Maybe it’s more of a religion to many Indians than, say, American Football would be to Texans.
Anyway, I’m realising more and more what an astounding actress Kaley Cuoco is, she has made this part her own for over a decade, getting better and better, and is still the main support of the show.
She really is, especially because Penny isn’t a very good actress, so when Penny acts, Cuoco has to be not very good, but not laughably bad, because that’s not the idea. I mean, Penny doesn’t screw up lines or trip over scenery, she’s just, a 5 out of 10.
Cricket is kind of unique. It’s like if tennis was played in extreme slow motion, in that it has a certain prestige to it, it can dominate a season, and it takes so long to play that it becomes more of a casual social day out more than any edge-of-your-seat excitement. For some people who hate sport, they will partake in cricket for the other stuff associated with it, then fall in love with the sport secondarily.
eg. I hate all sport, but I love to watch the Tour de France for the scenery.
Raj doesn’t hate sports like the others. If I’m recalling correctly he played both soccer and ping pong at some point in his young life.
Actually, it was badminton, but it made him good at Ping Pong; you’re right. He does Pilates, and all sorts of stuff. He also like artsy stuff that the others don’t like: he goes to non-sci fi movies, and reads books besides comic books, and has been to the ballet, IIRC. Come to think of it, he’s probably the most well-rounded character on the show.
The product placement has gotten worse. A few seasons back you had to guess what beer they were drinking by the neck band and bottle shape. This episode they purposely turned the bottle so you could read the label clearly.
The product placement didn’t work with me - I didn’t even notice.
I’m not likely to buy a beer because Howard drinks it anyway.
The sponsor did, and that’s all that matters. 
I know that “realising” also gave it away, but boy, are you NOT from Texas. 
I remember Archie Bunker used to drink beer out of red-and-white cans that *kind of *looked like Budweiser, but that simply said “BEER” in big capital letters. It was actually rather distracting. I for one would much rather see TV characters drinking real recognizeable brands.
(Though I didn’t happen to notice the brand or the label placement in this episode.)
ETA: Oh, and I did enjoy the episode.
And Amy pulled a box of Good Thins out of her grocery bag in the scene in her and Sheldon’s apartment. I thought that was unusual, showing the brand so prominently in this show.
Geez, considering how long the commercial breaks are, you’d think the product placements might get us a couple more minutes of show time, but Noooooooo.
When a company buys your brewery for $1 billion dollars (that’s with a B) you get your product shown with the labels facing the camera!
The writers usually just do that to emphasize Raj’s “girlie / feminine” side, but yeah, you are correct. It does make him more well-rounded!