Cricket is a Religion in India!

Sixth century B.C, witnessed the birth of two great religions, Buddhism and Jainism, the two offshoots of Hinduism in India. During the Muslim invasions, Islam entered into India and many Muslim rulers forcibly converted many Indians into bread and butter Muslims. With the establishment of European colonies by the Dutch, Portuguese, English and the French, Christianity came to India. When the British colonized India, among other colonial and cultural influences, cricket also had its roots in India. Though the cricket saplings were planted only in some pockets of India like the then Madras, Mumbai and Calcutta, it has grown into a huge monster spreading its offshoots and tentacles far and wide throughout India.

Now cricket has a huge fan following in India, which has practically converted it into a religion. It was Vijay Amirtharaj, one of the Indian tennis legends and a grand ambassador of the UN, in the course of a tennis commentary, coined the phrase stating that ‘cricket is a religion in India.’ Irrespective of the age group, cricket is being played and watched by one and all in India.

Though Hockey is the national game of India, it lost its pre-eminence due to the emergence of Cricket.

Cricket has attained its pre-eminence in India due to the following reasons:

• The huge fan following enjoyed by the game;
• The organizational set up of Cricket:- Cricket has a board of control in India known as BCCI, which is a separate and independent body. It has an august body of administrators to administer and to deal with its huge funds. It is affiliated with the world governing body of cricket called ICC (International Cricket Counsel).   Almost all the states of India have separate cricket associations like Tamil Nadu Cricket Association which co-ordinate their cricket activities through their affiliation with BCCI.
• Strong financial back up: BCCI has thoroughly exploited the fan following in India and got enriched. By virtue of its money power, India has become a cricket super power. In the modern days, apart from the revenue earned by the respective state associations when cricket matches are played there, BCCI is also earning huge revenue in millions of rupees by selling the telecast rights of cricket matches throughout the world.
• India has a well knit cricket infrastructure: India can boast of  well equipped cricket stadium in almost all metropolis like Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkatta , Delhi and other lesser known cities like Bangaluru, Hyderabad, Cochin, Vizakapattinam, Cuttack, Ahamadabad, Jaipur, Kanpur and Gauhati etc.All the stadium are well equipped and well furnished to international standards and they have spread far and wide in India.For example, the cricket stadium in Kolkatta has a seating capacity of 1,00,000 people.Other cricket stadiums are not lagging far behind.
• India has many cricket legends:- India can boast of a number of cricket legends like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar and others, who enjoy a very high reputation in India. In particular, Sachin Tendulkar is considered a demi-God of cricket by his fanatic fans.He began to play for India in the year 1989 and he is the world’s highest run scorer, recently surpassing Brian Lara’s record of 12,000 runs in test cricket.He has scored as many as 41 centuries in the ODIs(One Day International Matches) and as many as 41 test centuries to his credit and still in form and playing cricket for India.In short Sachin Tendulkar has become a household name in a number of families. Above all he has been conferred with almost all the highest titles by the Indian Government, the Padma Vibhushan being the latest.
• MRF pace foundation in Chennai:  The MRF pace foundation in Chennai which has a very illustrious pace bowling coach called Dennis Lillee, is doing yeomen service in promoting the upcoming pace bowlers both in India and other member countries of the ICC and improving their techniques to the international standards. The latest pace bowling sensation of India, Ishant Sharma, is a find of the MRF pace foundation.
• India has well organized plans, programmes and matches to promote cricket: According to the age of the players, they are classified, trained and permitted to play in the cricket matches.There are separate cricket tournaments for the cricket players in the age group of under 15, under 19 and Ranji Trophy matches at the Zonal level. The players who excel in these matches are finally screened and selected by a selection committee headed by a Chairman to play in the Indian team at the international level.
• BCCI offers a high monetary package to its players: The cricket players are graded into three categories called A,B and C according to their talent and form and offers a considerable pay package to them through a contract entered into with them. Apart from that BCCI also has pension schemes to look after the welfare of retired cricket players who are financially sick.
• Twenty Twenty cricket matches have promoted cricket in India: Apart from the test matches and the One Day International matches, the Twenty Twenty Cricket tournament organised by the Indian Premiere League, which began in the year 2008 in India and recently concluded its second edition in South Africa, has instantaneously made cricket very popular throughout the world and enriched both the Indian as well as International players who are suited to this format of cricket. The organization of the Twenty Twenty cricket and the immense popularity enjoyed by this format of the game has practically converted cricket into a cricket annual festival, no less enthusiastic than an annual religious festival that is celebrated in India or elsewhere in the world. 
• Indian Cricket League: The Indian Cricket League organized by Kapil Dev, though termed as rebel cricket, also plays a significant role in promoting cricket in India by roping in the players who have no hope and chance of playing in either in the domestic and international games.
• Cricket offers a number of employment opportunities: Another interesting aspect and special feature of cricket in India is that apart from offering the best opportunities of playing cricket in India according to your talent, it offers other avenues for employment through coaching, commenting and to become a sport journalist etc.The immense popularity, you gain through cricket offers a number of other  employment avenues like earning through advertising, acting as a brand ambassador of cricket, acting in small ads etc.

Thus cricket as an immensely popular game of India has made her the modern super power of cricket among the cricket playing countries of the world. Hence, eminent sportspersons call in unequivocal terms ‘cricket is a religion of India.’