Cricket is not the national game of India but no doubt it has been the most popular game in India for ages. Cricket is not a native game of India. This game has been introduced in India by our former British Rulers.
Since then cricket has come a long way and it is in our blood and soul.
Currently India is among the leading playing nations of world cricket.
This is one of the few games where our country has been able to make a mark in the international level.Cricket no doubt is a classic game. Though today only 9 or 10 countries are playing this game seriously.
Game of gentlemen
In the early days of cricketing history everybody considered cricket as a game of gentlemen. In our country the native Indian learnt this game from the foreign rulers though they were unable to play that game. But this is the game which was played by the elite men of the society. It was not so popular among the general people in the 1930’s or 1940’s. Test cricket was really a boring object and still I hate test cricket. At that days my grandfather went regularly to see the matches and I heard from him that in those days the spectators went to the stadiums with their breakfast and lunch. Those were their picnic days. The great players like Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Lala Amarnath, Farukh Engineer, Vijay Merchant, Fadkar, Vijay Manjarekar , Eknath Solkar etc was the Indian favorite. At that time England, Australia and West Indies were three cricketing super power.
Legend like Don Bradman was unseen to the cricket lovers of India as there were no Live TV coverage of those immortal games like the bodyline series.
Cricket in Olympic
Though today the cricket lovers are demanding to include cricket in the Olympic games, Cricket was played by two nations in 1902. The two nations were England and France. England had won that historical cricket match. In these days France does not play Cricket or this Game is not so popular in that country.
Advent Of One Day Cricket
Since 1970 there was only Test Cricket. As far as I remember from the history of cricket book, a match between England and Australia had cancelled and for public demand the both country played a limited over one day match. That is the first ever one day match in the history of cricket. Kery Packer first made the game popular in the cricketing world and in 1975 the first One day Cricket world cup was held in England. West Indies easily won that match. India first won their one day match in 1975 against East Africa. The most memorable incident of Indian Cricket that India had won the cricket World Cup in 1983. Kapil Dev Was the captain of India.
And after the advent of Oneday cricket became the game of everybody from the game of Gentlemen.
Curse:- Betting
As the one day cricket is growing its popularity day by day a Match Fixing Controversy has made the mess. The reason behind this is too much excitement about the cricket and the chance to get more moneys beside this game. The great players like Hansey Cronje, Mohammad Azharuddin is also involved in match fixing. This is very shameful.
Game of whole day
The reason behind the unpopularity of cricket in U.S.A or other European countries is the time wasting. The time is a main factor in this countries and cricket is no doubt a game of popularity. For the same reason in England and West Indies also cricket is loosing its popularity day by day. Now a days Indoor Cricket has formed and Perhaps it is the future of Criket.