25 reasons why Basketball is more fun than Cricket (Part 1)

9. Shooting

The act of shooting a basketball is one of the most beautiful actions in sport. It takes years to develop a form. Allow me to quote myself:

If you think about shooting a basketball, the way a maths student thinks things through, every time a player launches a shot, he is basically:

-throwing a ball (9 inches in diameter)

-towards a ring (perched 10ft high, 18 inches in diameter)

-from a significant distance (3 pointers are from 19”9 ft away)

At this point logic kicks in and shows that the odds of the ball going in are pretty low. Now add the factor of pressure filled game situations. Off balance shots. Defenders doing their best to distract the shooter by waving their arms in his face, trying to get a piece of the ball. The odds just dropped lower. There is a poetry to launching a high arcing shot, the kind that looks like it has no hope of going in, and then watching it drop softly, swishing the net on its way.

Compare that to swinging a bat in cricket. Yeah that calls for skill and grace too, but it doesn’t compare with shooting a basketball.

Metta World Peace, who should be a reason by himself, says that shooting is so addictive it ought to be outlawed like a banned drug.

Here’s a shot I made, absurd notion, dumb idea, but it taught me something.

After each attempt, and observing the flight of the ball, I kept changing the angle and position of the shot. And finally when it did go in, it was the farthest attempt I had dared to try.

All I was thinking of while trying that:- there is one basket- there is one ball- it has to go in sometime. Its pure maths.

When I feel like the odds are stacked up, I always look at the moment when I made that shot and realize that the odds I’m facing have to be lower than the odds against making that shot.

10. Fixed duration and clutch shots

In basketball there’s a clock ticking. That allows for clutch shots. In cricket the clock is ticking, but it doesn’t give much room for clutch hits. Basketball has a shot clock too, allowing for countdown moments every 24 seconds.

11. Skills

Yeah you need skills in cricket too. But those are a narrower skill set. Not that those skills are beneath those of basketball but in basketball you have more scope for moves. Moves off the dribble, floating in the air, playing puppetmaster with your defender, moving the ball like a ping pong through crisp passes, I could go on on this one.

In one game you manipulate a bat throw ball. In the other you do crazy things with a ball and your hands, dribbling, passing, shooting, etc and there’s a rim perched 10 feet high to add to the craziness.

12. Action and reaction

The game of cricket involves action and reaction between the batsmen, bowler, and about three-four fielders on one delivery.

If one fields at long on and does a tap dance, it won’t affect the on field action.

The game of basketball is an alive organism, fluid and dynamic, constantly changing shape through the relative movement of the ten players and the ball.

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Check out part 2, reasons from 13 to 25 here:

https://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/07/12/25-reasons-why-basketball-is-more-fun-than-cricket-part-2/