Why cricket

[sachin_fan]

Hey guys. Why is cricket so popular in india. Why is no other sport given half as much importance as cricket is. I am an avid cricket fan and i can identify the following a. Peers enjoy cricket. It becomes a good topic of discussion/debate/argument b. Media promotes the sport, so its the one that catches our eye first c.WC 1983 meant a lot to us d. Remains of British Raj C & d dont sound too convincing.....can you guys think of more....

[apocalypse]

You can play it at any place without worrying about the playing kit

[Lurker]

Hey guys. Why is cricket so popular in india. Why is no other sport given half as much importance as cricket is. I am an avid cricket fan and i can identify the following a. Peers enjoy cricket. It becomes a good topic of discussion/debate/argument b. Media promotes the sport, so its the one that catches our eye first c.WC 1983 meant a lot to us d. Remains of British Raj C & d dont sound too convincing.....can you guys think of more....

d is not wrong Sachin fan. Yes cricket in India definitely owes to British connection. But not because of any influence of Great Britain, or British Raj as they say, but more because British Empire is the single most influential Empire in the modern history of mankind when it comes to world of sports. I mean cricket, hockey, football, badminton and many others were either invented by Brits or their rules/regulations made. Let me come back to your original question - why do Indians love cricket. Well there are obviously more than one reason for this. A few I can think on top of my head: 1) Cricket enjoyed headstart over other games, say hockey. Cricket was popular in late 19th century and there were already popular teams, specially those based on religion - Hindus, Parsees, Mohammedans etc. There used to be a trophy called Pentangular which was perhaps the most popular of its kind in the country. The only sports that can compare in this regard is football with Durand Cup. 2) Sheer nature of cricket. It is a non-contact sport and I supppose that sits rather well with Indians who much rather prefer finesse to aggression. I mean look at Ramesh Powar, which other International game could he possibly play other than cricket? And make no mistakes most Indians are similar to Ramesh Powar and not Mohammed Kaif. Lets take other sports, say Gymnastics or swimming, we totally suck! Why? Well because we either dont have swimming and gym culture and also because our physical prowess totally sucks. Even in our traditional strength like hockey we rely on touch and not physical acumen. Any International sports that deals with physical prowess there is a good chance we suck at it. On the other hand if we talk of touch sports - cricket, chess, billiards or even tennis we have had good results. By the way if you are interested in the subject a good read is Ramchandra Guha's A corner of a foreign field. xxxx

[sachin_fan]

d is not wrong Sachin fan. Yes cricket in India definitely owes to British connection. But not because of any influence of Great Britain, or British Raj as they say, but more because British Empire is the single most influential Empire in the modern history of mankind when it comes to world of sports. I mean cricket, hockey, football, badminton and many others were either invented by Brits or their rules/regulations made. Let me come back to your original question - why do Indians love cricket. Well there are obviously more than one reason for this. A few I can think on top of my head: 1) Cricket enjoyed headstart over other games, say hockey. Cricket was popular in late 19th century and there were already popular teams, specially those based on religion - Hindus, Parsees, Mohammedans etc. There used to be a trophy called Pentangular which was perhaps the most popular of its kind in the country. The only sports that can compare in this regard is football with Durand Cup. 2) Sheer nature of cricket. It is a non-contact sport and I supppose that sits rather well with Indians who much rather prefer finesse to aggression. I mean look at Ramesh Powar, which other International game could he possibly play other than cricket? And make no mistakes most Indians are similar to Ramesh Powar and not Mohammed Kaif. Lets take other sports, say Gymnastics or swimming, we totally suck! Why? Well because we either dont have swimming and gym culture and also because our physical prowess totally sucks. Even in our traditional strength like hockey we rely on touch and not physical acumen. Any International sports that deals with physical prowess there is a good chance we suck at it. On the other hand if we talk of touch sports - cricket, chess, billiards or even tennis we have had good results. By the way if you are interested in the subject a good read is Ramchandra Guha's A corner of a foreign field. xxxx

Brilliant,esp if its coming from the top of the head. I will see if i can procure the book you are talking about .But a wonderful analysis about touch sports. I dont know how it slipped my mind

[Gaurav]

You can play it at any place without worrying about the playing kit

Hockey, football don't require that much playing kit either. Infact proper cricket requires lot of playing kit (compared to football):D Mia Lurker gave some good reasons :D Btw I was watching a docu on China and their preparation 4 Olympic games. Chinese coach was saying that they needed to work x times harder than the Europeans because the bone density of Europeans was much better than Asians/Chinese athletes. So could it be that physically we are also at slight disadvantage? I mean look at out average height for starters :finger:

[Predator_05]

It's the only "global" sport in which India can claim to be genuinely good at. India has produced some of the greatest cricketers that ever lived and they have won the World Cup. The same was true for hockey to a certain extent, but that sport doesn't have much recognition outside the subcontinent. Even though the Europeans and Aussies play it (and play it well) it's not popular there at all. Cricket by comparison is far more popular in Australia and England. Besides, Indians are weak and lack pure physical strength or even stamina; that rules them out of most of big sports.

