By Anushka Ghosh
Just a couple months ago, Australia took home the World Cup trophy along with the title of World Champions. Not the FIFA cup, the ICC Cricket World Cup! Fourteen countries participate in the international league; many of which are former British colonies, like India, Bangladesh, and the champions themselves, Australia. The only other famous former British colony that doesn’t take part in the league is the U.S. Not only are Americans purposefully ignorant of this game, some don’t even consider it a sport.
Cricket was among the more popular sports in America in the mid-19th century, but lost to baseball’s rapid expansion. Initially, baseball had simple rules and didn’t require dedicated grass fields like cricket. This allowed baseball to grow in lower to middle class communities. However, this was only a small factor, Americans started to favor baseball a few decades after the Civil War. At this time America’s national identity began to emerge along with new communications and transportation technologies. This was recognized by baseball promoters and they formed the National Association of Professional Baseball Players from the existing travelling clubs. At this point, many of the top cricket players switched to baseball, and the fans went with them. From a spectator’s view, baseball and cricket were too similar, thus, they could not coexist.
Another advantage baseball had over cricket at that time was the fact that it was a diverse sport, whereas, cricket was the game of wealthy Anglo-Americans. As generations passed, newer immigrants and their children adopted America’s game, and its ascendancy was aided by a rising sense of U.S. nationalism.
It makes sense why cricket vanished from the U.S. in the late 1800s, but why are people not willing to accept it today? The rest of the world plays it, why doesn’t the U.S. join in too? The sport is famous enough to have its own world series. A country is declared a winner, instead of a state. Unlike in baseball, where a state wins the Major League and are given the title of world champions. News flash: U.S. and Canada are not the only countries in the world.
Cricket is not the primarily white dominated sport it used to be. Sure, Australia won the World Cup this time, but in the previous league, India took home the trophy. South Africa and Sri Lanka are considered strong teams.
As far as differences are concerned, cricket and baseball are extremely different when a closer look is taken. A typical baseball game score might be 5 to 3 after 2 to 3 hours. There are many different types of cricket leagues and their duration varies accordingly. In the world cup, there are a total of 100 overs, so there are about 600 balls pitched, and the whole match takes about 7 hours. The runs, or the scores, range from 200 to 400. Pitching is called bowling, and like baseball, the balls are thrown incredibly fast and the highest speed recorded is 106mph. Also, hitting a cricket ball is harder than hitting a baseball. It bounces once before the batter hits it and the ball can spin away from or toward the batter. The field is a big oval with no foul territory and no such thing as a foul ball or a strikeout. The cricket ball is as hard and heavy as a major league baseball, but only one player, the wicket keeper, gets to wear a glove. Catching a line drive with bare hands is enough to cut up a player’s hand. Fly balls must also be caught without a glove.
It is very unlikely that cricket will ever become as popular as baseball, basketball, or football in the U.S., but Americans should acknowledge it as a sport, because it is one. Maybe it could be introduced in gym as one of the units. This way people would be aware of how the sport is played. In the Mill Pond School, there is a cricket unit, but really students play baseball with plastic cricket equipment which really doesn’t convey what cricket is all about. Buying cricket equipment is a bit expensive, but it is a one time purchase. Students will only understand if they like the sport once they actually play it. Cricket is a incredible sport, and like any other sport, it brings people together as a team. There are only benefits of introducing cricket in Westborough.
