Cricket in India - 3Alpha Outsourcing Services
Cricket is the most popular sport in India
While the rest of the world is currently caught up with the fervor of the World Cup, India’s favorite sport is Cricket. There is no official national sport in India, but if you were to ask around most people would probably say it’s Hockey (field hockey as we know it), Unlike Cricket, it originated in India and the national team has won many Olympic gold medals. The birthday of Dhyan Chand is celebrated in India as National Sports Day, August 29th. Dhyan Chand is considered the best Hockey player in the history of the sport. He was given the nickname of “The Wizard” for his ability to control the ball.
However, Cricket is the most popular sport in India by far. While not an Olympic sport, the national team ranks first in Test Cricket, the longest form of the game which can take up to five days for one match, and ranks second in One Day International Cricket following England. The popularity of cricket can be attributed to the British colonization of India. It began as a game played only by those with the means to do so, including the British and those in higher positions of power. Over time it gained popularity, and people would gather to watch the earliest Indian teams play against English teams.
Cricket’s explosive popularity
Over the years Cricket grew even more with the rise of mass media. As television became more prevalent, Cricket became easier for the bulk of the nation’s population to watch. By the end of the 1980’s there were over 30 million households with televisions. Today, there are over 160 million households with a television leading to Cricket’s explosive popularity.
The game itself is fairly complex. Each team consists of 11 players. It’s played over the course of 22 phases, each phase is like an inning in baseball, and teams take turns playing a phase. During their phase the team will try to score, as many runs as possible. The opposing team will attempt to stop their runs. The runs are minimized through the bowling or fielding.
Bowlers are selectively picked because of their skill in being able to strike out and deliver the ball. The rest of the team is spread out on the field to cover the possibility of other plays that could provide the batters more runs. Runs are scored through 2 means: hitting the ball over the boundary of the playing field determined by fence or rope, or the batsmen ability to switch positions at opposite ends of pitch by running the length while fielders try to recover the ball.
Cricket isn’t for everyone
It requires special discipline by the players to be able to play for sometimes over 6 hours over multiple days. If you ever have the opportunity to catch a game, give it a shot maybe you’ll find it exciting and have discovered a new pastime. In the US, the game dates back to 1709. There is no professional cricket league but there are many amateur club teams and leagues in the largest U.S. cities. But for some reason, popularity in U.S. is dwarfed by other major sports, but not by field hockey.
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