There’s that old song “I don’t like cricket, no, I love it!” This captures the sentiment perfectly well, and people tend to feel uniquely passionate about the world’s most civilized game. Whilst in the UK cricket might be considerably less popular than football in certain parts of the world it is the most popular team sport by far such as in India, Pakistan and Jamaica.
Even in the UK of course cricket has plenty of advocates. The late, great Patrick Moore was supposedly a big fan. Not all cricket fans are famous eccentrics by the way, and it’s a game loved by plenty of “normal” people too. But what is it about cricket which makes it such a unique and popular sport, not only in the UK but also around the world?
When we compare cricket to other sports one of the things you’ll notice is that cricket tends to run on much longer. Test matches can go on for days and even the shortest matches will be around 3 hours. For spectators this is great and it means they can immerse themselves in the sport, lapping up the good British weather if they’re able to make it to the game.
What draws these spectators? There are of course as many reasons as there are spectators, however one possible reason is that cricket is just so darned difficult to understand. There are lots things about cricket that make it both difficult to understand and even more difficult to explain to other people, and it is a game loaded with stats. Many of cricket’s biggest fans also love statistics, difficult facts and figures etc.
Whilst cricket has a lot of rules and is packed full of facts and figures, it’s by no means an elitist game and anyone can play. In fact it’s now easier to get a game of cricket, or a team, started and if you look online you’ll find an online cricket shop that will sell all of the cricket kit that you need. Including helmets, cricket bats and pads.
Some games are quite brutal and even something like football has it’s close contact side. Cricket, by contrast, is a game that it is more psychological than it is physical, although that isn’t to say it can’t be full of visceral excitement too. The point is that because cricket matches are played over such long time-spans they are very mental games, requiring a lot of psychological stamina.
Finally, cricket is one of those sports that great to talk about, whether you’re playing or not. Everyone cricket fan has their opinion and are very passionate about their sport, their team or a particular style of play or player. Because it is a game both steeped in tradition and packed full of detail there is certainly a lot to talk about.
