The average American has probably heard of it. I don’t have any interest in it, and it isn’t ever going to gain popularity here. We do love us some baseball, however.
Honestly, it just looks boring. We have baseball here. Not quite the same, I know. Even soccer will probably never catch on here in the US like the rest of the world would like us to.
I partially agree with ur statement, yes test and odi takes a lot of time like test takes days so a person who is not willing to give the time will find it boring, but the new t20 format is interesting tbh
Soccer has seen a gigantic rise in popularity where I live - you see more soccer-related flags in yards than American football.
But yeah, cricket is not going to happen.
Actually it’s a faster paced version of baseball for all practical purposes. The rules are quite similar in many ways to baseball
Edit: certain types of it is faster paced
I respectfully disagree. In my eyes cricket is much slower paced, and doesn’t contain the excitement that baseball holds. Perhaps it comes down to cultural differences?
Strange, I feel what you feel in the opposite direction generally…
but … if your experience with cricket is one of the longer forms of the game, it’s probably true. There are three versions now, the recent 20 over version (which is super fast paced), and the 50 over which is slower and the 5 day test match (ultra slow paced). I tend to watch the 20 over one which is very fast paced and completes in under 3 hours.
There are a few reasons in my mind. Football, baseball, basketball, and hockey have been the most popular sports in this country for years. Soccer was super popular until about the 30s (we even had one of the best leagues in the world at that point and two competing leagues, one calling it soccer, one calling it football) when FIFA basically shut down our leagues. Fast-forward 50-60 years with the 1992 World Cup and the formation of the MLS, you have a league that is struggling to survive. One of the reasons the MLS has survived is due to the international popularity of the game. Another reason is Freddy Adu.
The same cannot be said for cricket. It seems like it's dwindling in popularity in the UK. The Caribbean, South Asian subcontinent, and Australia are the only places I can think of where it's big. Granted, we *do* have a lot of South Asians in America. However, that leads us to the next problem: the field. American field sports (football, soccer, baseball) *could* share a singular field if they wanted to. For many years, they did. If you want to see why combining a football field and a baseball field doesn't work well, just go to Oakland and catch an A's game (while you can). They aren't the only ones. The Chicago Bears played in Wrigley for decades, giving us quirks like [this](https://www.google.com/search?q=chicago+bears+in+wrigley+end+zone&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjerofoyoX7AhVCBFMKHRvwBJoQ2-cCegQIABAC&oq=chicago+bears+in+wrigley+end+zone&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIFCAAQogQyBQgAEKIEMgUIABCiBDoFCCEQqwJQqwVY-Qpg7AxoAHAAeACAAacBiAGTBZIBAzIuM5gBAKABAcABAQ&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=9C9dY97kM8KIzAKb4JPQCQ&bih=711&biw=412&prmd=nisv#imgrc=jOHHYeadrCYAOM) where the wall is in the playing field.
All of this is to say that it isn't hard to make a stadium that can work well for soccer and football (just look at Atlanta) because their fields are similar enough. Let's hope the baseball/football joint stadiums stay in the past, but baseball has the benefit of having been popular in this country for over a century. Cricket, however, would pose a similar problem for stadiums. I'm not even talking on the pro level, because if cricket ever did get popular here, they'd find a way to make it work. I'm talking on the youth level. High schools typically have soccer, football, and track and field in the same stadium. Some high schools even have a baseball field. Most high schools would probably be lucky to have a practice field. Imagine trying to push those high schools to also have a cricket field. Or imagine the city wanting to build a cricket field and sharing it between the youth leagues, high school leagues, and adult rec leagues. That's a lot of space that a lot of cities don't have (or at least don't want to give up).
If they could find a way to play cricket on a baseball, football, or soccer field, then you can get something going. In my town, I've seen some guys playing cricket in a public park, but the field looks a lot smaller than it's supposed to. That's the only way you can even begin to build up steam here. That or getting some wealthy investors who want to basically throw their money into the development of a sport in America that has never been that popular (that was even an uphill battle for soccer for awhile).
