Should cricket be a national sport of India?

Yes

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by Simon Wright

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How do we determine what the national sport of a country is? Well, some countries seemingly go as far as to enshrine a sport as the national sport via legal doctrine. For example, in Canada, the 1994 National Sports of Canada Act decreed that "the game commonly known as ice hockey is hereby recognized and declared to be the national winter sport of Canada and the game commonly known as lacrosse is hereby recognized and declared to be the national summer sport of Canada."

Very organised people those Canadians, but in most countries the question of which sport is considered the "national sport" is an entirely subjective one. There is no official log of what each country's official sport is and must be for all time. Instead, it is usually just a label which gets applied based upon the views and perceptions of lots of individuals. If enough individuals agree that one sport should be considered a country's national sport, then that tag may stick, at least until another sport rises up to usurp it in popularity.

Some high profile examples of where countries are very definitely considered (at least by the public) to have a national sport include Brazil (soccer), New Zealand (rugby union), and China (ping pong). Other times it is less clear. Soccer is probably considered by most to be the national sport of England but other sports such as rugby union, rugby league, and cricket attract huge devotion from their followers as well.

If we look at the case of India, cricket is most definitely the sport that most outsiders associate with that country. However, India also has a proud history in field hockey, and soccer attracts huge crowds. Indeed, field hockey is sometimes stated to be the national sport of India but, despite the great past feats of Indian Olympic hockey teams, hockey can simply not compete for popularity with the sport of cricket. And soccer, whilst attracting crowds that are sometimes in excess of 100,000, is a sport that India has not yet excelled at in the international arena.

Cricket, then, combines huge popularity with the fact that India is acknowledged as having one of the best cricket sides in the world. Players like Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar have lit up the game and are amongst the leading players to have ever picked up a cricket bat. The recent formation of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Twenty20 cricket has also further established India's place at the heart of cricket. Attracting huge crowds and TV audiences (over 24 million watched the 2008 IPL final), the IPL has been extremely marketable and has therefore attracted untold riches and the best players in the world.

No sport has the divine right to remain a nation's national sport but the support that cricket enjoys in India shows no sign of declining. It deserves to be considered the real national sport of India rather than field hockey. Indeed, over the course of the coming years, it may find that the main challenge to its supremacy comes from soccer as that sport continues to tighten its grip as the world's most popular sport.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/National_sp ort#National_sports_ defined_by_law

http://en.wikisource .org/wiki/National_S ports_of_Canada_Act

http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/India#Sport s

http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/India_natio nal_cricket_team

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