Being the best at baseball is like been the best at Tiddly winks. Next to no-one plays it, and outside of tiddly winks circles, no-one cares.

Cricket is England's summer sport, and also the national sport of Australia, sri Lanka, India, Pakistan tha and arguably the west indian nations.t's one country of 300 million vs basically the whole of what was the british empire, nearing 2 billion.

I see quite a difference there.

It is strange that America only plays team sports that nobody else plays, it's as if sports in america evolved separately in isolation from the rest of the world.

Indiasox, It's not Obama who's ignorant it's you. Baseball is played by many European countries and Cuba and Japan provide the USA with many top players.
www.baseballeurpe.com

baseball is developing faster outside north america than cricket is outside of the traditional countries

it is already establishing itself in central america and south america, is huge in japan, taiwan and south korea and is starting to make some inroads in mainland china

the next world baseball classic in 2013, the equivalent of cricket's world cup, has been expanded to include 28 teams, at the same time we have been having serious arguments in cricket about whether we should restrict the number of countries in the world cup

yes the focus of baseball is still the mlb but trying to dismiss baseball as an international sport is actually false and i think baseball has a far bigger chance of successfully expanding into new markets than cricket does

USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Panama, Taiwan, Colombia and Nicaragua are huge baseball playing countries and have been for years! The MLB teams are full of players from these countries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_Major_League_Baseball_players_by_nationality). Most have their own domestic 'MLB feeder' leagues too.

New to the sport but relatively established (the bangladesh's of baseball) are Netherlands (many players coming from the Dutch Antilles and aruba), Australia and Italy.

The central american and asian leagues, particularly in Cuba, Mexico and Japan, are huge and sell out vast stadiums. There are probably more people earning a living from baseball around the world than cricket.

Fair comment by Obama and maybe not as ignorant overall.

Also England being number one at test cricket is not the same at all as Spain being number one at football. More like being number one at Rugby. In the last three / four years SA, AUS, India and England have been ranked 1 at test cricket. Alot has to do with a point system flawed by scheduling.

USA currently ranked second in the world: http://ibaf.org/en/world-ranking.aspx?type=1

Baseball is played by at least as many countries as cricket, perhaps a few more, when you consider the level of importance given to the sport.

USA
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Japan
South Korea
Canada
Mexico
Venezuela
Panama
Puerto Rico
Taiwan

Some interest in China, Netherlands, Philippines, and Australia.

You must all be joking!

Baseball is Big in america, yes, Japan, yes and Irrelevantly cuba.

But Canada? not really their summer sport is the CFL, their winter sport, and national sport and religion, is Ice hockey. Baseball to them is like rugby league to us; yes it's there but is a minority sport at best with few fans outside of southern ontario and perhaps british columbia.

Equally, Baseball is very much a minority sport in pretty much all of the countries mentioned in that list, whereas cricket is the national sport of the subcontinent and australia arguably also the west indies, second only to rugby in new zealand and second to football in england.

Also, the Baseball world cup is a joke. If the USA sent their best players, they would walk it every time, whereas the cricket world cup you can't really predict before, there are 5 or 6 teams that could win it.

Baseball may not be the #1 sport in Canada, but they have professional teams like Toronto Blue Jays and Vancouver Canadians.

It is a top sport in the USA, Cuba, Japan, Dominican Republic and South Korea though.

Cricket is not the #1 sport in the West Indies anymore. It is not quite as popular as football in England. Cricket is just one the many sports Australians are passionate about (is there a sport they do not play?). Rugby is by far #1 in New Zealand and South Africa. Cricket, I suppose is #1 in India, and perhaps Pakistan and Bangladesh. Only one player in the Netherlands XI that played in the recent WC was born there. It's a minor sport in Ireland.

no. 1 in india means potentially a billion fans, that's more than the USA and perhaps a couple of million others.

Also there is only 1 canadian team in the MLB, the Blue jays, no MLB team in Vancouver and there are very few canadian players in the MLB full stop.

Cricket is by far the most popular sport in Australia. Granted they are very passionate about rugby and aussie rules aslwell, but Cricket is the nation's national sport, as it is in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and i think also the west indies.

The reason that baseball has moreroom to expand is because less people play it full stop. Perhpas 500 million Baseball fans compared to potentially 2 billion Cricket fans.

Being no. 1 at cricket is so much bigger than being no.1 at baseball.

I forgot Sri Lanka. I suppose cricket is #1 there.

I always wondered about Australia. Is cricket #1 there?

Baseball is a wealthier sport though. Yankees' payroll is about the same as Real Madrid's.

just shows the amount of money floating around in america, at least at the moment.

Ewen Chatfield played 43 test matches for New Zealand.

Today, he drives a taxi for living!

the yanks have these strange stupid sports that no one else in the world plays

i don't think i'd even call american football a sport

It's going to Kenya and watching a herd of buffalo during their mating season.