Why Two Billion People Watch Cricket

Photo by Marcus Wallis

‘What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?’ famously wrote the Trinidadian historian C.L.R. James in Beyond a Boundary, exploring not just the beauty and psychology of the game, but the unspoken layers of class, race, and politics woven into its fabric.

Imagine baseball had a charming cousin obsessed with tea, strategy, and elaborate manners—that’s cricket. Even Americans already alarmed by abrupt shifts to their geopolitical loyalties would find it just as baffling.