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Cricket, however, started as a pastime for the elite classes who could afford the equipment as well as the officials. Unlike football, cricket saw gradual love in the British colonies in Asia where India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Afghanistan took to the game easily. Apart from them, Australia, New Zealand South Africa and the Caribbean region also started playing cricket. Today, however, European countries have been a regular fixture in lower-level cricket tournaments although they are far from getting the status of Test-playing nation.
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However, if the craze must be compared, football is lightyears ahead of cricket. What cricket is to India, Brazil is football. If gully cricket is the norm on every Indian street, Brazil’s alleys are filled with kids and adults playing football. But, while no other cricketing nation could claim to be as euphoric about the game as India, Brazil has tough rivals in Germany, Spain, France and many others where the masses find an escape in the beautiful game. Recent statistics have shown that while cricket has around 2.5 billion fans around the world, football has five billion fans worldwide.
Cricket vs Football: Physical Demands
As far as fitness levels are concerned, a footballer would need higher athleticism and better recovery time to sustain at the top level, something that’s not the case with cricket. Modern football has gone the “gegenpressing” way, thus making it an extremely high-intensity mode of play. Hence, someone aspiring to be Cristiano Ronaldo would need to be agile and fast apart from honing exceptional coordination and endurance levels.
Cricket isn’t a contact sport and therefore doesn’t ask for the pace and sustained endurance that football does. Instead, cricket demands more focus and technical know-how that are evident in actions like Test batting, a bowler setting up a batter or fielding positions like slip, gully and more.
Both cricket and football, however, demand quick thinking, cardiovascular strength, strong core and quick reflexes and have several benefits. Though cricket once saw numerous stocky individuals play the game, players like Virat Kohli have set a trend for future generations who believe that being athletic could help cricketers survive longer and push the cricket retirement age.