The future of cricket lies in Indian Subcontinent

We can see that slowly but steadily Cricket is becoming an Indian subcontinent Sports. Undivided India was the first team from the subcontinent to join the cricket fraternity when it was still a British colony, until Pakistan joined soon after the nation was partitioned out of India in the year 1947.

It took several  years but in the year 1982 Sri Lanka got the test playing nation status. After a decade and half, it won the Cricket World Cup in 1996 carving its niche and announcing its arrival on the scene. Soon Bangladesh joined the coveted club and now is a potent force to reckon with. Latest to join the  bandwagon is Afghanistan which is getting better match by match, potent enough to defeat and giving scary moments to established teams. Now we have 5 out of 9 countries from the Indian Subcontinent present and represented in the ungoing World Cup in India.

My prediction - these 5 countries will dominate the Subcontinent for years to come. It won't be an over exaggeration and no need for one to be a clairvoyant to predict that the future of cricket lies in Indian Subcontinent where close to 2 billion people live - with cricket being the no 1 to 10 in the scale popularity in these countries. Rest of the games come way behind. 

Hockey once dominated by India and Pakistan is in a struggling proposition in those countries. In India it is being played in mid sized cities craving for attention than any genuine interest in the Sports. In Pakistan a country which won a bronze medal in Olympics Hockey as late as year 2004, the sports is as good as dead.

Now back to cricket - what's the comparative status of other test playing nations ? Zimbabwe is currently in its deathbed as their megalomaniac President Mugabe is busy hammering down the final nails on its cricket coffin. Afghanistan beat them to qualify for this edition of World Cup. The decline of the Windies continues irrespective of some odd promising results - like flickers seen in a lamp's flame before it extinguishes. 

South Africa and Australia are not as potent a force as they once use to be. England and New Zealand more or less remain the same, hardly any noteworthy change in their status quo. We can very well conclude that the future of cricket lies in the Indian Subcontinent - the biggest legacy left by the British apart from the English language.