In this article let’s take a look at advantages and disadvantages of playing cricket to understand why you should play cricket and what are its benefits.
So if you are new to the game and do not know what cricket is all about and the benefits of playing the game then read this article till the end because I am going to mention all the benefits and drawbacks of playing the game in detail in this article because I have been playing this game since a long time now.
So without further ADO let’s get started.
Why you should play cricket game?
To answer it in simple words,
You should play Cricket because it will not only improve your stamina but also help you improve your focus, concentration levels, and help you to gain muscles faster, maintain a healthy weight and build important skills like leadership, helps you get confidence and increase your self esteem and teamwork.
Cricket is not just a sport you can play as a hobby or timepass but it has many other benefits apart from enjoying so let’s take a look at all the advantages and disadvantages of playing Cricket in detail.
Advantages and disadvantages of playing cricket
Advantages of playing cricket
- Improve stamina, maintain a healthy weight & heart health
One of the main benefits of playing cricket is that it can help you improve your stamina and heart health.
Basically when you are playing cricket you will be running quite frequently whether you are batting, bowling or fielding which ever role you choose & and there are many scientific studies which say that running frequently
will improve your stamina, reduce your weight because you will be burning calories by running and improve heart health because when you are running blood will flow faster, Running helps prevent blood clots in the arteries and blood vessels. It also supports healthy blood flow, blood pressure and cholesterol.
It is not just with cricket but any sport including football rugby badminton table tennis and baseball, all this outdoor sports will help you improve your stamina and help you reduce heart disease and because your heart will pump blood faster because of running you will be more active and energetic throughout the day.
- Hand eye coordination
Another important advantage of playing cricket is that it can help you improve your hand eye coordination especially when your bowling and batting.
According to Wikipedia,
Hand-eye coordination is the coordinated control of eye movement with hand movement and the processing of visual input to guide reaching and grasping along with the use of proprioception of the hands to guide the eyes.
Since playing cricket can help you improve your hand eye coordination by batting and bowling and hand eye coordination is
important because Developing hand-eye coordination may result in better reaction times, as well as enhanced agility and athleticism. It may also improve your typing skills, writing and drawing skills, which can help you become more productive at work.
- Team work & social skills
Another advantage of playing cricket is that it can improve your teamwork skills and social skills.
Just like football, cricket is also a team sport which means it is not played by a single individual but a group of players and if you do not know there are 11 members in each team of Cricket and two teams will compete each other to win the match by scoring runs and defending it.
In such a case by playing cricket you will obviously be a part of a team of 11 members & you can not only improve your teamwork skills but also learn and improve important skills of life like leadership, communication
skills at the same time because of teamwork and Team Spirit you can also increase your confidence and self-esteem by contributing your part to the victory of your team in the match and it can help you boost your confidence and mental toughness.
You’ll also improve your social interaction and grow your connections and network and make new friends through cricket.
- Increase concentration
Another important benefit of playing cricket is that it can increase your concentration and focus levels especially when you are batting and fielding.
I believe cricket is one of the best games I have played which have helped me improve my focus levels to a higher level and for those of you who do not know what batting
is it is when you hold a cricket bat and face the ball from bowler who will be bowling the ball towards you on the pitch and feilding is when you collect the ball from the ground and send it back to the wicket keeper and bowler.
And when you will be playing cricket you will be always under pressure in most cases because a single delivery can turn the game upside down because of that you will have to take decisions quickly if you are team leader or captain, batsmen or bowler of the team and this can improve your concentration and decision making skills quite alot.
Improving concentration cannot be done in a single day, it is time consuming process but when you play cricket consistently over a period of time because you will be watching ball carefully when you are batting
and fielding, slowly your concentration levels will also increase quite significantly and this can help you in other areas of your life if you are a professional and working for any company or student learning new skill or focusing on your studies and exams.
- Strengthen muscles
Another advantage of playing cricket is that it can help you strengthen your muscles of your arms and legs.
