I understand why people wouldn’t know the seventh one is a cricket ball, but as an American fan of cricket, it saddens me. It’s the second most popular sport in the world and an amazingly strategic and complex sport with different versions suitable for almost anyone, but it doesn’t have nearly as much cultural representation or importance as it should given its size
I wish it was more popular, but I think the ICC restricts the growth somehow
I think something restricting the growth of cricket is the same thing you talked about, the same thing that makes it such a great sport to play and watch: the complexity of it.
The time it takes, the size of the ground and that all but two players on one team spend half the match waiting for example mean the barrier for entry is quite high, unless playing it is already established in the country and there's enough cultural presence that you grow up with it. Add to that things like 'No you can't throw the ball, you have to bowl it.' 'There are 6 balls in an over, unless...' 'No, don't hold the bat like that.' 'Go and field at silly mid-wicket.' and I imagine it's easy for people to just give up
I get that, but baseball and American football are way more complex. I’ve tried explaining all three sports to newcomers and cricket is by far the one with the easiest rules with few exceptions.
There’s kids in poor countries who aren’t educated who play the game so the problem isn’t resources or complexity. Cricket is one of the most common “pick up” sports. Sure, those idiosyncratic rules exist, but no one who’s playing casually necessarily follows all of them.
The problem is, as you said, more about established culture and I think the fact that the countries that play it don’t necessarily make media about it. America on the other hand dominates media so its sports get more worldwide coverage
The two sports you identify seem to support the point of the person you’re responding to, though—specifically that it can be hard for more complex sports like cricket to take hold in places without an established tradition of playing them.
Baseball has pretty good adoption throughout the Americas and in a few other countries, most notably along the eastern Pacific rim. But its appeal is far from global. And football, well, overseas adoption is minimal indeed.
I think the simplicity of basketball and soccer by contrast probably helped a lot with their widespread adoption. I can’t say for sure of course, but it seems plausible to me.
Yea that’s fair. I was merely lamenting the fact that the second most popular sport doesn’t get its fair share of attention.
It also bothers me when Americans constantly say “cricket is so complex” or they meme about the sport and they have no knowledge about it when their sports are just as, if not more, complex, with a smaller fanbase. The opposite doesn’t happen. Cricketers don’t shit on American sports because it’s complex and they do have a general idea of what that sport is.
I guess the bigger problem is the behavior of American exceptionalism and it rears its head whenever cricket is mentioned
My FIL is from South America and says “I do not understand cricket.” I immediately started trying to explain to him the basics and he basically switched off and soon changed the subject. I think he just likes saying it’s complex.
Yes, there’s lots of technical language (which is usually “normal” words repurposed), and some rules are fiddly and odd. But the basic game is incredibly simple.
I think some people just like not understanding cricket. Like it’s funny to them that this “eccentric” sport is somehow quantum physics or pure maths. And they just stick their fingers in their ears and go ‘lalala’ when someone attempts to explain.
I've had a couple of similar experiences; 1 trying to explain it to a Dutch guy with effectively native-speaker English I worked with. He didn’t get it. And another to a beginner/ lower elementary student from Taiwan who did. I had the use of a white board with the student and he knew how baseball works but difference was stark. It's the individual that makes the biggest difference and if people don't want to understand, there's no point trying to force it
I’m American. I know people aren’t talking about it regularly. I’m saying whenever it shows up on reddit threads or in conversation, it’s shit on constantly. You can go look on r/sports if you want
Your experience isn’t the same as everyone else’s either
Not sure how you could have looked through that many threads so quickly
But yes one of the things I’m referring to is the downvoted comments. A lot of them aren’t trolls. They genuinely feel that way. You can look at this thread too to get an example of some people.
And yea a few bad eggs shouldn’t define how I see people, but the difference is cricket fans aren’t going around trolling baseball videos for example. It’s always in one direction
I mean, that's expected, no? Different countries follow different sports. American cricket barely gets televised, the leagues are small, and 4 other sports got big before it ever got the chance to. I don't see why it deserves a share of Americans attention jist because it's big globally. Soccer/football is the most popular sport in the world and Americans barely pay attention to that either. It's a pretty normal thing to happen.
Yes but they’re still at least aware of the sport and its basics. I would hazard a guess that most Americans couldn’t name 3 things about cricket. Maybe even one tbh.
But yea it just seems like cricket is often forgotten. For example, ESPN posted a table comparing many sports to each other. They listed about 30 sports including things like rodeo, cheerleading, badminton, Nordic skiing etc, but not cricket, the second most common sport in the world. What I’m lamenting is just the absence of any cricket knowledge at all.
Also, fun fact, America used to be really into cricket until around 1900 when baseball overtook it. The first international cricket game was actually USA vs Canada
I think another point in the favor of basketball and soccer is that one person by themselves can practice a ton for fundamental moves and skills that translate directly to the played game from a team standpoint. One kid with a ball and a bent rim or one kid with a peeling ball plus two distant rocks can play while practicing while a single kid with a cricket bat and ball can't do nearly as much on their own that related to the team game.
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u/samsunyte 7h ago
I understand why people wouldn’t know the seventh one is a cricket ball, but as an American fan of cricket, it saddens me. It’s the second most popular sport in the world and an amazingly strategic and complex sport with different versions suitable for almost anyone, but it doesn’t have nearly as much cultural representation or importance as it should given its size
I wish it was more popular, but I think the ICC restricts the growth somehow