Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Cricket in Indonesia?!

Sport is an intensely cultural thing. No matter how much you try to interest Americans in soccer, it'll never happen, because it's just not part of their culture. They'll always come back to their beloved baseball, NFL football and basketball.

Same thing with Canadians. If it's not hockey, they could care less.

Which is why I take this article on cricket in Indonesia with a big grain of salt. Given how obsessed Indonesians are with sports like soccer and badminton, I find it highly unlikely that they'll jump ship in favor of the sport of bowlers and wickets.

Now local expats, like Indians and Australians: That's another story. It's in their blood, and they'll never give up the passion until they're six feet under. Heck, I bet they even understood that cricket reference at the pivotal moment of the movie Slumdog Millionaire.

As for me, a red-blooded Canadian who thinks solely in terms of frozen rinks and hockey pucks ... I've never even heard of Ricky Ponting!


Today's Top Stories

More Burmese being rescued by the day

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

ooohh... ricky ponting... did you hear that name from 'slumdog millionaire'?

Christopher Taylor said...

Yes indeed - I have to brush up on my cricket history! :)

Arka Sarkar said...

ya u r actually right. the sport of every nation goes into their blood. as an indian, am a mad cricket lover. thats why it seems boring to me even when indians like leander paes in tennis wins australian open. but it takes nearly 20-30 years to put a sport into a nation's blood. nearly 100 years ago, india wasn't a cricket loving country, it was mad with hockey and football. so actually choice changes. i dont think its easy to insert cricket into indonesia. but best of luck for this to the governing body of world cricket- ICC