For people that are watching cricket for the first time, it may seem like a boring slow-paced sport that lasts too long. But, there is a big reason why it’s the second most-watched sport in the world and why so many people around the world enjoy it. It’s not very popular in the US and Europe but some countries are very obsessed with it.

There has to be something good about the because considering that the baseball legend Babe Ruth tried playing it. Even if you are a fan, there are some things that happened that may sound very bizarre. Most unusual things that happened would end up in sports news but it takes a bit of research to find it out.

Englishmen Have a Hard Time In India

It’s well known that India is one of the most important countries for the sport because they are the largest and a country with the most players. England also has a great national team but there are players who decide that they would play overseas. The reason why Englishmen have a hard time in India isn’t that they are scared of losing instead, they are concerned about getting sick.

Fifty or sixty years ago, India was a different country where sanitation was on a much lower level compared to the UK. They still have this problem in the largest parts of the country but at that moment, it influenced the players a lot. There’s even a term called Delhi Belly which represents the food sickness players had which made playing much harder or even impossible.

Peace Games in Iraq

There are a lot of tournaments and events that are connecting countries where cricket is a national sport. One of the events is The Ashes played between Australia and England which is played for more than 140 years. But, both countries had troops in Iraq and decided to honor the game and travel to the Australian base to play.

The reason why this event was remembered isn’t that the troops made it possible and even found sponsors. It made national headlines because there was a rocket attack that delayed the event and one of them needed to be removed from the sand.

Bees Love Cricket

There are probably more bees that love cricket than humans considering that they started invading the pitch all the way back in 1962. Twenty years later the whole match had to be stopped because 6 players were stung. Even in 2007 and 2008 during major international matches, players were running from bees all over the place.

Almost every year after 2010, you could hear a story about bee invasion. In 2019, the match wasn’t stopped but a few spectators had to be brought to the hospital. There are other animals that invaded the pitches like monkeys in 2012 in England vs India match.

Bizarre Matches

Cricket was founded all the way back in 1500 but it took a couple of hundred years to become England’s national sport. Around 1800, someone decided that it would be a great idea that war veterans to have their own league. But, one whole team had to have players without one arm and the other had players without one leg.

No matter how bizarre this may sound, the prize pool was huge at the time. Even the rules were a bit modified so they can play properly. This became so popular that the match was delayed for a few hours because a lot of people wanted to watch.

Tonga, Country of Cricket

England may be one of the most important locations for cricket and India is very crucial for the game but Tonga has the importance of its own. When their king was in New Zealand to study, he was introduced to the game and liked it immediately. This resulted in him showing the game to his people back in Tonga.

Everything would be great if they didn’t become obsessed with the game. They played it so much that the king had to issue a law that prevented people from playing more than once a week.