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Black kids in Africa never were that interested in cricket. It has long been regarded as the sport of the colonialists and the white ruling elite. Even now roughly half of Kenya's roster is Asian.
Zimbabwe has able to attract black players, but not without serious repercussions that has seriously eroded their competitiveness. And it remains to be seen if finally having a majority black team will translate into broader interest among Zimbabwe's population. God knows Mugabe was quite successful in chasing off the team's traditional fan base.
I recently saw a picture of Namibia's Under-12 team. While they've attracted a few black players, a vast majority of the kids are white. And that's a continuation of the status quo, not a change from the recent past.
But I will beg to differ again about black interest in cricket in the West Indies. The team is easily 90% black, the audiences are probably 75% black (varies from island to island), Windies home matches are fairly well attended, and the CPL has been a decent success.
In West Indies, now very few people come to the stadium to watch West indies play Test Match or One Day International. Atleast this is the case for last 10 years. Whatever people I see are the British expats or the Indians flying down from USA. Local people seem to have given up on cricket.
Black kids have their idols in sports . Athletics, Basketball, NFL, Soccer stars are what they wish to become. Cricket is nowhere in the List.
Kids need stars whom they can look upto.
In West Indies, now very few people come to the stadium to watch West indies play Test Match or One Day International. Atleast this is the case for last 10 years. Whatever people I see are the British expats or the Indians flying down from USA. Local people seem to have given up on cricket.
Black kids have their idols in sports . Athletics, Basketball, NFL, Soccer stars are what they wish to become. Cricket is nowhere in the List.
Kids need stars whom they can look upto.
NOBODY fills the stands to watch test matches, except in rare circumstances like The Ashes. Even in South Asia attendance at test matches is thin because not many people have the better part of a week to dedicate to watching a match. And while the Windies ODIs don't exactly draw standing-room-only crowds, I bet they're better attended than many if not most ODI matches in other full-member nations. And no they're not just British ex-pats and Indians flying down from the USA except maybe when India itself is touring. Otherwise the Indians in the stands are mostly Trinibagoan or Guyanese nationals.
Currently South Africa team is touring India for a 3 Test Match series.
The squad is a new look for me.
Out of 15 Test Player Squad
5 are Black Players
3 are India / Pakistan origin
7 are White Players.
By the way, almost everyone from White Background is Afrikaner origin. So Cricket is more popular in Afrikaner Group of White South Africans then Anglophones. I thought that population is almost 50 : 50.
Probably for the first time, I am seeing such a mixed squad.
Lets hope Cricket becomes more popular in all demographics.
Currently South Africa team is touring India for a 3 Test Match series.
The squad is a new look for me.
Out of 15 Test Player Squad
5 are Black Players
3 are India / Pakistan origin
7 are White Players.
By the way, almost everyone from White Background is Afrikaner origin. So Cricket is more popular in Afrikaner Group of White South Africans then Anglophones. I thought that population is almost 50 : 50.
Probably for the first time, I am seeing such a mixed squad.
Lets hope Cricket becomes more popular in all demographics.
Hard to make the case for increasing the sport's popularity when they perform as poorly as ZA has so far on this tour. The state of cricket in Africa is pretty abysmal these days.
Speaking of cricket in Africa, the ICC has lifted is suspension of Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile on the other side of the globe, Phil Simmons is having another go at the helm of the West Indies side.
When I said earlier the state of cricket in Africa is abysmal these days, I was going to add the caveat "except for Namibia." But I declined since they're still something of an also-ran in the cricket ranks. But the latest ODI rankings just released has catapulted them from #28 to #15. At #15 they're still basically in "also-ran" territory but they're definitely ascendant. IMO they could seriously challenge Zimbabwe for the #2 team in Africa. I'd love to see them go head to head in an ODI series.
Meanwhile the Netherlands of all places have edged out Scotland to take the #13 slot, in other words, the highest-ranked non-test-status team. They just really seem to like bat-and-ball sports there, I guess. Their baseball team is also very competitive in the World Baseball Classic, even won the championship a few years ago.*
*ETA: Finished third. Still pretty impressive for a team located nowhere near the traditional baseball strongholds of USA, Spanish Caribbean, and East Asia.
When I said earlier the state of cricket in Africa is abysmal these days, I was going to add the caveat "except for Namibia." But I declined since they're still something of an also-ran in the cricket ranks. But the latest ODI rankings just released has catapulted them from #28 to #15. At #15 they're still basically in "also-ran" territory but they're definitely ascendant. IMO they could seriously challenge Zimbabwe for the #2 team in Africa. I'd love to see them go head to head in an ODI series.
Meanwhile the Netherlands of all places have edged out Scotland to take the #13 slot, in other words, the highest-ranked non-test-status team. They just really seem to like bat-and-ball sports there, I guess. Their baseball team is also very competitive in the World Baseball Classic, even won the championship a few years ago.*
*ETA: Finished third. Still pretty impressive for a team located nowhere near the traditional baseball strongholds of USA, Spanish Caribbean, and East Asia.
There is a reason for that. Their colonies in the Caribbean which were formerly known as Netherlands Antilles. Baseball is very popular there. Earlier they used to participate as separate entity even in Olympics but now they represent Netherlands. Likes of Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten and few others.
Many players from Netherlands Antilles have made up to MLB
Actually most of Netherlands' national baseball team roster is from the mainland. And I was correct, they did win the final Baseball World Cup in 2011, but MLB players weren't allowed to participate so it wasn't necessarily an accurate representation of "the best of the best" in baseball. MLB players ARE allowed to particpate in the Baseball World Classic so IMO it's a better representation of the best of baseball. And the Netherlands placed 4th in 2013 and 2017.
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