Cricket Losing its Appeal and Popularity?
Today, I wrote an article on the growing popularity of Cricket in China, an unknown territory of Cricket. If this is good news for Cricket then there is bad too. It seems that Cricket is losing its appeal in the known territories now! How? Well, you must have seen the empty stands during the first two matches of India vs Australia ongoing test series, even though India playing well. Specially in the second test, it was really something new to see empty stand when India was getting on top of world champion Australia all through the five days of the match and ended up with an emphatic 320-run victory. The situation was same in the first match too.
There are some other issues concerning the losing popularity of the game. Take Kenya and Zimbabwe as the prime example. Cricket Kenya is finding it hard to arrange domestic tournament and carry out developmental program in the country due to lack of finance. Zimbabwe cricket is suffering from political problems, while South Africa is going through a transition period and suffering from quota system. Bangladesh and New Zealand have lost a number of influential cricketers to Indian Cricket League because of the constant pressure from BCCI. Pakistan also lost some young cricketers to ICL and found controversy hitting the team in a constant flow. Security issue is the new addition to Pakistan’s increasing headache. Cricket is losing its appeal in West Indies with the youngsters shifting to other sports, most notably to Basketball, looking for money.
Australian team is also going through a transition period following the retirement of a number of cricketers in quick succession, while India is very near to go through the same period with its ‘Big Four’ already started finding the exit door. Only England, the father figure of Cricket, seems to be in a stable condition under the leadership of someone like Kevin Pietersen. Most importantly, England’s well-organized country cricket plays a key role in keeping the English side in a descent shape.
ICL, IPL, Stanford and Twenty20 seem to be lucrative deal for the cricketers, but still, there are many causes of concern over the future of cricket.
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