Cricket, which originated in the 13th century in the English county of Kent, has traveled an amazing journey from a peasant village entertainment to the second most popular sport in the world after football. The first reports of cricket’s existence date back to the 13th century, but the true flourishing of the game came in the 18th century when the world’s first cricket club was founded in Hampshire.
The spread of cricket around the world is closely connected with the history of the British Empire. As the British expanded their territories in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific region, they brought not only laws and traditions but also their sporting passions. Colonizers, homesick for their native land, organized cricket games, which proved to be a surprisingly unpretentious sport: all you need to play is a bat, a ball, a couple of primitive wooden structures (wickets), and some open space.
Notably, cricket, unlike football, did not become a “virus” spreading throughout the world. Its popularity clearly outlines the boundaries of the British Empire’s cultural influence on its colonies. As cricket historian Cecil Headlam noted: “First the hunter, the missionary, and the merchant, then the soldier and politician, and finally the cricket player – this is the history of British colonization.”
The Cricket World Map
Today, the geography of cricket’s popularity can be drawn simply by outlining the contours of the former British Empire. Unlike football, which has spread everywhere, cricket has remained within clearly defined cultural boundaries:
- South Asia: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan
- Oceania: Australia, New Zealand
- Africa: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya
- Caribbean: Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago (competing as the united West Indies team)
- Europe: England, Ireland
Interestingly, in England itself, cricket is gradually giving way to football, while in former colonies, it has become a truly national treasure.
“England may have football, but cricket is our game,” they say in India, where national team matches cause such excitement that the government declares holidays when the national team plays.
India — The New Epicenter of Cricket
If cricket was born in England, its rebirth took place in India. The history of cricket here began in 1792 when the first club, organized by English colonizers, appeared in Calcutta.
Initially, it was a game exclusively for “white gentlemen,” but gradually cricket penetrated Indian society. Curiously, this happened along religious lines: the first Indians to master cricket were Parsis (Zoroastrians), followed by Hindus and Muslims.
Until the 1930s, Indian cricket maintained a strict division: teams were formed on religious grounds and competed in the “Bombay Quadrangular” (a tournament involving Europeans, Parsis, Hindus, and Muslims). The cricket field became a unique territory where Indians could compete on equal terms with the colonizers.
Today, India, with a population of almost 1.5 billion people, has transformed cricket into a cult phenomenon. The Indian team’s victory at the 1983 World Cup (the first in the country’s history) became a real catalyst for cricket fever. Residents of multimillion cities and tiny villages equally support the national team.
Matches between India and Pakistan are something more than sport. The rivalry between the two countries, burdened by a complex political history, makes these games some of the most intense in world sports. The last World Cup gathered an audience of 1.6 billion viewers, and just the India-Pakistan game was watched live by more than 300 million people. Besides the game in India, there is also interest in betting on cricket on olymp-casinobd.com.
Stars Brighter Than Hollywood
To understand the scale of cricket’s popularity in South Asia, one need only look at the status of its stars. Indian cricketer Virat Kohli has 248 million followers on Instagram — more than footballer Neymar (208 million) and basketball player LeBron James (153 million). By this indicator, among athletes, Kohli is second only to football icons Ronaldo and Messi.
Kohli earns about 25 million dollars a year, which is comparable to the incomes of the world’s best footballers. In India, he is so popular that he overshadows even Bollywood stars.
Here are a few more names that will mean little to a European but will make millions of hearts flutter in the cricket world:
- Sachin Tendulkar — an Indian legend called the “god of cricket.” In India, his portraits can be seen on the walls of houses and in temples, and his records for the number of runs scored are unlikely to ever be broken.
- Imran Khan — former captain of the Pakistan team who, after ending his sports career, became the prime minister of his country. A telling example of the influence cricketers have in society.
- Don Bradman — an Australian cricketer whose portrait is minted on Australian coins. His average performance (99.94 runs per innings) is compared to the phenomenon of Pelé or Michael Jordan in their sports.
Indian Premier League: A Gold Mine
In 2008, a real revolution took place in the world of cricket. Indian businessman Lalit Modi launched the Indian Premier League (IPL), basing it on the dynamic Twenty20 game format, where a match lasts only three hours instead of the traditional five days.
It was a brilliant commercial move. Modi sold the rights to create 8 clubs in the league for 723 million dollars to leading Indian businessmen. Even the king of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, invested in one of the franchises. This was followed by a contract with Sony to broadcast matches for 900 million dollars.
Today, the IPL is a sports league valued at over 10 billion dollars. Only the American NFL (16 billion dollars) is worth more. In 13 years, the average value of an IPL club has grown from 67 million to 1.04 billion dollars — an annual growth of 24%, which exceeds the growth rates of NFL (10%) and NBA (16%) clubs.
The most expensive IPL club, “Mumbai Indians” (1.3 billion dollars), is now worth more than many MLB and NHL teams and all MLS clubs without exception. And this is despite the fact that the IPL season lasts only two months a year!
Television and Advertising: Billions from the Airwaves
In the 1990s, the Indian Ministry of Sports had to pay the state channel to show matches of the national team. Today, the IPL television contract for 2023-2027 is valued at 6.2 billion dollars.
Although this amount is still less than the NFL’s (10 billion per year), it is already comparable to the contracts of the English Premier League (about 4 billion) and the NBA (2.7 billion). Considering that the IPL season lasts only 2 months, in terms of cost per game, the broadcast value of the Indian Premier League is now second only to the NFL.
Of particular interest is the structure of the IPL advertising market, reflecting the specifics of Indian consumption. Here are the five leading categories:
- Pan masala (traditional Indian chewing mixture made from betel leaf) — 16%
- Fantasy sports — 15%
- Non-alcoholic beverages — 10%
- Cookies — 9%
- Mobile communications — 7%
Three of the five main categories are food and beverages, which is typical for the Indian market. The leadership of fantasy sports shows how passionate Indian fans are.
The main advertiser of the league is the Dream11 platform, valued at 8 billion dollars and having more than 160 million active users. This is the first Indian “unicorn” (a startup worth more than a billion dollars) in the fantasy sports industry.