Will Baseball ever Rival Cricket as a world Game?

Question

Baseball died out in Britain at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, its obviously still massive in the USA.

But Cricket seems more popular world wide. Its a big sport in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Bahamas, Guyana, Bermuda, Kenya and Zimbabwe, and is growing in Ireland, Holland, Italy, Denmark, Israel, Nepal, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Namibia, Uganda, Fiji and Mauritius, and is even played a little in Canada,Argentina China and Greece now!

Baseball seems only really big in USA, Cuba, Japan and Venezuela.

Will it ever grow as big as cricket?

PS; Personally i cant stand either sport!

Answer 1

Most of crickets popularity as a world game comes from Britain itself. Britain had a global empire and occupied many of the countries you mentioned. As Britain's influence weakens and the game of baseball spreads (I'd say 50-100 years), you will see cricket fade more and more into a Britain, Aussie, Canadian sport. Baseball is growing faster and faster every year. It's only a matter of time. MLB games are starting to be played around the world more and more.

Answer 2

Check this out; because I know this one. First of all the reason Baseball is not popular in most of the rest of the world is economics. It costs alot of money to outfit a team; much less a league; like a "Little league" like me and everybody I grew up with played in. Think of all the **** you have to buy, and blah, blah, blah. You can't play real baseball without someone coming up with a few ducketts! That's why Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. Most of the world is poor, and for Soccer; all you need is a fkn' coconut, or an "Yet to be shrunken head"... whatever... 1 ball,, you've got everything you need. What a bargain. True, Soccer is a big deal now in the middle class suburbs where we grew up; but after that; interest fizzles, and it's on to Football (American), or Baseball. But, if your low on bread, you can't play ball man! My mitt alone goes for about 60 bucks! Times that by 18 for both teams, then start buying bats,, you think the "Yubangee's" in Banglanam can just whip out those kind of bones; no way.. so they're going to play Soccer; of course they are... But in the suburbs of San Jose, and Sacramento, thank god they're still teaching and playing baseball. And thank you for reading this.. Good day to you!

Answer 3

The World Baseball Classic was represented by 16 countries and the US team did not even make the finals. The countries represented were China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, USA, Cuba, Netherlands, Panama, Puerto Rico, Australian, Dominican Republic, Italy and Venezuela.

As for Cricket, it hasn't even been an Olympic Sport since 1900 and I cannot find it on a list of sports for inclusing to the Olympics. Karate and Squash may get in soon followed by Golf and Roller Sports. Where is Cricket on this list?

40% of the IOC is made up of European counties where Baseball has not taken off, so that goes further to explain the exclusion of the sport after 2008.

Answer 4

I have no idea, but is cricket really considered a rival sport to baseball? Isn't it just about the same thing with maybe some different rules of play? But since I don't see Canada or Mexico mentioned in your question, does that make me have to wonder if neither sport are popular in them. Baseball of course is not, well now since Toronto Blue Jays have become the only team thqat plays outside of the United States and we know, since the other team coudln't even get fans itno the games, and they had to move to Washington DC?

Answer 5

I know cricket has a following, but I don't know enough about it to comment. But I can say with absolute certainty that you are dead wrong about baseball. To add to your list of US, Cuba, Japan, and Venezuela: Taiwan, South Korea, China, Australia, Italy, Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, The Philippines -- and that's only the ones I know for sure. Central America probably has more countries who play it and there might even be a following in Europe besides Italy. I'm not saying it's more wide spread than cricket, only that it is quite a bit more wide spread than you think.

Answer 6

Cricket is really only big in former colonies and South Africa.
Baseball is HUGE in Latin America, second really only to football/soccer. Add Mexico, Haitia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, etc. to your list.
Baseball is HUGE in much of Asia, especially Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.

I don't know that either will be a world game in the sense of everyone liking it.
But if anything, cricket is the less-beloved sport. Or was it added to the Olympics and I didn't notice?

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Baseball is only big in four countries? How about:

US
Canada (they still have a major league team, remember, and a few minor league ones)
Mexico
Dominican Republic
Venezuela
China
Taiwan
Japan
Korea
Hong Kong

And growing in places like:
South Africa
Australia
Italy
Denmark
other European countries as well

Answer 9

It all depends on marketing. I always thought soccer was the world's game. We even have a league in the USA.

Answer 10

I can't sit and watch cricket, it's just too boring, and all the terms that nobody understands just makes it worse. On the other hand i can watch a game of Baseball, i get into all the stats and best of all it's easy to understand. I don't know (and personally don't care) if it will grow to be bigger than cricket, but i do know it's a better game to watch.