no "star batsmen" out there - the zeal of "waTCHING cricket...listen to the commentry" and enjoying your cola in front of the TV - never dies down!
3. Come INDIAz matches - come Greg's strategies - and we're all set to forgot the rest!
Cricket ain't dying down folks! Heck cricketz unique! Period!
not at all at least as far as the indian sumcontinent is concerned. u are wrong when u say cricket dosnt have the quality of other games like say football. common yaar. cricket is a diffeerent game and it definetely requires high concentration, dedication and of course stamina.stamina i mean it no other game has the player playing for playing for may be as long as a day or more than a day.
cricket is very technical . mayne the other mos technical soprt may be martial art iteslf.cricket alos involves a lot of mind game.
cricket declinging? oh may be from europian and america piont of view.
only in spanish speaking nations they do bull fighting. but they like it though we feel that it is an uncivilised game. they never suffer from the inferiority complex that Asans do not play that game.
but we are to the core indians and we dont need americans to approve the game for us to like it.
i believe india is going to be one of the top three nations in this plannet economically.and with more than 01 billion soles indian itself can make cricket a game to recon with.
the only concern is mighty china is not playing cricket.
I don't think the author quite understands cricket. The beauty of the game itself lies in the fact that it consumes time. Who can forget the great game of cricket in which VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid turned the game on its head against the all conquering australians or the 'out of the world' innings which Steve Waugh played against the rampaging south africans in the 1999 world cup? There are so many other instances. What sheer entertainment they provide both in terms of quality and quantity! Yes, there have been some dull or onesided matches, but then it is there in other sports too. For an average person in the subcontinent, the passion for cricket far exceeds the passion for any other game.
REG: Cricket is a nice game
by babuji on May 28, 2005 03:47 PM
From my point of view cricket is one of the entertaining game which i had ever seen,though it will frustrate when our nation loses the game,But a real lover of the game will never see the country which plays,instead he sees only the quality of the game.The real thing in the cricket is in its quality and the game they play.Even a nice catch by a player might be appreciated if the relevant team loses the game and the fight they give to the opposition is also an important point to be noticed.Though a team loses the match the spirit they show in the game is absolutely a personinfication of a game. iam a cricket lover since 1995,i was studying 6th std and i always use to cricket and usually cut my classes for the cricket and i really loved cricket,but that time india was not a good team, especially if tendulkar gets out every player will walk to the pavilion as soon as they come, but now the situation now is good, we have many players as a base, especially sehwag with his ferocious attack really devstating the oppposition, also many players like yuvraj, dravid are also experienced now.
