Cricket Popularity In England

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shahidpak

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Nobody cares about cricket here, when i came here i thought everybody would be talking about cricket, but only a few people actually play iN my school. One of them told me that most of cricket players Come from private schools?!
No wonder England lose the ashes And when in class i said cricket was invented in France they all got sooooo pissed off So why is cricket so unpopular in England? Not what i was expecting?
 
shahidpak said:
Nobody cares about cricket here, when i came here i thought everybody would be talking about cricket, but only a few people actually play iN my school. One of them told me that most of cricket players Come from private schools?!
No wonder England lose the ashes And when in class i said cricket was invented in France they all got sooooo pissed off So why is cricket so unpopular in England? Not what i was expecting?
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Football mate and the fact that you're down south. If you ever go north Derbyshire and upwards there's loads of cricket. Down here in the south it wont become apparent till the summer and you get yourself in a club, we're all here, you've just got to look for us. Kids your age wont be on forums either, but generally every school across the years will have a handful of kids that play at clubs.

Have you found a club yet? They'll be starting nets right about now, the chances are being on the edge of London, they'll be plenty of clubs around and as I recall you're 15 ish? You should easily find a club. Were are you - remind me again and I'll have a look around. But you're right, cricket in schools is pretty dire, if you're waiting around to play school cricket you're probably going to wait a long time and the standards will be generally really poor.

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&hl=en-GB&q=cricket clubs west london
 
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someblokecalleddave someblokecalleddave I think one of the main advantages cricket has down in Australia is that yes we also have football codes that are massive like the Aussie Rules and League, but they are confined to winter and then have about 5 months of offseason being pretty much just domestic sports. This provides a large window in summer where cricket is able to take the sporting limelight on TV and in the press, where football in the UK having a far longer season in the EPL and being a world wide game I assume is pretty much almost a year round thing with various competitions/cups as well?

Football/soccer down here also plays in summer mainly, and yes it has a dedicated following but it's has been and still is relatively small. If you asked just the 'average' bloke on the street I reckon they would be lucky to know more than a handful of soccer players, yet even if they hate cricket would probably recognise and be able to name most of the Test team..
 
Kram81 said:
someblokecalleddave someblokecalleddave I think one of the main advantages cricket has down in Australia is that yes we also have football codes that are massive like the Aussie Rules and League, but they are confined to winter and then have about 5 months of offseason being pretty much just domestic sports. This provides a large window in summer where cricket is able to take the sporting limelight on TV and in the press, where football in the UK having a far longer season in the EPL and being a world wide game I assume is pretty much almost a year round thing with various competitions/cups as well?

Football/soccer down here also plays in summer mainly, and yes it has a dedicated following but it's has been and still is relatively small. If you asked just the 'average' bloke on the street I reckon they would be lucky to know more than a handful of soccer players, yet even if they hate cricket would probably recognise and be able to name most of the Test team..
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Yeah there's a slight over-lap at the start of the season and at the end. Opposite here, if you asked the average bloke on the street cricket related questions, names of players, they'd be a lot better at the football answers, but would struggle with the cricket. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that like Shahidpak alluded to - down south in big urban areas, people honestly think cricket is a posh/middle class thing. I think up north there's more of a community/rural aspect to it. A lot of people that live in metropolitan areas here in the UK have not got a clue what goes on outside of urban areas.
 
someblokecalleddave said:
Football mate and the fact that you're down south. If you ever go north Derbyshire and upwards there's loads of cricket. Down here in the south it wont become apparent till the summer and you get yourself in a club, we're all here, you've just got to look for us. Kids your age wont be on forums either, but generally every school across the years will have a handful of kids that play at clubs.

Have you found a club yet? They'll be starting nets right about now, the chances are being on the edge of London, they'll be plenty of clubs around and as I recall you're 15 ish? You should easily find a club. Were are you - remind me again and I'll have a look around. But you're right, cricket in schools is pretty dire, if you're waiting around to play school cricket you're probably going to wait a long time and the standards will be generally really poor.