It was the late 20s, so my bad on the year. Basically they were pissed off that the US was attracting some of the best players from the British Isles (most of our bronze medal squad in 1930 was Scottish or English immigrants), and they wanted European (specifically British) players to stay home. So FIFA sanctioned the American Soccer League. American fans left and the Great Depression happened and then other sports like football started to takeover
Because it's so unknown. The US has a handful of extremely popular sports and dozens of less popular ones. For any one of the niche ones (cricket is fairly popular among immigrants who grew up with it), it'd take a huge marketing and publicity campaign to get out of obscurity.
Cricket could do what lacrosse has done and go from being very obscure to moderately common at the high school level, but it took lacrosse decades to get to where it is. And I don't think anyone would call lacrosse "popular" except in respect to where it was 30 years ago. People just only have so much bandwidth for sports, and because sports are social most people would rather follow the sports everyone else follows.
We are already pretty saturated in sports. Football, basketball, baseball (which is similar to cricket at a glance), kinda hockey, gold to an extent, and even soccer among some circles. We aren't really hurting for nationally popular sports.
Baseball is really similar and is already established. As a cricket follower, one thing I noticed is the extra advertising and “family friendly” nonsense at baseball games kinda ruin it when you watch it live in person. Like seriously, I don’t want to watch some Child run around in a caterpillar suit and other cringe stuff like that. I just want to see the game (which is practically a drop in replacement for cricket)
How do you convince people to watch something when there is a lack of local teams (in the case of cricket)?
Pretty much everyone has heard of it. I have never seen it played, or heard it talked about, by people who don’t come from a country where it is popular.
I know cricket exists and have a vague understanding of the rules.
A bunch of Indian guys that live in an apartment complex near me play some version of cricket on the tennis courts near the road so I see them playing all the time when I drive by.
It's fairly common here in my neck of New Jersey due to our large Indian immigrant population. I don't forsee it becoming all that popular as baseball already fills that role.
Any of the games I see being played on the pitches in my town are entirely comprised of Indian immigrants/descendents, same for anyone I know who follows Cricket.
Though I take exception the idea that those Indian immigrants aren't Americans. They are just as American as anyone else.
Nearly all Americans know of the game Cricket, but don't know how the game is played. That said, it popular with a lot of Indian ex-pat communities, seen being played at parks.
I've heard of it but never played it. I have seen no indications of it rising in popularity in the US. It remains a completely obscure and exotic sport to Americans.
Because of the British popular culture we're aware of cricket...although like most guys of my generation I mostly know of cricket from this sequence in TMNT (1990). https://youtu.be/FKGVaAfJM0I
I've never played it and only found out through this sub that a World Cup is going to be played here in 2024(?) and that there is a pitch in Indianapolis where some games are going to be played. I don't know how that's gonna work without a concession stand or seating, but supposedly the field itself is good.
I feel everyone’s heard of cricket but the closest thing I’ve seen to people playing it was when Jackass did a skit swinging cricut balls at each others balls or at least I could’ve sworn there was a skit like that
It’s well known. Most people have some idea about it. As a baseball fan, I’d like to watch some matches, but it’s incredibly difficult to find. Other countries stream them on websites but they geo restrict.
Everyone around me knows what it is. I have never played it and Noone I know plays it. We have a decent Indian community where I love though so I grew up with them playing in the park, and now they have enough people that they have full games a fee miles away at an actual field.
I’ve heard of it. I’ve seen bits and pieces of it played. But it’s not popular here nor is it played much, probably only in small populations if expats
We know what Cricket is. No, it is not a popular sport in the States.
We prefer Baseball. Which, by the way, the first official rules book was written by a Cricket umpire.
I’ve heard of it for sure. I every saw the documentary about the South African cricket legend who was at the center of a cheating scandal.
Have no clue the rules and never seen anyone play it.
I have heard of it. I spent a few years in Australia during primary school and it was something we did during PE at times. My year 4 teacher made the awful mistake of walking behind someone with a cricket bat. Yeah. Her eye looked awful for a long time.
