Thought Id give an international flavour to the topic Cricket- India- too much influence off the field . I know to most of you Yanks the traditional 5 day test match is boring. About 40 years ago 1 day 50 over(300 balls being bowled) for each team was introduced. This created excitement with new rules and thrilling results. As a result of cable tv in the world there were too many games being played and results just became another stat. In the last 5 years or so 20 over games for each side were created. Result in 3.5 hours. However India due to its population and expanding wealth started to rule the roost and created a local indian cricket comp with foreign players involved. There is corruption with bookies involved, big money being paid to players but this is diluting the quality of Test (5 day ) player. Football -Italy cant forget the 2006 world cup match vs Australia, last second penalty in round of 16
Don't care for cricket but I'd have a hard time rooting for Pakistan anything. In football probably Germany, them and England have a pretty fierce rivalry and they destroyed England in the last World Cup. Funny thing is I love watching them play. In the Olympics I can't root for the Aussies in the pool, fortunately they sucked at the last Olympics but throw South Korea in the mix with short track speed skating.
