Cricket World Cup 2011

Cricket World Cup 2011 is being played in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This is the most watched sporting event after Olympics and the Soccer World Cup. However, the North American public is completely oblivious to this third largest sporting event in the world.

The U.S. & Canadian tv spends most of the time showing ice hockey and football (two very popular games in North America) and Cricket is not mentioned even in passing. They are depriving the North American public from watching one of the best sports competitions in the world. More than a billion and half people are glued to to their tv sets around the world to follow each and every game.

Two more quarter finals remain to be played between New Zealand v South Africa and Sri Lanka v England. The reigning champions of last three world cups - Australia were knocked out of the competition by India today.

India and Pakistan are already through to semi-final. Their match on March 30 will be quite a spectacle. The cricket rivalry is rampant between these nations. This will probably be the most watched event in this world cup, possibly catapulting worldwide tv viewership to two billion.

It is said that baseball was born out of rounders and rounders out of cricket. Interestingly, the first ever international cricket match played was between Canada and U.S. For the 2011 Cricket World Cup U.S. team did not qualify, Canada did, but was knocked out in the first round.

Cricket has tremendous potential in North America and if the major sports channel show some of the World Cup games, interest will increase as a large number of young people in North America already play cricket at school level.