How many teams play cricket in the world
Cricket is a globally played and followed sport. With its origination in England, cricket has managed to spread its essence all over the world, arousing interest and passion amongst millions of sports enthusiasts and spectators. However, the sheer expanse of this sport brings up an interesting question – how many teams actually play cricket globally?
Recognition by International Cricket Council
The primary governing body for the game of cricket is the International Cricket Council (ICC). It recognizes 104 member countries which are classified into three categories: Full Members, Associate Members, and Affiliate Members.
There are currently 12 Full Member countries that have Test match status-which simply means they can play test matches against each other.These include traditional powerhouses such as Australia, England, South Africa and India as well as emerging nations such as Afghanistan and Ireland.
Associate member nations however stand at 92. These nations do not participate in Test matches but compete in One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 tournaments. Countries like Scotland, Nepal or UAE fall under this category.
Finally, we also find some affiliate members that are either suspended or defunct now.
However, it is worth mentioning that recognition from ICC does not necessarily dictate the number of teams playing the sport across the globe.
Beyond ICC Recognition
More than official international competition, cricket thrives on club culture where countless competitive and recreational teams exist. In regions where cricket is widely popular like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or England – there lies a vast presence of state level clubs, school institutes teams or local community teams.
Full Video in Youtube
In countries like Australia and England with their strong domestic league structures, county or state level clubs form another substantial dimension of cricket-playing squads beyond those recognized by ICC.
Competitive Club Culture in England
In places like England where cricket originated,the density of amateur village clubs is astonishingly high.England has around 6700 clubs according to ECB’s data from a census conducted in 2018.
Australia’s Passionate Local Teams
Australia is obsessed with cricket without any doubt. It runs one of the most competitive first-class cricket leagues – Sheffield Shield, having six state teams battling it out and beyond that thousands of local community clubs are participating each year.
Subcontinent’s School Cricket Explosion
In the Indian sub-continent, school level competitions are equally popular. India alone has more than 20000 registered cricket clubs spread across its states.
Thus, an educated observation would consider there being numerous teams playing cricket worldwide – be it international, domestic or even at grass root levels.
Youth and Women’s cricket scenario
Without taking into account youth teams and women’s teams the count will remain incomplete.Cricketing nations have embraced the need for developing young talents and providing them early exposure hence under-19 & under-16 tournaments bear equal importance to fully fledged international matches.Women’s cricket is also gaining substantial popularity nowa days.
To wrap up “how many cricket teams are there?” is quite an elusive question as no exact numbers can be provided considering all these conditions.However what remains undeniable is the widespread love for this sport and compulsions by every new day to develop a structure that facilitates every enthusiast to join a team and enjoy the spirit of competition,the camaraderie and ultimately the game itself.
