Can Cricket Compete With Football?

The biggest sport event on Earth, the FIFA World Cup-2010 is about to begin. Being held in South Africa, this will be the 19^th edition of the World’s most popular global event. FIFA World Cup is truly the biggest sports event when it comes to the craze, popularity and devotion. Even the Olympic Games cannot compete with the excitement and craziness that a FIFA world cup ignites. Soccer world cup is such a big event that people (like me) who normally do not follow football, are bound to take interest in the game!

Football or Soccer is the planets’ most popular game. Soccer has the world’s largest fan following on Earth. It’s fast, it’s exciting and it’s highly competitive. People are crazy about Football.

FIFA, the Federation of International Football Association, is the worlds’ most influential and powerful sport governing body.

So, why I opted to write on Soccer World Cup-2010? Actually, I got the feeling that I should write something about the comparison between Cricket & Soccer, or ICC & FIFA, for that matter.

Soccer is said to have a Chinese origin, where it was discovered by the English and is now the most followed sport in 93 countries with a two-billion population. 

FIFA has 208 member nations. The English Premier League (EPL) and the Champions League are the most popular football leagues. Soccer also has the largest base of diehard fans, players and professional leagues in the world’s largest economy, Europe.

As mentioned above, the FIFA World Cup is the biggest and most lucrative sporting event in the world. The 2006 tournament, involving 64 matches, 32 nations and television coverage in 214 countries, had a cumulative television audience of 26 billion people. According to another report, the final between Italy and France was watched by 700 million viewers.

Well, everybody knows Soccer or Football is the world’s most popular sport. But which sport comes 2^nd, it is highly debatable. The popularity level is measured in terms of total estimated followers/fans for a particular sport. The most recent records as

appeared on Sportingo website say Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world, thanks to the 1.5 billion population of Indian subcontinent. Due to the heavy population in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, the number of people following Cricket is largest after Football or Soccer. The same report says that Cricket is among the top three most popular sports in Australia, England, South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Afghanistan and Mauritius.

The International Cricket Council, ICC, is the ruling body of Cricket. It has 10 Test playing nations and 104 member countries. According to the report, the ICC World Cup is the world’s 2^nd largest single sporting event, drawing a cumulative television audience of five billion. The Indian Cricket Board, BCCI is the world’s richest sporting organization, with a valuation in excess of $2 billion.

However, we must mention that this is highly debatable, whether Cricket is the 2^nd most popular sport in the world.

Why Soccer beats all the other sports in popularity? More clearly, why Soccer is much more popular than Cricket?

I know it’s a very interesting comparison. This is what we will be discussing in our next post…! 

Your Turn Now: Tell us in Your Opinion Why Football is the Most Popular Sport in the World? Why Football is much more popular than Cricket? Do You Think Cricket is Truly the World’s Second Most Popular Sport? Do You Think FIFA is More Powerful and Effective Than ICC? Or Anything Else…Tell in Your COMMENTS!