Nope. Cricket is played more than other sports?

Question

This is the most updated list! Believe it or not.

TOP 5 SPORTS IN the [WORLD]

foot ball

cricket

basketball

baseball

Answer 1

Well, the high ranking of cricket is distorted by two facts: the ICC has over 100 member associations, which is higher than many other sports' governing bodies, but those other sports may be poorly organised in many countries, played exclusively as a social sport/pastime/amateur sport and so the countries' governing bodies do not bother to register with the world governing body (e.g. sport walking, handball), or there may be two or more competing institutions claiming to be the world governing body, with the membership of countries divided up between them (e.g. boxing, darts, chess (if you consider it a sport) etc).

But most of the countries that are affiliated with the ICC have very few active cricket clubs/players and fans. Plus, many of the member associations are not "countries" at all, such as Gibraltar, St. Helena, Falkland Islands, Isle of Man and so on.

The other factor distorting the presence of cricket on the global stage is the huge population of the Indian subcontinent (1.5 billion in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka combined). Sports like tennis, golf and motorsports are played in many more countries with smaller populations, but having the financial resources needed for the infrastructure and personal costs of playing these sports.

So you must treat any claims of cricket being the second most popular sport in the world with caution, because outside the 10 Test playing countries and Kenya, it is virtually unknown. (Plus, soccer is more popular among the majority black population of Zimbabawe and cricket is only played in Kenya by ethnic Indians and the Luo tribe, other tribes like the Kalenjin generally participate in soccer and distance-running instead).

KooKee: Baseball will lose its Olympic status after 2008, and will not be played in London in 2012, partly due to limited interest in the game and partly due to the prevalance of use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. Cricket is not an Olympic sport because:

1) Until recently, the ICC oversaw only men's cricket and not women's, and the IOC requires a single body to administer both the men's and women's game.

2) Relatively few people play or know about the game outside the Test playing countries.

3) Lack of a suitable format. Test matches are too long, and ODIs too may be washed out by rain and there might not be enough reserve days to play again, as an ODI lasts over 7 hours. T20 is a possible format, but too many people oppose the notion that it is a true representation of the skills and acumen needed to play the game properly.

Answer 2

Yes i knew that cricket was the 2nd most popular sport in the world, it has been the 2nd most popular sport in the world for years now.

The sad thing is that it has still yet to be granted a place in the Olympics, which is absolute c**p !!!. Baseball the 4th most popular sport in the world, is only played by a few countries and it's not played to a good standard by most who play it. I have no idea how baseball was granted Olympic status BUT cricket wasn't

Answer 3

It surprises me that tennis is not in third place.