The Beauty of Football – Summed Up By Cricket?

Football is known as the beautiful game throughout the globe, and we don’t think that’ll ever stop being the case. While there are many, many issues from the world stage to the grassroots game that we want to see get fixed in the next few years, we also realise that you can’t get everything you want.

In terms of a ‘broader spectrum’ of what we love about football, it’s the determination of the fans, players, managers and media members in equal measure. There’s a passion for this game that does funny things to a person, to the point where we’d argue that the majority of fans can be considered ‘fanatical’.

The big puzzle

Interestingly enough this summer is full to the brim with international football tournaments and general qualifiers that we can enjoy, and in the midst of all that, football itself is benefitting more from another sport than its own. Why? Because cricket, that’s why.

A lot of American fans out there probably would’ve heard of cricket before, but may not have gone too ‘in depth’ when it comes to exploring the ins and outs of the sport. In all honesty there isn’t too much to get excited about from our point of view, but give credit where its due: it’s always intriguing when the World Cup comes on. This year, it’s being held in England, and you may have heard (as reported by BBC) that they’ve experienced more than a few problems with the rainfall as of late.

The rain has forced three games to be either shortened or outright cancelled, with the teams involved receiving one point apiece as a result. Pakistan and Australia have been able to play today, as reported by The Guardian, but that isn’t really the point here.

Ball > bat

The point is that there are still high level sports out there that still depend entirely on the weather. While we understand that it can be difficult, and that cricket is a very specific kind of sport, we’re in 2019 now, not the 80s and 90s. Planning a tournament in somewhere like England & Wales, where it’s known to rain pretty heavily and pretty frequently, just seems like a massive waste of time.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, in the world of football, we’d argue that you would never see something like this happen. Sure, if the weather is bad enough then they’ll cancel to ensure the safety of the fans, but a bit of rain? That never hurt anyone (for the most part).

We appreciate and respect the art of cricket, but this once again reiterates why football is by far the greatest sport in the world. It doesn’t bow down to certain pressures and scrutiny, and throughout the globe it is rightly celebrated for being so overwhelmingly diverse in its ability to deal with situations like these.

We may just be parading the point around for no reason whatsoever, but let’s face it, these are the kinds of things we are forced to get excited about in the summer months.