As a matter of fact the average weight of any cricket bat and a cricket ball is around 1.3 kg and 150 grams and this number is important because you will be lifting the cricket bat and hitting the ball hard which requires a lot of energy and movement in the muscles and arms and
you’ll also be running fastly to catch the ball on the ground which will strengthen your muscles in the legs and hamstrings and when you will be bowling the ball as a fast bowler obviously your muscles in the arm will also grow because you’ll be throwing ball at a fast speed.
All of this are part of cricket which can help you strengthen your muscles immensely.
- Reduces stress
The last advantage of playing cricket is that it can help you reduce your stress significantly.
About 33 percent of people report feeling extreme stress. 77 percent of people experience stress that affects their physical health. 73 percent of people have stress that impacts their mental health.
And when you will be playing cricket you will be completely engaged in the game in majority of cases because if you don’t focus on the game and the ball you can get injured or lose the game hence it can help you reduce stress because of being very engaged & active in the game
These are all the advantages of playing cricket.
Disadvantages of playing cricket
- Injuries
One of the main disadvantages of playing cricket is getting injuries.
If you watch the cricket tournaments frequently on television then you must have noticed that cricketers such as batsman wear various types of equipment like helmet, sleeves, guards, pads, etc it is all to protect themselves
from getting injured from the ball and when it comes to field as you will notice that many of them tape their fingers so that they can prevent their fingers from getting broken by the impact of catching the ball.
And the very nature of cricket requires a lot of physical activity such as running, jumping and diving in order to save runs and catch the ball, getting injured is always a big their and once you get injured by playing cricket depending upon your injury it can take from a couple of weeks to a couple of months to recover from the injury.
You can get different types of injuries such as hamstring injuries or muscle cramps, sprains, fractures, bruising and open wound.
- It can cause inconvenience to others
One more disadvantage of playing cricket is that it requires a lot of space and open ground to play and if you don’t play the game in a playground but on streets or small grounds
for example, in most cases you will be causing inconvenience to others because the game is all about hitting the ball and catching it but sometimes the ball can breakdown the glasses and windows of others or cause injuries to others who are like audience and not part of the game if you are not playing in a large ground.
- Success in cricket depends on various external factors
Another big disadvantage of cricket is that because it is played in the open area in the playground so there will be various external factors comes into play which will affect the result of the game.
For example there is something called Dew factor in cricket which makes the ball wet because the moisture on the cricket field and because of that the ball gets
slippery to hold for the bowler which will give an upper hand for batsman to score more runs at the same time the wind factor in the cricket field will also help bowlers to swing the ball inside and
outside on the cricket pitch which can help them take more wickets and have an upper edge over Batsmen and last but not least there is a factor of pitch condition which is external one and depends upon the location
where the match will be played and depending upon the pitch condition sometimes the ball bounces too much and gets into favour of bowler and vice versa.
This is to let you know that cricket is not always a fair game, external factors play a huge role as mentioned earlier such as dew factor, humidity and sunlight, wind, rain, pitch condition, all of this make cricket very fascinating and unpredictable game.
Another small disadvantage of playing cricket is that if you want to play the cricket at higher level so that you can represent your country and take it as a profession such as becoming
a cricketer then you will have to purchase expensive equipment of cricket such as cricket pads, helmet, guards, gloves and many more but for majority of the people who like to play cricket in order to spend some time with their friends and chill out having just bat & ball is enough.
Apart from these three I have not found any other major disadvantage of cricket so in my opinion this is a wonderful sport which you should definitely learn and play
because it will not only very exciting and interesting game but also help you a lot in your life by helping you learn skills like teamwork, leadership and reduce stress, help you maintain a healthy weight and improve your heart health, stamina, etc.
These are all the benefits and drawbacks of playing cricket sport with that said let’s conclude the article.
Conclusion
These are both advantages and disadvantages of playing cricket game.
Do let me know what are your thoughts about the game in the comment section below
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