Neilster
Posts: 2890
Joined: 10/27/2003
From: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Status: offline
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Cricket is religion in India and Pakistan and Sri Lanka. There's about 1.3 billion people. It's huge in Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and very popular in much of the rest of the old British Empire. It was popular in the US once too...
Originally played by officers of the British Army with local landed gentry predisposed to be Anglophiles, cricket became a major recreation of American gentlemen of leisure and indeed, several Founding Fathers of the United States were known to be avid cricketers---John Adams among them, who stated in the US Congress in the 1780s that if leaders of cricket clubs could be called "presidents", there was no reason why the leader of the new nation could not be called the same!
Eastern Canada had developed cricket clubs as well, shortly after the US clubs had made their initial appearance. Both US and Canadian cricket clubs roamed far and wide in search of competitive cricket, as was the custom in those times. Soon, an animated cross-border traffic developed, and it was out of that friendly rivalry that the first international cricket developed in the modern world.
The first annual Canada vs. USA cricket match, played since the 1840s, was attended by 10,000 spectators at Bloomingdale Park in New York. The USA vs. Canada cricket match is the oldest international sporting event in the modern world, predating even today's Olympic Games by nearly 50 years.
Touring teams from the West Indies, England and Australia were playing in the USA and Canada until the 1920s. In one of the last such established tours, the Australian team with Don Bradman among them played in Canada and the USA, leading to the naming of Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, as his "favorite cricket ground" by the great Sir Don himself.
The USA also sent touring sides abroad. It achieved its greatest success when a national USA side defeated the West Indies by nine wickets in an international match in British Guiana in the 1880s.... see "USA vs. West Indies: Our Finest Hour" for a report on this victory.
Cricket declined in the USA in the 20th century because in the late 1800s it had remained a strictly amateur elite sport at the same time that England, then Australia, were developing a professional system that allowed full-time players to participate. In the halcyon days of amateur cricket, talented North Americans could sometimes hold their own on the field with the best the world had to offer. But as cricket standards improved elsewhere in the world by becoming semi-professional and then fully professional, many North American cricket clubs stayed stubbornly elitist. Abandoning cricket, they converted their facilities to recreations like golf and tennis.
Then, there was the urban (and local) recreation originally called "townball", which had developed out of cricket. Unlike cricket, townball could be played in small city squares and compact urban spaces, rather than spacious cricket parks. Some city cricket clubs, viewing it as an auxiliary entertainment, had even sponsored the first "baseball" teams, as they came to be called (see "How baseball REALLY developed in America" for a full report). After 1900, baseball took over the American scene, created its independent mythology, and obviated the sport that gave it birth. In a few decades, cricket in America had become only a memory.
The eclipse of American cricket was aided and abetted by developments in the British Empire. The British, it appears, were not at all enthusiastic about US participation in world cricket. The Imperial Cricket Conference which was formed to coordinate the worldwide development of the sport specifically excluded countries from outside the British Empire from any role in the proceedings. This exclusionary policy certainly undercut any momentum to professionalize cricket in the USA, although whether the momentum would have developed even in the presence of a more open ICC remains a question. (from Wikipedia)
People who know little about cricket often claim it's boring or that nothing happens. That's because they know little about cricket. Chess looks boring to people who don't know about chess. This sport is very intellectual as well as physical and for it to be so wildly popular in Australia, a country with extremely fast paced sports like Australian Football and both forms of rugby, it can't be boring. I challenge anyone to watch Adam Gilchrist's recent 57 ball century (in a 5 day test match, traditionally the less hectic form of the game), with the ball being repeatedly belted into the crowd and claim that was boring. That's hardly an isolated example either. He's been doing it for nearly ten years and Australia regularly rattle along for hour after hour. With these new bats and the introduction of boundary ropes, fast scoring is usually the order of the day around the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPOOhFmUprA
(Includes the commentary stylings of Bill Lawry, Tubby Taylor and Michael "Whispering Death" Holding. A cultural journey for the uninitiated  )
The World Cup looks very open. New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa are big chances but despite their late season stumble in the one dayers, don't write off Australia. They smashed England and New Zealand all summer but then lost form and had injuries (and maybe got a bit cocky). They've won the last 2 World Cups for a reason. They're a ruthless and talented outfit and they usually come back hard when their pride is hurt.
Cheers, Neilster
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Cricket World Cup 2007 - 
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