India’s obsession with cricket is a known quantity. It’s the engine of global viewership, the financial center, the narrative driver. But it’s not the whole story. Cricket has taken root in places with very different histories, climates, and cultures – and it thrives. Some host the biggest tournaments on the calendar. Others pack out modest local grounds with just as much heart. Either way, the love is real.
United Arab Emirates
There’s something poetic about cricket flourishing in a country built on reinvention. The UAE wasn’t born into cricket like India or England – it chose it. More accurately, the people who moved there brought it with them, and the country embraced it fully. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah aren’t just hosts by convenience. They’ve become cricket destinations.
And now there’s ILT20. Flashy, ambitious, and loud, it fits the UAE’s rhythm perfectly. It’s also drawing attention from far beyond the region, which has quietly elevated online sports betting in UAE to a fast-growing secondary layer of engagement – the match behind the match. No shock there: the sport is big, and the stakes are bigger.
What makes cricket in the UAE stand out, though, is that it doesn’t try to replicate anyone else’s model. It’s not colonial nostalgia. It’s modern, global, and proudly on its own terms.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, cricket doesn’t sit next to national identity. It is national identity. When the Tigers win, it doesn’t feel like a game – it feels like a shift in mood across an entire country. And when they lose? Well, the emotions are just as intense.
There’s a beautiful contradiction to the cricket scene here: it’s chaotic and completely organized at the same time. The Bangladesh Premier League is full of misfires, brilliance, politics, and joy – often within the same over. But that’s also what makes it so magnetic. You watch because anything can happen, and everyone’s watching with you.
People forget how recent Bangladesh’s rise has been. Test status came in 2000. Since then, the team – and the fanbase – have aged into something fiercely devoted. The infrastructure is still catching up, but the soul is already there.
South Africa
Cricket in South Africa has always had a layered relationship with identity, race, access – the heavy stuff. But what’s often missed is how widely the game is now loved across the country. Go into the townships, the schools, the parks, and you’ll find it. Cricket here has a rhythm that doesn’t get broadcast nearly enough.
And now, with the SA20, things are shifting again. Backed by IPL ownership and designed for mass appeal, it’s bringing in new viewers without alienating old ones. It doesn’t feel like an import. It feels like something South Africa built from scratch, with all its sharp edges and local flavor intact.
This is a country that’s used to rebuilding. It does it well.
Australia
Cricket in Australia is like breathing. It happens everywhere, without needing permission. Backyard pitches, driveway Test matches, beach cricket with an esky for stumps – it’s all part of growing up.
What’s different now is how the country’s found a way to package that tradition for a new generation. The Big Bash League doesn’t try to be Test cricket. It knows it’s a product, and it’s okay with that. The colors are brighter, the games are shorter, the fireworks are louder. But somehow, it doesn’t feel cheap.
Maybe that’s because, underneath the show, Australians still care. About the scorecard. About the format. About who’s getting a baggy green. The old guard grumble, but they still watch.
And when the Women’s Big Bash rolled in? It didn’t ask for permission. It just started winning people over.
Canada
You could argue Canada’s the most interesting story here. Cricket in Toronto or Vancouver isn’t just a community sport. It’s a migration story – one that doesn’t try to erase its origins. Matches happen in parks, schoolyards, club grounds wedged between train tracks and factories. And they’re getting noticed.
The Global T20 Canada started small, but it mattered. It gave local players a reason to keep pushing. It gave fans a reason to watch something domestic. It told people: you don’t have to move to England to matter.
It also arrived right on time. Cricket’s set to feature at the 2028 Olympics in LA. Canada’s already in the mix, and you can feel it. The infrastructure isn’t there yet, but the ambition is. It always is.
Somewhere between the backyard and the billion-dollar broadcast, cricket found new homes. It showed up in countries that weren’t part of the traditional script – and rewrote the playbook entirely. Different histories, different timelines, same heartbeat.