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&hl=en-GB&q=cricket clubs west london
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Yeah ive found a club went there called Uxbridge. CC, now its halfterm holidays so we dont have training, but its a very good club i feel, they have net training right now. I live in Uxbridge if u want to know, where do u live?
 
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shahidpak said:
Yeah ive found a club went there called Uxbridge. CC, now its halfterm holidays so we dont have training, but its a very good club i feel, they have net training right now. The most exciting thing is that a few youth players from that club play in Middlesex. I live in Uxbridge if u want to know, where do u live? The only training session i went to we had fielding training, other players werent very good at fielding from what i saw.
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The other side of London mate, Basildon in Essex. 50 or so miles away as the crow flies. I'll have a look at Uxbridge CC right now! Just looked, yeah that looks like a good set up.
 
I've always wondered why Australian aboriginals almost never seem to ever play cricket, whether it be properly at a club or even just kids mucking around in the yard or street.
 
Kram81 said:
I've always wondered why Australian aboriginals almost never seem to ever play cricket, whether it be properly at a club or even just kids mucking around in the yard or street.
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Massive cultural divide?
Kram81 said:
I've always wondered why Australian aboriginals almost never seem to ever play cricket, whether it be properly at a club or even just kids mucking around in the yard or street.
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Some interesting stuff - here http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/the-aboriginal-innings/520/ sounds like indigenous people have the same perception as the working class people as a rule here in the UK!
 
someblokecalleddave said:
Go on then - what's your issues? (I can feel a Monty Python sketch coming on here).
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One of the best sketches of all time! Thanks :)

Cricket's problem for adults in NZ is competition:

- Takes too long (people of playing age work weekends)
- Costs too much to play (equipment, fees)
- If you're good but not excellent there's no money in it

If I played football (which NZ is crap at) or rugby (which we're good at) and was good I could expect some minor sponsorship so I could play for free and pick up free gear every now and then.

If I was good at cricket I probably still have to pay fees and the gear is expensive. Add in the same amount of practice time as other sports and it is no surprise cricket is well down the list of peoples choices.

People may hate to hear it but if cricket did go all T20 it would be in a position to compete with other sports in NZ.

Oh, and I live in a shoe box in the middle of the road...
 
Is the gear disproportionately expensive? We've got retail outlets here that sell gear dirt cheap. Top quality bats are fairly expensive, but other stuff is reasonable. Fees are variable, but no different to football clubs as far as I'm aware. Time's a factor that puts many people off, especially young lads once they hit the 16 year old age group - girlfriends, socialising and education all start to get in the way of cricket, only the obsessed make it through that stage I reckon.
 
shahidpak said:
Btw Dave how did the trials go for your sons?
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No he wasn't selected. They said they'd keep an eye on him over the summer and see how he goes and if a place came up where kids dropped out he'd be considered as a reserve. We weren't surprised as he was ill on the day of the trials and the competition was pretty good. We're not that fussed, he's not obsessed with cricket.
 
someblokecalleddave said:
Is the gear disproportionately expensive? We've got retail outlets here that sell gear dirt cheap. Top quality bats are fairly expensive, but other stuff is reasonable. Fees are variable, but no different to football clubs as far as I'm aware. Time's a factor that puts many people off, especially young lads once they hit the 16 year old age group - girlfriends, socialising and education all start to get in the way of cricket, only the obsessed make it through that stage I reckon.
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Good gear in NZ tends to be expensive as we don't make much of it and the rest has to be imported. The cheapest good quality bowling shoes I can get have to come from Oz, I've tried retail outlets and other links in NZ but they are always more expensive.

I've never played in England but having talked to a number of average club players from there who have come to NZ for cricket as part of their OE the consensus is that gear is more expensive here.
 
leftie600 said:
Good gear in NZ tends to be expensive as we don't make much of it and the rest has to be imported. The cheapest good quality bowling shoes I can get have to come from Oz, I've tried retail outlets and other links in NZ but they are always more expensive.

I've never played in England but having talked to a number of average club players from there who have come to NZ for cricket as part of their OE the consensus is that gear is more expensive here.
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Yeah I guess if it's being imported, that'll be the case... makes sense.
 
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