Jimmy Anderson - what's the point??

[dougdeep]

What's the national sport of Wales?

 

[The Laughing Bluebird]

What's the national sport of Wales?

Sheep shearing.

 

[El Presidente]

I concede that Bangladesh do indeed have a test side - they just don't win any matches by the look of it! Incidentally, football is apparently the most popular specatator sport in Bangladesh. That surprised me as I would've imagined it would've been cricket.

I got the idea that cricket was the fifth most popular spectator sport in Australia from an Australian government website. They listed the most popular sports (and gave attendance figures) as being Australian rules, horse racing, motor sports, rugby league, cricket and football in that order. Rugby union was further down the list.

To switch topics, do horse racing, motor sports and dog racing count as 'sports' ? Two exist purely because of gambling and Motor racing makes cricket look interesting. If they are sports can my DVD collection count, as lots of them feature watersports

 

[The Laughing Bluebird]

Here are the Australian figures I mentioned. The figures in brackets are the number of millions of Australians who attended each sport, and the percentages are the percentage of the Australian public who had attended each sport. This survey was conducted in 1999 so it might be a little out of date now.

Australian rules (2,509.2) 16.8%
Horse racing (1,756.4) 11.8%
Motor sports (1,574.3) 10.6%
Rugby league (1,501.1) 10.1%
Cricket (942.5) 6.3%
Soccer (621.2) 4.2%
Harness racing (534.8) 3.6%
Basketball (526.0) 3.5%
Rugby union (446.2) 3.0%
Tennis (444.0) 3.0%
Dog racing (276.4) 1.9%
Netball (248.7) 1.7%

 

[El Presidente]

Apart from football, there are relatively few global sports though, cricket is probably number two by default as much as anything else.

 

[The Laughing Bluebird]

To switch topics, do horse racing, motor sports and dog racing count as 'sports'? Two exist purely because of gambling and Motor racing makes cricket look interesting. If they are sports can my DVD collection count, as lots of them feature watersports.

You can't say that horse and dog racing exist PURELY because of gambling! There are millions of people worldwide who are involved in both sports who never have a bet.

You're spot on about motor racing though. That does exist simply in order to make cricket look interesting. FACT.

 

[El Presidente]

You can't say that horse and dog racing exist PURELY because of gambling! There are millions of people worldwide who are involved in both sports who never have a bet.

You're spot on about motor racing though. That does exist simply in order to make cricket look interesting. FACT.

True, but without gambling they would not be financially viable.

My biggest disappointment on Sky was turning to 'Watersports World' on Sky Sports 3, Kleenex on standby, only to be subjected to an hour of powerboat racing and surfing.