The Popularity of the Cricket in 2021
By Space Coast Daily // March 27, 2021
Cricket, like soccer, is a game with millions of fans. There is no doubt about that. And if questions creep in, then let’s briefly answer them. Why is cricket so popular even in the current year 2021?
How does this sport attract fans from India and all over the world?
What is the point of playing cricket?
The main rules are very simple. Nuances and exceptions are another matter. It’s hard to figure it all out, even after a month and a half of almost daily World Cup matches. But this only makes the game more interesting – almost any meeting gives rise to heated debates.
If you do not go into subtleties, in general terms, everything looks like this. Two teams of 11 people – like in football. But they attack and defend one by one.
In the first part of the game, one team in full strength enters the field and attacks the opponent’s goal with the ball (a wicket of three posts with two cylinders at the top). The other releases its batsmen in turn. One by one, they defend the wicket, hitting balls and scoring points. When all 10 defenders are knocked out or the allotted number of throws has been exhausted, the teams switch places. The one who scored more points wins.
The highest class of batsman is to hit the balls so that none of the 11 enemy players can catch them. While the batted ball rolls around the field, the batsman runs between two wickets in the center of the field. For each run, one point is awarded. If the ball leaves the field, then you can not run – they will give four points for rolling out and six for taking off.
The best batsmen are rarely good at attacking. Conversely, those who throw balls – bowlers, come out with a bat in the last rows and rarely stay on the field, they are quickly knocked out. But they are the spearhead of the attack.
An attacking team of 11 people is spread across a large oval field. Its task is to prevent the batsman from knocking the ball far and to earn points.
A talented bowler is half the battle. The more intricate or powerful the throw, the higher the chance of knocking down the wicket and the harder it is for the batsman to hit the ball, which either spins and bounces unpredictably, or rushes at a speed of 150 km / h.
The other half is the field players. They have two main tasks. The first is to catch the ball that bounced off the bat before it hits the ground or goes out of bounds: this is the end of the batsman’s game. Second, if the batsman managed to kick the ball across the lawn and began to run, gaining points, you need to pick it up as soon as possible and return it to the area of the gate in order to either knock it out or minimize the number of enemy runs.
Popularity in facts
Hundreds of millions of people around the world are crazy about cricket. And most of them are indifferent to other sports. Thanks to them, cricket confidently ranks second in popularity in the world after football and, in terms of the number of loyal fans, confidently overtakes all other team games – from baseball to hockey.
And although cricket is almost unknown outside the former British Empire, in countries with a total population of about 2 billion people, it is a religion. They have heard about Messi and, perhaps, have an idea of who Pele is. But in the hearts forever – Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting, and in the Instagram feed – Virat Kohli and Joe Ruth.
India captain Kohli confidently pushes Bollywood stars to the top of the popularity rankings and earns $ 25 million a year as Liverpool’s top scorer Mo Salah.
Ex-captain Sachin has a status close to divine in India. And the former leader of the Pakistani national team, Imran Khan, now leads the entire country as prime minister. Australia mints coins with the portrait of the legendary Don Bradman, and the British queen knights the former English captain Alistair Cook.
IPL success factor
It has long been known: India worships cricket. But it is not so widely known that the country has a chic economy built around this sport: the Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights under a new contract (2018-2022) cost $ 2.6 billion. This deal is in the world top 10 and, in terms of one season (510 million), is ahead of, for example, the NHL contract in force until 2024 (454 million). The most amazing thing is that the IPL was founded only 13 years ago: the first tournament started on April 1, 2008.
The IPL season is intense April and May with 60 matches in the tournament. Within two months, each team plays 14 games, with each opponent at home and away. The schedule is drawn up so that no more than two games take place in one day, they are divided into timeslots. The playoffs for the top four teams use a double elimination system that esports fans are promoting into football. The semi-finals and finals are not series, but singles.
The league recognized YouTube broadcasts as a successful experiment that allowed expanding the audience, but then still focused on the usual players on the TV market. The league gradually introduced the digital rights into the overall package of the copyright holder. Gradually, they became a valuable lot on their own, in the summer of 2017, Facebook and BAMTECH claimed them, but the race was won by Star India, which is part of Rupert Murdoch’s empire.
For those same $ 2.6 billion, she got both television (the only competitor was Sony, he broadcast the first ten tournaments – he offered 1.7 billion), and online rights to the whole world. After the signing of this contract, for the first time in history, one game of the Indian club tournament became more expensive than one match of the national team – by the way, Star India also shows them.
At the cost of one game, the IPL is now four times higher than the NBA and thirteen times higher than the MLB. Only the football Premier League and the NFL are ahead.
The 2021 IPL season promises to be another peak event. Popularity will go off scale even in a pandemic. 8 franchises will compete for the IPL title, with India and the rest of the world watching the performance. In this regard, the online live cricket mode with a developed tone of IPL betting will stand out. A lot of useful and interesting information from the inside about this entertaining business will tell a decent informative site called https://cricketisland.in/.
