How popular is football compared to cricket in the Indian subcontinent?

sueflaki · #1 July 18, 2013, 07:34 AM

How popular is football compared to cricket in the Indian subcontinent? I think it's equally popular, 50/50.

Banglatiger84 · #2 July 18, 2013, 09:58 AM

Up until our ICC cup win, football was far more popular in Bangladesh

fush_montor · #3 July 18, 2013, 12:46 PM

60/40 in favor of football..from personal experience, cricket is rarely discussed among friends if bangladesh isn't involved..while i've seen people literally fighting over their favorite EPL teams
(obviously one of them was a ManUtd fan

)

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sum_1 · #4 July 18, 2013, 12:54 PM

Right now cricket has pretty much edged out the other sports in the subcontinent. But back in the 70s it'd be 55-45 in favour of football. However the picture was totally different in case of West Bengal, where it was 80-20 in favour of football, with the local teams being the most discussed topics in public gatherings.

And although cricket is far more popular now compared to football, I think the fan base for football has also increased since they started live broadcasting of the premier leagues from around the world.

Isnaad · #5 July 18, 2013, 01:01 PM

Cricket is just a bit ahead with a 55-45. Cricket has a lot of popularity among the lower, lower-middle class. Thus, these are the people who shine and more cricketers are produced from that level.

Meanwhile, there is an abnormal craze for football among the upper class. Abnormal for many reasons. But obviously, they are outnumbered.

Shehwar · #6 July 18, 2013, 02:02 PM

It was 60-40 to football until 1992. Cricket picked up big time in the sub continent after Pakistan won the '92 World Cup and Zimbabwe gained test status with everyone believing we now had a realistic chance of playing in the World Cup proper! I would say it reached its peak when we won the ICC Trophy in '97. Football died in Bangladesh once the likes of Shabbir and Kaiser Hamid retired - who were Asian class.

ammark · #7 July 19, 2013, 01:28 AM

Put it this way... a cursory glance of my facebook feed over the past year has more Football (EPL+UEFA/ matches and player) related hubbub than cricket news. The cricket talk mostly happens when BD is playing or there is some exceptional thing going on in world cricket (like the last day of last week's Ashes Test, or Gayle going nuts in IPL).

Jadukor · #8 July 19, 2013, 02:03 AM

I think European club football is quite popular in the subcontinent but as far as our own national teams are concerned there isn't much interest in Football.
There was a time in the early 90s when football was huge in BD and I used to know many of the players like Kaisar Hamid, Shabbir, Munna, Rumi etc. Now i don't know who is the captain of the BD team. Our pathetic performances over the years made sure that the interest in football was totally strangled out of our minds. Now its a time where interest is high for cricket but again a pathetic stream of results in the future could ensure we shift to Hadudu