[Gaurav]

Wasn't it introduction of Astro turf pitches that f@kd us up in hockey? Made the game lot more physical.

[Predator_05]

Wasn't it introduction of Astro turf pitches that f@kd us up in hockey? Made the game lot more physical.

Yes, good point. Indians struggled to adapt

[Lurker]

Wasn't it introduction of Astro turf pitches that f@kd us up in hockey? Made the game lot more physical.

Not only did turf screw up hockey they also killed Indian style of kushti(wrestling). Traditionally Indian wrestling was done on red mud. Young wrestlers would prepare the mud akhaara day long as part of their daily grind and seniors would fight on it later in the day. Some of the biggest names in World Wrestling happened to come from India/Pakistan. Names like Dara Singh, Gamma, Gunga, Illahi Baksh etc. With the advent of mats it meant the old-style was gone. Not only that you now had to have materials like shoes etc. This was the death of dangals in India. From a decent world figure we were relegated to Asian giants. We still do good overall in Asiad though, alongside Iran which is the powerhouse. xxx

[apocalypse]

Hockey, football don't require that much playing kit either. Infact proper cricket requires lot of playing kit (compared to football):D Mia Lurker gave some good reasons :D Btw I was watching a docu on China and their preparation 4 Olympic games. Chinese coach was saying that they needed to work x times harder than the Europeans because the bone density of Europeans was much better than Asians/Chinese athletes. So could it be that physically we are also at slight disadvantage? I mean look at out average height for starters :finger:

can you play hockey here?

[Ram]

Why cricket ? Cricket is our blood, we are born to play cricket. We shall rule the cricket world in the next decade, once i join the Indian team ! :D

[Gaurav]

can you play hockey here?

If you can play cricket there then sure as hell you can play hockey and football there. I played hockey in similar places.

[apocalypse]

If you can play cricket there then sure as hell you can play hockey and football there. I played hockey in similar places.

you are great man... I was talking about average people

[Gaurav]

:hysterical: sala!

[sachin_fan]

Why cricket ? Cricket is our blood, we are born to play cricket. We shall rule the cricket world in the next decade, once i join the Indian team ! :D

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical: Support squad i suppose .... First thing u do, ask them to give bac the money they got and ask them to feel guilty abut it....nice.... and dude, we rule the cricket world now, we are world champs

[DesiChap]

Started with 1983

[chanakya]

Astro turf killed Indian hockey not so much as about the speed but the way the turf bends. Normal turf bends in one direction so you get more speed in one direction and more skid on the other. This was used to great advantage by the teams of yesteryear but with the coming of astro turf with blades which bend on both sides, well some skills just went out.

[living]

umm no. It was the introduction of the 'high' ball or lob that screwed up India/Pak in Hockey.

[Tapioca]

Mihir Bose has written in his book The Maidan View how other sports, especially football, could have beaten cricket but for a series of mistakes and coincidences. I can't remember most of it, but a couple of points were these : 1. The ICC had the rule that only countries which were the members of the commonwealth could be members of the ICC. When India won freedom, India was reduced a provisional member in the ICC and status was to be reviewed after two years. But the government decided to join the commonwealth in 1950 and India became a full member again. If they hadn't, it was a serious possibility that India would have stopped playing Test cricket. (Off topic : South Africa was expelled from the Commonwealth c.1960. This time, the old boys' club of Australia and England did not utter a word and SA continued in the ICC for several more years). 2. India qualified for the 1950 World Cup football but refused to play because FIFA did not allow them to play barefoot. Even in the 1950s, football was perhaps the more popular game. Bose's opinion is that if these two incidents (and a few others) hadn't happened the way they did, things could have been very different.

[Lurker]

2. India qualified for the 1950 World Cup football but refused to play because FIFA did not allow them to play barefoot. Even in the 1950s, football was perhaps the more popular game. Bose's opinion is that if these two incidents (and a few others) hadn't happened the way they did, things could have been very different.

Excellent point that Tapioca. If I remember correctly the reason why India wanted to play the World Cup football was because we did not have the neccessary foreign exchange to buy a dozen pair of shoes. How times have changed huh? Incidentally it is prudent to remember that India reached the semi-finals of Melbourne 1956 Olympics, no small achievement, and was also Asian Games champion on 51 and 62. Needless to say Indian football did have its excellent moments but India as a nation did not really support it. Another sports that has faltered due to indifference has been Lawn Tennis. Players like Vijay Amritraj and Ramanathan Krishnan who were amongst the top 10 players of their time never achieved the same popularity as say a Tiger Pataudi or a Sunil Gavaskar. Vijay was considered one of the most charismatic players of his time and indeed he was part of the famous ABC(Amritraj, Borg, Connors) triad at the time. India also has the achievement of boycotting the Davis Cup finals twice, 66 and 73 if I am not mistaken. We refused to play Israel and South Africa for their policies. Who knows how playing them would have impacted our tennis fortunes? xxxx