06-29-2010, 09:17 AM
Mick,
Volleyball is great, but second in popularity? Â Huh?
You may not have noticed but at the Olympics it is athletics (as in Track & Field) that runs the show and pays for the bills. Â It is athletics that is held in the biggest venue. Â It is athletics that dominates the news stories not just in the USA, but across the world. Â It is athletics that has participants from 6 continents. Without athletics the IOC would likely fall apart. Â (Not that this would be a bad thing). Â And goes without saying that those that participate in athletics are good athletes.
Perhaps your popularity was restricted to team sports, but then you need to take off your USA centric glasses. Â The number 2 team sport in the world is....Cricket! Â Amazing? Â Unbelievable? Â Not really, you see it is all about India and Pakistan.
Volleyball has about a billion "fans", but there are 1.1 billion people in India alone and it is their passion. Â Cricket sports a cool 2-3 billion fans. Â The total number of cricket "fans" is actually rather close to that of futbol. Â And since the populations of India & Pakistan are growing faster than EU populations it is not out of the question that cricket will be the world\'s most popular sport in 10-20 years.
But I would tend to agree that volleyball is a nice sport. Â No shame in being good at volleyball or enjoying the sport. Â And I would agree that volleyball players are usually better athletes than your average baseball or cricket player.
Volleyball is great, but second in popularity? Â Huh?
You may not have noticed but at the Olympics it is athletics (as in Track & Field) that runs the show and pays for the bills. Â It is athletics that is held in the biggest venue. Â It is athletics that dominates the news stories not just in the USA, but across the world. Â It is athletics that has participants from 6 continents. Without athletics the IOC would likely fall apart. Â (Not that this would be a bad thing). Â And goes without saying that those that participate in athletics are good athletes.
Perhaps your popularity was restricted to team sports, but then you need to take off your USA centric glasses. Â The number 2 team sport in the world is....Cricket! Â Amazing? Â Unbelievable? Â Not really, you see it is all about India and Pakistan.
Volleyball has about a billion "fans", but there are 1.1 billion people in India alone and it is their passion. Â Cricket sports a cool 2-3 billion fans. Â The total number of cricket "fans" is actually rather close to that of futbol. Â And since the populations of India & Pakistan are growing faster than EU populations it is not out of the question that cricket will be the world\'s most popular sport in 10-20 years.
But I would tend to agree that volleyball is a nice sport. Â No shame in being good at volleyball or enjoying the sport. Â And I would agree that volleyball players are usually better athletes than your average baseball or cricket player.