Whats with cricket?

My fascination with cricket commenced with the 1996 World Cup held in the Indian subcontinent. I had just moved to India and the home and soul of cricket - Mumbai. Televisions, newspapers, radio stations, posters everywhere had cricket and only cricket and the sole most improtant event happenening. As an Indian cricket supporter, its popularity also lies in the fact that in the field of sport, cricket is the game India is any good at.

Cricket's charm lies in the fact that as a game it is the most diverse and complicated sport in existence. Probably why it is played by only a handful of countries. The difficulty in gaining popularity from a fan's perspecive is in this complications and diverse nature of the sport. But amongs its strongest supporters, this is it's strongest attribute. Test cricket, 50 over cricket and 20 over cricket are very different that require a substantially different skill set. Players (bowlers and batsmen) that can master all 3 forms of the game tend to be its greatest.

In recent times Cricket has gained commercial success thanks to India's growing middle class. Millions of dollars are paid to top cricketers from the top 4-5 nations around the world and players command endorsement figures as high as some international football players. Most of this money comes from India as multinationals line up to target a high consumer base with its most famous people. Players enjoy celebrity status and with the advent of social media can now interast personally with their fans thereby increasing their marketability.

Out of the 3 forms of the game Test cricket still retains its charms. Ofcourse, a game that goes on for 5 days, sometimes without a result will lose viewers in the long run with expendable time being such a scarce commodity noawadays. Most of Generation Y and Z tend to have low attention spans as well, which does Test cricket no favours. But a players skill, temprament, adaptability and patience is sevrely tested in this form. For a die-hard cricket fan, there is nothing more scared and revered that test cricket.

As the World Cup this year once again enteres the subcontinent, with India and Sri Lanka going in as favourites to win, again cricket's popularity will be at fever pitch. Even with the long drawn out schedule it will be an entertaining event (after the group stages).

I personally look forward to it, the excitement of supporting the strongest team in the tournament for the first time. No clear favourites can be ascertained yet, with conditions favouring hard hitting batsmen only, anything can happen.

After the success of last year's Fifa World Cup, it is cricket's time to shine.