2 Divisions for Test Cricket

[Googly]

This is an amazing bit of info. Clearly you can see I'm bored.

Agreeing with a few earlier commenters - definitely you have to take into account college sports in the U.S. According to a Wikipedia ranking, college football boasts 15 stadiums larger than the largest NFL stadium, and 5 stadiums seating more than 100,000. Wikipedia also indicates that NCAA Division I FBS football drew total crowds of over 37 million in 2010, more than any other league except for MLB.

[eugene]

Eugene where do you get Basketball being 2nd most popular sport? It isnt even close to being in the top three. NFL is pretty cool even though no fitness is recquired to play it. Just have no interest in Basketball. Baseball is pure tripe. NHL seems ok but a bit of a madhouse

In continental Europe, most of Africa, South America, Basketball is the second most popular sport behind football. In the USA it is huge at both NBA and College level. What other sport would be more popular than basketball? CRicket is skewed just because of its popularity in one country with a billion people.

[Googly]

I go along with that. You need a ball, that's going to make it popular. If you ramp it up you need a pair of shoes. What's played on the street and in the park is a good indicator.

[eugene]

What a lot of people outside the USA don't realise is just how popular college sports are. I live in Kentucky where college basketball is the most popular sport, even more popular than football. Many people here have no interest in professional sport (KY has no professional franchises) and only follow University of Kentucky or University of Louisville sport.

[Kriterion_BD]

Flakeman, no fitness required to play football? Have you seen the physique of a Odell Beckham Jr or a Cam Newton? The NFL draft combine has the most thorough measurables of any sport. 40 yard dash times, bench press reps, vertical leaps, and even measures hand sizes, among many other things. You don't realize how hard players go on each down. Its like arguing fast bowling is easy because no player full sprints in his runup.

[CrimsonAvenger]

Test cricket should be left as it is. Some of the greatest tests have been drawn, why eliminate a possible outcome? The lower tier test nations will just fall further behind if this two tier system is implemented. The biggest things holding back cricket in the lesser nations can be fixed by the ICC without changing the face of the game, except for Pakistan which is a victim of wider political issues. Zim, WI, and SL suffer from poor governance, and thus lack of money. NZ needs more money to compete with rugby, Bangladesh just needs more time.

^This.

[ZIMDOGGY]

American football players are pretty unfit aerobically on the most part, and I don't like the incredibly stop start nature of it (derived from commercial interests),however I do appreciate the pinpoint segmented athleticism of the players. A sport that has the fastest of the fastest up against the most powerful of the powerful, combined with vision and skill. It's explosive. Can make the rugby codes look dull at times in the highlights reel. Still prefer the rugby codes over it though.

Baseball in the other hand I haven't got time for over cricket. I speak to a lot of yanks and to be honest, I think they are losing interest too. It's not as popular a game as I imagined as a kid. They just don't talk about MLB stars like they do NFL stars. I can't genuinely name any current superstar of the top of my head but I can run off a good ten NFL players.

I heard that it's become very Latino and kit as many Americans in the top league so they may e losing some interest that way. Not sure I believe that but.

And yes, they love their college sport over there, very very much.

[ZIMDOGGY]

Eugene where do you get Basketball being 2nd most popular sport? It isnt even close to being in the top three. NFL is pretty cool even though no fitness is recquired to play it. Just have no interest in Basketball. Baseball is pure tripe. NHL seems ok but a bit of a madhouse

In continental Europe, most of Africa, South America, Basketball is the second most popular sport behind football. In the USA it is huge at both NBA and College level. What other sport would be more popular than basketball? CRicket is skewed just because of its popularity in one country with a billion people.

Golf?

[eugene]

Golf is big in the USA and parts of Europe and Asia, but it doesn't have the worldwide popularity of basketball.

[Kriterion_BD]

Cricket is skewed but there are 3 countries that contribute to that, not just India. Pakistan and Bangladesh have populations of 200 and 170 million respectively.