Copa Cricketana

Statistics can tell you a lot, and interesting ones at that - for example, I just discovered that that there are more than just a handful of cricket fans in Argentina!! That, in spite of whatever me and a million other self-acclaimed cricket experts may claim, the ICC's plans to globalize cricket may have actually worked alright. Okay, it may not have anything to do with ICC, but what the heck, I have lambasted the ICC so often on this blog, that it's only justice that I give them the benefit of doubt here. Afterall, they are the ones batting!

Statistics also tell me that besides Argentina, there may be as many cricket followers in France too. That, a website entirely devoted to Cricket in Bermuda, Canada, Kenya, Ireland, Scotland and Ulster can actually muster up a decent traffic. It's with the sudden discovery of this site this morning, that i got curious. I was looking up the net for some information for my Cricket Quiz Blog when I happened to land at CricketEurope.Net. My first thought was that it would be mainly about English Cricket and a bit on the sides about Ireland and Scotland, but I was entirely wrong. It was about anything but England. But, the skeptic in me had my doubts - afterall the web is full of sites which are built to just decay. So, i digged further..

Alexa ranks CricketEurope at a very decent 2,00,000 and with the World Cup round the corner, like all other cricket sites, it's also picking up. The last week traffic rank was close to 1,70,000 - which is not the greatest, but not bad at all. It also has a Google PageRank 5, so it must be a well-recommended one too. Now, some of you may doubt the veracity of both this pieces of data, Alexa especially is not the most honoured one, but it's still the best indicator of things, and in the lack of any other source, I would rather go by it. On the traffic ranks by countries, England and India are expectedly on the top, but Australia is completely missing from the leader board. Instead, there are Ireland, France and UAE amongst the top 7. So, i decided to burrow in..

Cricinfo claims that cricket was played in Argentina as early as 1806. PlayArgentina.com tells you that the 3 South American countries - Brazil, Chile and Argentina have strong international sides which compete for the South American Championship. There is active club cricket happening there. This is all the more interesting when you realize that Argentina or Brazil are not even amongst the accepted minnows of cricket. This is like the game's division 3, and it's in a healthy and active state. Not bad at all for cricket, just one fear - i hope the ICC doesn't expand the game further by increasing the number of teams in the next World Cup to 24 or something. Else, all the best to the Argentina Cricket XI.