Basketball? And baseball, for that matter.
…no offence taken. I still don’t get what amuses you, though. Commonwealth countries have a lot of things in common. Not just cricket.
In the way that soccer has?
I think many of the points explaining why cricket will never compete at the level of the “big” sports in the US are right on. But I would add one more, perhaps controversial… baseball is just better than cricket.
The added bases give more possible plays for the defense, and more variety to the action. The play is more balanced between hitting and fielding. More innings, with only 3 outs per inning, gives it a much brisker pace (especially now with the pitch clock and other speed improvements in MLB). I know it’s a very parochial opinion, but baseball has expanded into far more “non-native” markets than cricket has (all of the non-British Caribbean and much of South and Central American, not to mention Korea and Japan), and I believe one reason is because it’s just a better sport.
No. But definitely in a way that cricket has not.
…I mean, that’s my point. Soccer is the outlier here by a significant margin. Cricket, baseball, basketball, they all get played all over the world. But each sports dominates in different countries and groups of countries for various historical reasons.
Cricket only gets played in former British colonies. Basketball and baseball are not limited in a similar way.
For example, what is the historical reason that basketball is popular in China? I would say there is none. No shared cultural heritage to explain it. Just a pure export, like soccer is for much of the world.
I would argue even Hockey has shown more “spreadability” than cricket has. It’s played in Canada and the US, of course, but also Russia and much of Northern and Eastern Europe.
Basically if it’s cold enough to have ice, they play hockey there. For a sport invented in Canada (not really a colonizing powerhouse) that’s pretty impressive.
…I mean, this isn’t correct. Cricket gets played all over the world, including in the US, as shown here in this very thread. That only commonwealth countries qualified for the last world cup doesn’t change that.
Name any country that isn’t a former British colony where cricket is as popular as basketball is in China.
The only way in which baseball has more variety that cricket is in the number of bases. Both batting and bowling in cricket are more complicated than in baseball.
Afghanistan
That, of course, depends on definition of colony.
Similarly you could say Pakistan
Phenomenal leg spinners are exceedingly rare even in populations that seek them out purposefully, very unlikely a journeyman pitcher is going to have those skills.
Three hitting surfaces?
…I don’t need too. Because this has nothing to do with my point. Basketball is big in China. And the former USSR. And the USA. What do those three super-powers have in common?
It’s not readily apparent due to the need to fit names into but gully and silly point are two separate positions.
Gulley is a catching position, extending the slips, behind the batter and usually some distance away. Also is deployed commonly.
Silly point is square with the batter, much closer, and deployed quite rarely.
Of the “silly”s (named because you are standing within a few feet of the batter) short leg and lesser mid on are more common, simply because that’s far more likely that a catchable ball will travel.
I think the second examples, which might well be described as “only in America” neatly refute the notion that the capacity of American minds to absorb sport is in any way limited.
The Netherlands have qualified for this year’s World Cup.
Are you aware of the massive difference between spin bowling and seam bowling? Are you aware that the play changes end every 6 balls? Unlike baseball, there are always 2 batters in. Towards the end of the innings you might have a world class batter at one end partnering someone who is actually an expert bowler but wouldn’t even be in the top 10 batters in a minor county. The fielding team will be doing everything they can to keep bowling at the latter.
No, you couldn’t. There is no sense in which anyone could claim Pakistan is not a former British colony.
There already is a massive wave of South Asian immigrants. At least around here — suburbs of San Francisco.
Same in parts of NJ, and there are cricket grounds in parks in those areas. But, pockets here and there are not enough to make it catch on here.