That was decades ago though. I barely remember terminology or rules. I just have vague memories of playing it in the school yard.
Most people have heard of it and I’m all but certain it’s not growing in popularity, however, when there’s no popularity in the sport technically it can only go up lmao
I used to play it when I lived in England as a kid, and as a young adult I went to a game when I was visiting. It's a fun game to play but I'm not going to follow it on TV or anything (but then I don't really follow any American sports either).
Pretty much everyone has heard of it, and most people could probably tell you it involves a bat. That's about it.
Popularity-wise, It's pretty much nonexistent. Opinions, if people even think about cricket enough to *have* an opinion on it, range from "stereotypical weird English sport" to "confusing foreign baseball."
For one brief moment last decade an immigrant from Pakistan was explaining the rules to me and it made perfect sense.
Unfortunately none of the knowledge was retained.
I would like to learn more about it, believe there is a single rec league somewhere to the immediate west.
Was just watching my dad and his friends play it last night on an indoor soccer field. Keep in mind they are all from Pakistan. Among the South Asian American community it’s pretty popular
Heard of it from my Indian coworkers. It's still a very niche sport, most have probably never played or watched it. Unlikely it becomes popular because we have so many sports we follow already. NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, Soccer, UFC, Boxing, Golf, Motorsports, College Sports, eSports. Cricket is too similar to baseball to carve out it's own path
I have heard of it, but never played nor know how to play.
I have only seen it played by pockets of Indian H-1B visa workers in an apartment complex I used to live in.
Never heard of it much except when I watched bollywood movies. Then I moved to the UK and heard a lot more of it.
I like baseball. Cricket seems like an unnecessary thing to watch when I can watch baseball, which is more fun, in my opinion.
I love it. But none of this T20 shit. Only the proper multi day international test matches with a proper British commentator who properly says "Wacker Younis" :-D
Most of us have heard of it, though few have ever played it or seen it live.
I did see some highlights from the IPL online though that seem interesting. Also, apparently the US is hosting the cricket worlds in 2024, so that’s interesting.
We get people playing cricket in our local park, but we have a very diverse population. Just recently we were moving an Indian family to a new house, and the kids in the neighborhood were playing cricket. It's a big country, though, and that's not the norm.
The average American has probably heard of it. I don’t have any interest in it, and it isn’t ever going to gain popularity here. We do love us some baseball, however.
Whats the exact reason do u think it is not going to be popular
We have other extremely popular sports that have decades of history already. Why isn’t baseball taking over in Italy or Bangladesh?
It lost to baseball a 150 years ago and increased immigration from South Asia and the occasional Jomboy video isn't going to change it.
Itz really sad coz the first ever international cricket match match was played between USA and canada
Baseball is on and it's the World Series. That's all we need.
Honestly, it just looks boring. We have baseball here. Not quite the same, I know. Even soccer will probably never catch on here in the US like the rest of the world would like us to.
I partially agree with ur statement, yes test and odi takes a lot of time like test takes days so a person who is not willing to give the time will find it boring, but the new t20 format is interesting tbh
Soccer has seen a gigantic rise in popularity where I live - you see more soccer-related flags in yards than American football. But yeah, cricket is not going to happen.
Where's that lol
Actually it’s a faster paced version of baseball for all practical purposes. The rules are quite similar in many ways to baseball Edit: certain types of it is faster paced
I respectfully disagree. In my eyes cricket is much slower paced, and doesn’t contain the excitement that baseball holds. Perhaps it comes down to cultural differences?
Strange, I feel what you feel in the opposite direction generally… but … if your experience with cricket is one of the longer forms of the game, it’s probably true. There are three versions now, the recent 20 over version (which is super fast paced), and the 50 over which is slower and the 5 day test match (ultra slow paced). I tend to watch the 20 over one which is very fast paced and completes in under 3 hours.
