Cricket is undoubtedly the most popular sports of India. Cricket is also known as unofficial national sports of India because of its wide reach and popularity amongst people of all ages, class and religions. Its popularity can be gauged from the fact that cricket is also termed as most unifying religion in India.
Indian cricketers enjoy a demi-god status. Indian cricket along with movies is the biggest passion of India. When it comes to cricket, people all across length and breadth of country feel equally excited about it, irrespective of religions, different cultures and different regional preferences.
Only 10 nations have been accorded the status of Test playing countries. However, there are several associate countries and serious efforts have been put into spreading the reach of cricket in various parts of the world. ICC (International cricket council) is the world governing body of cricket whereas Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the governing body of Indian cricket. Indian cricket board incidentally, is also the richest cricket board in the world.
The Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. The Indian team has always been a force to reckon with because of its spin strength and world class batsmen. India is also highly ranked in both Test as well as limited overs cricket format. The best moment in Indian cricket came in 1983 when it won the 3rd edition of Cricket World Cup. It also came out second best in 2003 edition. Indian cricket reached a new high in year 2007 when it won the inaugural World Twenty20.
Indian cricket is known to produce stalwarts players like Ranjitsinghji, C K Naidu, Lala Amarnath, Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar to name a few. Several Indian cricketers have made their presence felt in the competitive arena of world cricket. The quality of Indian batsmanship and spinners has become a part of cricket legends. With the arrival of shorter version of game and continuous changes in rules, Indian cricket is sure to become even more popular.