Yes, you heard us right, cricket is a religion in India, cricketers are gods and fans are their followers. Every country has their favourite sports. Europeans, Mexicans, and Brazilians love football, whereas, Americans love baseball and basketball and gymnastics is the most popular sport in Russia and hockey in the Netherlands. Similarly, In India, we just love cricket, and anything related to cricket. Almost every Indian once in their childhood must have thought to play for India, irrespective of the gender. Right?

If you are not Indian, you must be thinking, no you are just joking. Right? Well, let us explain this to you in this way. We are the second most populated country in the world with 1.3 Billion people and counting. So that means you won’t ever see streets empty. Right? You are right but only on one occasion you will see almost no one on the streets and that is when India is taking against their arch-rival Pakistan in a world cup cricket match. You will hardly see anyone and if you see someone they must be listening to the broadcast on the radio or will be staring at the TV outside some shop. You must think, so what Indians follow cricket passionately, but it still doesn’t explain why cricket is a religion in India.

No worries, we have prepared reasons for you, so that you can understand why cricket is considered as a religion in India:

It unites people!

We are a secular country, where you will find people with different religious backgrounds living together in prosperity. But one religion that unites us all like no other is Cricket. Yes, hockey is the national sport of our country, but try to explain it to an Indian. Everyone is touched by the charisma of this sports in India, from the toddler learning his/her first step to professional cricketer to the person who is in the twilight of his life. People make their holiday plans, leaves and travel plans after checking the schedule of the India National Cricket Team.

It helps forge relationships!

It only takes one game of cricket to be friends with someone. Around the evening, if you were to take a walk on the streets, you must find a bunch of young, enthusiastic kids playing cricket passionately as if they were playing a world cup cricket match.

Not only cricket enhances friendship between street kids, but on the political level as well. You must have seen the world cup 2011 semi-final match between India and Pakistan in Mohali. India’s then Hon’ble Prime Minister, Mr. Manmohan Singh invited Pakistan’s then Hon’ble Prime Minister, Mr. Yousaf Raza Gillani to watch cricket stadium live in the stadium. This shows how cricket enhances political relationships also.

Mecca of making money!

When international cricket is played in India, you can hardly see a single seat empty in the stadium. This cricket craze nation has attracted a lot of sponsors too. Thus, cricket is not only religion but the Mecca of making money. This popularity made BCCI (Board of cricket control in India) the richest cricket board in the world, richer than the ICC. Also, the increase in popularity of the Indian Premier League or IPL has generated loads of revenue. Many games are made on cricket. Just like PUBG (an online mobile game) or GTA (popular computer game), there are games on cricket also. Not only you can play cricket online, but you can make a fortune out of it just like in online roulette. Several reputable online casino sites offer you the opportunity of safe and secure betting in cricket and enhance your bank balance.

In nutshell!

So now you must have understood why cricket is the religion and cricketers are worshipped as gods in India. This religion doesn’t have any holy books but there are several legendry cricketers or gods/ goddesses such as Sachin Tendulkar, Anjum Chopra, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, and in recent times MS Dhoni, Mithali Raj and Virat Kohli.