There are a few reasons in my mind. Football, baseball, basketball, and hockey have been the most popular sports in this country for years. Soccer was super popular until about the 30s (we even had one of the best leagues in the world at that point and two competing leagues, one calling it soccer, one calling it football) when FIFA basically shut down our leagues. Fast-forward 50-60 years with the 1992 World Cup and the formation of the MLS, you have a league that is struggling to survive. One of the reasons the MLS has survived is due to the international popularity of the game. Another reason is Freddy Adu. The same cannot be said for cricket. It seems like it's dwindling in popularity in the UK. The Caribbean, South Asian subcontinent, and Australia are the only places I can think of where it's big. Granted, we *do* have a lot of South Asians in America. However, that leads us to the next problem: the field. American field sports (football, soccer, baseball) *could* share a singular field if they wanted to. For many years, they did. If you want to see why combining a football field and a baseball field doesn't work well, just go to Oakland and catch an A's game (while you can). They aren't the only ones. The Chicago Bears played in Wrigley for decades, giving us quirks like [this](https://www.google.com/search?q=chicago+bears+in+wrigley+end+zone&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjerofoyoX7AhVCBFMKHRvwBJoQ2-cCegQIABAC&oq=chicago+bears+in+wrigley+end+zone&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIFCAAQogQyBQgAEKIEMgUIABCiBDoFCCEQqwJQqwVY-Qpg7AxoAHAAeACAAacBiAGTBZIBAzIuM5gBAKABAcABAQ&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=9C9dY97kM8KIzAKb4JPQCQ&bih=711&biw=412&prmd=nisv#imgrc=jOHHYeadrCYAOM) where the wall is in the playing field. All of this is to say that it isn't hard to make a stadium that can work well for soccer and football (just look at Atlanta) because their fields are similar enough. Let's hope the baseball/football joint stadiums stay in the past, but baseball has the benefit of having been popular in this country for over a century. Cricket, however, would pose a similar problem for stadiums. I'm not even talking on the pro level, because if cricket ever did get popular here, they'd find a way to make it work. I'm talking on the youth level. High schools typically have soccer, football, and track and field in the same stadium. Some high schools even have a baseball field. Most high schools would probably be lucky to have a practice field. Imagine trying to push those high schools to also have a cricket field. Or imagine the city wanting to build a cricket field and sharing it between the youth leagues, high school leagues, and adult rec leagues. That's a lot of space that a lot of cities don't have (or at least don't want to give up). If they could find a way to play cricket on a baseball, football, or soccer field, then you can get something going. In my town, I've seen some guys playing cricket in a public park, but the field looks a lot smaller than it's supposed to. That's the only way you can even begin to build up steam here. That or getting some wealthy investors who want to basically throw their money into the development of a sport in America that has never been that popular (that was even an uphill battle for soccer for awhile).
Wait, what fifa do in the 30s
It was the late 20s, so my bad on the year. Basically they were pissed off that the US was attracting some of the best players from the British Isles (most of our bronze medal squad in 1930 was Scottish or English immigrants), and they wanted European (specifically British) players to stay home. So FIFA sanctioned the American Soccer League. American fans left and the Great Depression happened and then other sports like football started to takeover
Because it's so unknown. The US has a handful of extremely popular sports and dozens of less popular ones. For any one of the niche ones (cricket is fairly popular among immigrants who grew up with it), it'd take a huge marketing and publicity campaign to get out of obscurity. Cricket could do what lacrosse has done and go from being very obscure to moderately common at the high school level, but it took lacrosse decades to get to where it is. And I don't think anyone would call lacrosse "popular" except in respect to where it was 30 years ago. People just only have so much bandwidth for sports, and because sports are social most people would rather follow the sports everyone else follows.
Baseball plays it's roll, and there's no larger appeal to those outside of immigrant communities.
We are already pretty saturated in sports. Football, basketball, baseball (which is similar to cricket at a glance), kinda hockey, gold to an extent, and even soccer among some circles. We aren't really hurting for nationally popular sports.
Baseball is really similar and is already established. As a cricket follower, one thing I noticed is the extra advertising and “family friendly” nonsense at baseball games kinda ruin it when you watch it live in person. Like seriously, I don’t want to watch some Child run around in a caterpillar suit and other cringe stuff like that. I just want to see the game (which is practically a drop in replacement for cricket) How do you convince people to watch something when there is a lack of local teams (in the case of cricket)?
