Cricket vs Baseball

[LA ICE-E]

Ok, I've been thinking and wanted to know what you guys think on this topic. Cricket at present is the better sport internationally but with the popularity of World baseball classic and that being hosted every 4 years like the cricket world cup, can this be a threat to cricket. Baseball overtook cricket in the US(cricket use to be the main sport before baseball took over), is there are chance for it taking over other countries?

 

[nightprowler10]

I don't think cricket was more popular than football before baseball came in. In fact, I remember reading that many cricket clubs (White Stockings being one of the famous ones) converted over to baseball due to the lack of interest. Cricket was definitely more common back in the day, but I don't think it was anywhere close to being the most popular sport. Also, you must remember that Americans tend to favor sports that they themselves invented. Just look at how little interest there is in soccer compared to the rest of the world.

 

[Iron-Haggis]

I don't see how it is a threat. Baseball countries don't have a huge interest in cricket and cricket countries don't have a huge interest in baseball. Apparently Australia is very competitive in international baseball and were finalists or semi finalists last time around, but ask most Australians and they wouldn't have a clue.

 

[andrew_nixon]

No. Simply because the World Baseball Classic is the only tournament that Major League Baseball players play in.

 

[aussie1st]

Baseball is still very much a US sport and like Gridiron it will remain that. It's not that big outside of the US in fact softball would be more international than Baseball.

 

[Iron-Haggis]

Baseball is popular in Cuba, Japan, Canada and in most Central American countries. Probably covers just as many countries as cricket, just not at the same level as in the US.

 

[Kev]

Lets face it, most sports are played all over the place so its not really down to who plays it, its down to marketing the sport. Nobody is going to attempt to throw money marketing cricket in the US because they would need to spend huge amounts of money to compete with the US domestic sports. Likewise no American sport is going to seriously market itself outside the US, they make huge amounts of money domestically so why bother to try and crack smaller markets.

 

[xPrincex]

hmmm...actually i have a completely different view about this topic...
on normal/working days people dont even have time to talk with other people (atlease in US and Canada) ...everybody is busy with their job....so on week ends, just for refreshment they watch sports....
now whose gonna watch a test match !! ( it last for 5 days!!!!!!) ..... i would think like this....ah cricket wow!! wait hold on...is it a test match ? hell ya it is ... screw that ..i am not goin watch it for 5 days and find out that INDIA lost the match,.....

people now-a-days need quick sport.....like 2-3 hours of complete and awesome entertainment.....

now u may be thinking... what about ODI's..... welll yeh .... but still its 9 hours of play...
its better to watch futball or baseball or basketball rather than watching cricket.....

Still I love cricket.....

 

[LA ICE-E]

hey thats why we got 20/20 genius huh!

 

[angryangy]

Baseball is popular in Cuba, Japan, Canada and in most Central American countries. Probably covers just as many countries as cricket, just not at the same level as in the US.

This is where I think people jump the gun a little, I think, on world sports in general. As Andrew can probably quote you off the top of his head, there are 97 members of the ICC. A lot of people will then say "yeah, but only ten play test cricket. The rest don't count." Well even in the mighty 'world game', how many teams actually count? There are 207 countries that play representative football, but look at how many of those are fielding amateur sides. There's 10 nations playing cricket in the same sense that the only football nations that count are those that make the World Cup.

I know I didn't say anything about baseball just then, but you can make the connections

 

[plympilgrim]

exactly as everyone is saying it would only be America and Japan who have quality. if baseball was a more permanent fixture in other countries maybe..

 

[nightprowler10]

exactly as everyone is saying it would only be America and Japan who have quality.

Nah, lots of quality in the Carribean. Best of the best in the MLB are from there.

 

[LA ICE-E]

there are 97 members of the ICC.

(International Baseball Fedaration)IBAF has 112 members....

 

[LA ICE-E]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sports_attendance_figures#Competitions_between_national_teams
it shows baseball classic having 741,430 attendence and cricket world cup just having 581,397 even though cricket had 52 games and the classic had 39 games....can someone find out if the baseball figure is actually true or is exaggerated and make sure the numbers for the world cup is true too...does any one know what was the attendence from 99 world cup and whats the most successfull world cup attendence wise....

 

[angryangy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sports_attendance_figures#Competitions_between_national_teams
it shows baseball classic having 741,430 attendence and cricket world cup just having 581,397 even though cricket had 52 games and the classic had 39 games....can someone find out if the baseball figure is actually true or is exaggerated and make sure the numbers for the world cup is true too...does any one know what was the attendence from 99 world cup and whats the most successfull world cup attendence wise....

It's probably accurate, there are no large venues in South Africa. Cricket grounds are often designed deliberately small, to add to the atmosphere. Wind can also be important to bowling and big stands block the breeze.

It will be interesting to see WC 2015 at the massive grounds in Australia and New Zealand, the attendance figures could well be four times that of 2003.

The largest cricket ground in South Africa is The Wanderers, at about 30,000. In NZ, Eden Park, Jade Stadium, Westpac Stadium and Carisbrook all hold upwards of 35,000. The MCG holds 100,000, Docklands holds over 50, the SCG and Gabba hold about 40, Adelaide about 30 and the WACA ground can fit about 25 in it's current state. There's also the prospect of other large grounds such as the 81,000 seat Telstra Stadium and 40,000 seat Subiaco oval in Perth. So that means there will be at least 9 grounds larger than the largest ground used in 2003.