Third Largest Sporting Event ??

[aditya123]

I read in a local newspaper here in India that ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 is the 3rd largest sporting event and the second largest non-olympic sporting event after the FIFA World Cup.
Is it true ??]
If it is, it is really a pleasant surprise considering that cricket is`nt a very global sport compared to sports like Football(Soccer) or Basketball.

 

[irottev]

It's bigger then Basketball.

FIFA World Cup IS soccor. No surprises thats that biggest

 

[aussie1st]

Guess it makes sense given only America is big for Basketball. China has a superstar but don't think they follow it aggressively. With India loving Cricket that 1 billion in population would boost cricket up.

 

[sifter132]

I would have thought the Rugby World Cup would be big too, but it doesn't have the same interest from India and Pakistan that the cricket World Cup has.

 

[aussie1st]

If you go by the number of main teams in Rugby and Cricket then rugby would be more global but population wise Cricket by a mile.

 

[sohum]

It seems surprising out of context, but if I think about it, no sport really reaches global proportions like soccer. Football is perhaps the only sport that is followed and played passionately in all continents in the world.

Americans obviously make a big difference and given that they are so engrossed in their own national sports, they generally don't really watch any other sport outside of American Football, Basketball and Baseball. So it seems surprising at first but kind of obvious afterwards.

 

[irottev]

Rugby sucks. We all know whos already won the next RWC. How boring is that.

 

[aditya123]

It apparently seems that they`ve spent 200 crore USD on the opening ceremony, which is big money .
Americans seem to only follow their own national sports and have very little interest in international sporting events(except the olympics).

Iam not so sure about Rugby`s popularity in Asia.
No other sport can actually reach the kind of mass following that Soccer has achieved.
It was actually really a big surprise to see the kind of following the FIFA World Cup 2006 had in India.
It was hysterical, even though the Indian football team is crap.
That is why the thing about cricket WC being the second biggest after soccer surprised me.

Basketball,Baseball and IceHockey are all followed mainly at a national level in the USA. So it must not be as big on the International tourney level as cricket.
The only other sport that has a big WC tourney is Rugby.

 

[gaurav_indian]

What about Tennis?

 

[Cricketman]

What about Tennis?

No. But the US Open is pretty big though :X
I read that the Cricket second only to Soccer. No surprises there.

 

[usy]

and pakistan is 6th most populas country.

 

[Karachi Xpress]

Pakistan and India have the most cricket supporters then any other country!

 

[gaurav_indian]

Pakistan and India have the most cricket supporters then any other country!

Still we are not in Top 3. :

 

[CricketFan999]

It apparently seems that they`ve spent 200 crore USD on the opening ceremony, which is big money .
Americans seem to only follow their own national sports and have very little interest in international sporting events(except the olympics).

Iam not so sure about Rugby`s popularity in Asia.
No other sport can actually reach the kind of mass following that Soccer has achieved.
It was actually really a big surprise to see the kind of following the FIFA World Cup 2006 had in India.
It was hysterical, even though the Indian football team is crap.
That is why the thing about cricket WC being the second biggest after soccer surprised me.

Basketball,Baseball and IceHockey are all followed mainly at a national level in the USA. So it must not be as big on the International tourney level as cricket.
The only other sport that has a big WC tourney is Rugby.

I actually know quite a few Americans who like and follow Rugby, going so far as to denounce American Football

 

[Jaztheman]

not suprised to be 3rd really