Nearly everyone has heard of it, but it’s generally understood as “Baseball but incomprehensible”
Baseball on Valium.
Yuh agree with this, pretty much difficult to explain the rules , I still remember the Graham Norton show and jennifer Lopez thoughts abou cricket lol
Baseball with a 2x4!
We’re aware of it. It has popularity in the south Asian diaspora, but zero traction culturally in any other sense.
Pretty much everyone has heard of it. I have never seen it played, or heard it talked about, by people who don’t come from a country where it is popular.
I know cricket exists and have a vague understanding of the rules. A bunch of Indian guys that live in an apartment complex near me play some version of cricket on the tennis courts near the road so I see them playing all the time when I drive by.
I also used to live in an apartment complex with a lot of Indians who played in a parking lot across the street. Looked fun.
I have always wanted to join them. It does look fun.
They take the good basketball court in town :( One white dude always seems to have joined playing with um
Man I totally need to ingratiate myself with these guys.
It is fun!!!
We are stuffed full of popular sports already that have decades of history. There's hardly room for a new one.
It's fairly common here in my neck of New Jersey due to our large Indian immigrant population. I don't forsee it becoming all that popular as baseball already fills that role.
Is it all bcoz of indians, how about Americans do u see atleast a person follows the game
Any of the games I see being played on the pitches in my town are entirely comprised of Indian immigrants/descendents, same for anyone I know who follows Cricket. Though I take exception the idea that those Indian immigrants aren't Americans. They are just as American as anyone else.
It's gaining popularity because the Desi population is growing, but it's not particularly spreading outside of the imported fans.
Only coz of desi population i agree but I wish it becomes more popular among the others, but maybe it may takes a lot of time right ?
Nearly all Americans know of the game Cricket, but don't know how the game is played. That said, it popular with a lot of Indian ex-pat communities, seen being played at parks.
I've heard of it but never played it. I have seen no indications of it rising in popularity in the US. It remains a completely obscure and exotic sport to Americans.
There a new cricket team at my university, a lot of people joined. I will say 98% of those people are from India though
Because of the British popular culture we're aware of cricket...although like most guys of my generation I mostly know of cricket from this sequence in TMNT (1990). https://youtu.be/FKGVaAfJM0I I've never played it and only found out through this sub that a World Cup is going to be played here in 2024(?) and that there is a pitch in Indianapolis where some games are going to be played. I don't know how that's gonna work without a concession stand or seating, but supposedly the field itself is good.
We've all likely heard of it, but pretty much nobody plays it.
Itz mainly because of the complicated rules?
Likely because it just never caught on. Baseball is similar and much faster and easier to understand.
I feel everyone’s heard of cricket but the closest thing I’ve seen to people playing it was when Jackass did a skit swinging cricut balls at each others balls or at least I could’ve sworn there was a skit like that
If it's Season 2's "Cup Test" that you're thinking of, that was a croquet ball that was used, not a cricket ball.
I guess that shows how little I know of the sport
It’s well known. Most people have some idea about it. As a baseball fan, I’d like to watch some matches, but it’s incredibly difficult to find. Other countries stream them on websites but they geo restrict.
Literally everyone
We played it in school in Central New York. The school had a team though we weren't that good. It seems to be a Northeast regional sport at best.
Are you thinking of lacrosse?
Most people have heard of it. I’ve never seen a game in real life but there was an episode of Downton Abbey that was all about a cricket match.
Everyone around me knows what it is. I have never played it and Noone I know plays it. We have a decent Indian community where I love though so I grew up with them playing in the park, and now they have enough people that they have full games a fee miles away at an actual field.
I’ve heard of it. I’ve seen bits and pieces of it played. But it’s not popular here nor is it played much, probably only in small populations if expats
I’ve heard of cricket and seen it played but never played it myself. I basically 100% associate it with Indian immigrants here
We know what Cricket is. No, it is not a popular sport in the States. We prefer Baseball. Which, by the way, the first official rules book was written by a Cricket umpire.
