Sport

India and Cricket: A Love Affair That Can’t Be Beaten

Football remains to be the most popular sport worldwide in 2019 with over 4 billion fans. Coming in second is cricket with over 2.5 billion fans. Other most popular sports named in 2019 are tennis, volleyball, and basketball. However, when it comes to cricket, it is never the second most-favorite sport in a certain country.

India has quite a relationship with this sport. The locals take this sport seriously and the biggest cricket tournament is even from this country. In fact, 70 percent of the global cricket revenue is coming from India. That is how much the Indians love it.

Based on the books, hockey is still the national sports in India, but the truth is that almost everyone in the country watch, play, and follow cricket instead. There are multiple reasons why locals love this sport.

Its simplicity is one of the main reasons why people love it. It’s a bat-and-ball game and the rules are simple and easy to follow. It can even be played by just two people. Its simplicity is evident in the streets of India where many children are seen playing this.

It’s also a factor that the best cricket tournaments are held in this country. The Indian Premier League or IPL, for example, has to be the most popular cricket tournament worldwide. At some point, it was even the sixth most popular sports tournament worldwide.

IPL is a professional Twenty20 league in India that happens from March to May each year. It was founded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in 2008 and is currently participated by eight teams. This year, IPL is already on its 13th season or edition and many are once again looking forward to following this.

This year’s IPL is also called the Vivo IPL. This season’s auction was already carried out in December of last year and this surely hyped the fans. Based on that auction, the most expensive player sold is Piyush Chawla. His contract with the Chennai Super Kings is worth 950,000 US dollars.

With India’s love for cricket comes the growth of other industries. Wagering on cricket is also popular in the country, but even in countries like the UK and Australia take part in this. Many punters look out for the best cricket bookies tips just to be sure that they place better bets, especially on the upcoming season of the IPL.

The betting market for cricket is worth billions of dollars. Last year, around 71 million pounds was matched in bets for the Indian Premier League. This is only how much bets were placed in legal betting platforms. It is expected that around the same amount of bets will be placed on IPL this year as well.

Another reason why many Indians continue to love this sport is the fact that they are good at it. Many of the most popular cricketers worldwide are from this country. Some of the most famous Indian cricketers are Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, and Kapil Dev.

With its popularity, it’s no secret that cricket can be a very luxurious industry. This means that cricketers who have made it are living the good life and this is what many Indian kids and even adults aspire to have.

This is why many cricket clinics are scattered all over the country. India seems to really give all of its focus on this sport and this is why they are good at it. This is also why it’s pretty impossible that cricket’s popularity in India will wane in the coming years.

Aside from India, Australia, the UK, and some parts of Europe are also fans of this sport, but still, things are different in India. The love that India has for cricket still appears to be unbeatable. Meanwhile, there are cricket fans who are expecting that it will also gain more popularity in the US.

For three years, the US has been suspended by the International Cricket Council or the ICC to compete due to attitude problems, but the team was already welcomed back last year. This means that cricket may once again pique the interest of the Americans.

This is especially when the ICC also announced that they already chose a partner in the US last year to develop a local cricket tournament. The American Cricket Enterprises or ACE and the ICC are now set to develop a local T20 cricket tournament that may be worth over a billion US dollars. With this, it is possible that cricket’s following in the US will soon improve.

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