 Cricket: The sport of India

In the context of today, it can be said that Cricket has become synonymous with
the identity of being an Indian sports enthusiast. Such is the charisma of the
game in the nation and so badly are the people influenced with the aura of
Cricket-stars that their glory and fan following can easily put some Bollywood
stars to shame.

 Origin of Cricket
It is said that initially Cricket found its origin in South East England, and further moved
to British Colonies the world over. As India also was one of the British colonies, the
game found its roots over here through the British Officers who brought it along to India
as a favorite pastime.

It was during the 18th century that cricket came into india and other colonies of England.
And officially international matches are played since 1844 onwards. However test
matches officially started at 1877.

 Now talking about some facts of Cricket---

It is the 2nd famous sport after Football.

Do anybody know how many countries play cricket…. There are around 97 countries
playing cricket.

The ICC has three classes of membership as follows:

1) 10 Full members which play official test matches.

2) 32 Associate Members, where cricket is firmly established and organised, but do not
qualify for full membership.
3) 55 Affiliate Members, where ICC has recognized that cricket is being played as per
laws of cricket.

Thus there are in all 97 countries where cricket is being played in different levels.

 Talking about the different formats of cricket

There are 2 main formats i.e. the
1) Test Cricket
2) Limited overs Cricket
a. One Day matches(50 overs)
b. International T20 matches
c. League T20 matches
Talking about the Cricket as a religion in India
Cricket, the de facto national sport of India is a religion in the country. In fact, it is
the one religion that is common to the entire population of India. This sport drives the
one billion populations crazy. The whole world gets united for watching a cricket match.
This is a religion which unites all of them in one stage. The amount of enthusiasm found
in this sport is missing in the others. There is a magic mantra behind this sport which
attracts people towards it. There are many who worship Indian cricketers as gods.

It unites Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs etc , and they all watch the match
together leaving their religion behind and getting united because of another religion
namely cricket.

Factors leading to the popularity of Cricket in INDIA

Cricket came to the forefront as far as popularity among the masses is
concerned. The main reason behind this might be India’s strong presence in the arena
of Cricket,

The early maestros

Right since the early days of Cricket in India, the country has produced a range of
talented and accomplished Cricket players. These include Ranjit Singh Ji, Vijay Hazare,
C.K.Nayadu, Polly Umrigar, Sunil Gavaskar etc. Of all these, probably Sunil Gavaskar
was the first Cricket player who managed to accomplish the superstar status among the
Cricket fans of the nation.

The Kapil charisma

After this, the Kapil Dev led squad of Indian Cricket accomplished a remarkable feat by
winning the World Cup 1983, making the people of the country go literally crazy about
the game. The new format viz. the Limited Over One Day Cricket became the newest
passion for the young generation of the nation which didn’t like to wait the 5-day long
Test Matches. The increased speed, excitement and thrill of the game worked wonders
in terms of making more and more people addicted to the game, and India’s strong
position in the game which consequently led it to more and more victories at the
international level translated in firm growth of the game in the nation as a popular sport.

Post Kapil era

Even after this India continued to produce accomplished Cricket players like Mohd.
Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar who constantly led
India to more and more victories and trophies, but no team could repeat the charisma
created by the Kapil Dev boys, as India still waits for its second World Cup Trophy.
The Dhoni Effect
Then a young boy from the state of Jharkhand with rock star-like looks and college
boys-like attitude entered the scenario. The boy named Mahendra Singh Dhoni,
popularly known as Mahi among the young crowd soon became the icon of Indian
Cricket. Under the leadership of this talented batsman and captain, Indian Cricket team
managed to win the first Twenty20 Cricket World Cup, which gave the already game a
yet another boost among the sports freaks of the nation.

The M.S. Dhoni led team has been said to be one of the most successful teams Indian
Cricket had ever got, and has time and again proved its strength by winning many major
international championships and trophies.