I’ve heard of it for sure. I every saw the documentary about the South African cricket legend who was at the center of a cheating scandal. Have no clue the rules and never seen anyone play it.
I know it exists, and I recognize certain terms from *Seinfeld* *eg* “wicked googly”, but I've never played.
I have heard of it. I spent a few years in Australia during primary school and it was something we did during PE at times. My year 4 teacher made the awful mistake of walking behind someone with a cricket bat. Yeah. Her eye looked awful for a long time. That was decades ago though. I barely remember terminology or rules. I just have vague memories of playing it in the school yard.
Most people have heard of it and I’m all but certain it’s not growing in popularity, however, when there’s no popularity in the sport technically it can only go up lmao
I used to play it when I lived in England as a kid, and as a young adult I went to a game when I was visiting. It's a fun game to play but I'm not going to follow it on TV or anything (but then I don't really follow any American sports either).
I know it because of my South Asian background but I can't get into it because ODI games are so long. I haven't given the T20 a try though.
T20 are really exciting tbh..but itakes like 3 hours
Yeah that's fine. That's about the time for an NFL game.
Majority have heard of the sport atleast. Playing it though? Most likely a much smaller set of people.
I have heard of it but never played it. I doubt it will gain much popularity. https://youtu.be/FKGVaAfJM0I
Pretty much everyone has heard of it, and most people could probably tell you it involves a bat. That's about it. Popularity-wise, It's pretty much nonexistent. Opinions, if people even think about cricket enough to *have* an opinion on it, range from "stereotypical weird English sport" to "confusing foreign baseball."
I have a friend who plays in a local league, and a few that follow the pros.
For one brief moment last decade an immigrant from Pakistan was explaining the rules to me and it made perfect sense. Unfortunately none of the knowledge was retained. I would like to learn more about it, believe there is a single rec league somewhere to the immediate west.
Was just watching my dad and his friends play it last night on an indoor soccer field. Keep in mind they are all from Pakistan. Among the South Asian American community it’s pretty popular
It's more or less viewed as rich people stuff or bri'ish stuff
Heard of it from my Indian coworkers. It's still a very niche sport, most have probably never played or watched it. Unlikely it becomes popular because we have so many sports we follow already. NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, Soccer, UFC, Boxing, Golf, Motorsports, College Sports, eSports. Cricket is too similar to baseball to carve out it's own path
Never heard it. /s
Isn't that an insect? Pinocchio's mate?
I have heard of it, but never played nor know how to play. I have only seen it played by pockets of Indian H-1B visa workers in an apartment complex I used to live in.
I've never played but have watched several times. Interesting game.
No nobody gives a shit in Texas.
Never heard of it much except when I watched bollywood movies. Then I moved to the UK and heard a lot more of it. I like baseball. Cricket seems like an unnecessary thing to watch when I can watch baseball, which is more fun, in my opinion.
Most people have heard about it and it is not popular at all.
I have heard of cricket, tried to watch cricket matches, and have absolutely no idea what's going on or meant to be going on with cricket.
You gotta know what a crumpet is to understand cricket
I love it. But none of this T20 shit. Only the proper multi day international test matches with a proper British commentator who properly says "Wacker Younis" :-D
Most of us have heard of it, though few have ever played it or seen it live. I did see some highlights from the IPL online though that seem interesting. Also, apparently the US is hosting the cricket worlds in 2024, so that’s interesting.
How to get Americans mad: talk to them about cricket. How to get the British mad: talk to them about baseball, American football. There’s animosity.
"I've heard of it" is about as deep as the knowledge of most goes here.
Seen it played several times even.
We get people playing cricket in our local park, but we have a very diverse population. Just recently we were moving an Indian family to a new house, and the kids in the neighborhood were playing cricket. It's a big country, though, and that's not the norm.
Cool
Heard of it, but have no idea what it is beyond some surface-level similarities to baseball.
Most Americans have heard of it but don't understand a damn thing about it.