I don't think this thread has been done before (sorry if I'm wrong).

What (in your opinion) is the best sport, and why?

For me, it would have to be football (which I'm happy to call soccer, given the international nature of this site). It's so beautifully simple - a ball that's ball-shaped, simple rules, few unnecessary lines. Some sports-fans don't like the low-scoring, but it's the scarcity of a goal that makes the chance of scoring one so exciting.

What does anyone else think?

Needless to say, the sport they play in Heaven is Cricket. All the old cliches, like 'the glorious uncertainty of the game' are true (except, of course, when Australia play England, and then we all know EXACTLY what will happen!).

I think a good team sport is one that translates well into different cultures. I would agree with you, Islingtonian, that soccer is probably one of the most successful in this regard. I would also like to add basketball to the mix. I think we can safely say that basketball has been well-accepted into virtually all of the major world cultures. Anyone can play, though height does give a certain advantage, and the rules are easy to learn. I think the best thing about these two sports is that they keep the body mobile and hence provide a good workout, and also that they promote the participation of all those who are on the court/field. And, as you mentioned vis-a-vis soccer, both can be played virtually anywhere where there is an open space and where a simple apparatus can be set up. One more thing...both sports are relatively non-violent, though physical contact does occur...this comment of course does not take into consideration the crowds!

What about individual sports? I have always felt that racquet sports are the most culturally translatable sports, especially badminton, tennis and ping-pong. What was mentioned above for soccer and basketball can also be applied here.

If I had to pick only one, I guess it would have to be soccer. Why? I think it was brainwashing by my brothers. I was flipping though a photo album of toddler and preschool pictures and most of the pictures of me had a soccer ball in them. It was kind of like playing "Where's Waldo?" except I was looking for soccer balls.

What I like about game is mainly the energy and the rules are pretty simple.

Other top sports on my list are hockey, ping-pong, running, and the martial arts.

Basketball and volleyball are my favorite to play and watch
so, subjectively, these are my two best sports.

Got to be football. Sorry for the Americans (Soccer). Why? We invented the game, & even though the Brazilians mastered it, we still rock!

College football American-style!! There is nothing better! The atmosphere, the tail-gating, the rivalry, the student spirit, the cheerleaders ....

As long as it is called a sport, I will watch anything
For me, it will have to be 'bird-watching' (though not recognised as a sport - damn).
Among the recognised sports, the list includes Cricket (whenever India is playing), Soccer (whenever liverpool or Germany are playing) and Formula 1 (Because God's latest incarnation is in F1- he goes by the name SCHUMI)


Dalgeish - Make Cricket the national game of hell also - I plan to introduce it there as soon as I reach there!

Does pool count? Billiards? Snooker?

Other then that, I'd have to say lawn bowls or curling. Both have given me endless moments of entertainment and laughter. They'd probably be even funnier if I tried to play them!

I enjoy all sports, but don't have just one favourite --- tops on my list (in no particular order!) are soccer, baseball, hockey, ringette, field hockey, football (American/Canadian style as opposed to soccer), volleyball, ping pong, and the list goes on.

I've tried most (but not all) at least once in my younger days --- in most cases I understand the rules enough to follow the games even if I've never tried playing them.

For actual playing, softball and volleyball were my favourites.
I'm not a sports viewer, but when I see something I haven't had a lot of exposure to, such as sumo wrestling or hurling, I get interested for awhile!

At the risk of being patently obvious.......Football, Soccer, Fusball........call it what you will

As I believe someone said earlier........all you need is an inflated leather/synthetic sphere, you can play it anywhere! It's been a 'constant' in my life. Emotionally high and low!

OK.........who said "more low than high?"

wez
(I hate cricket............every other year when we tour in the Southern Hemisphere........grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!)

I like to play various sports but basketball is my favorite. Ever since I was a kid I'd go across in the street in the summer time to the schools outdoor ball court and play against my friends. We'd have games that last 6 hours at a time, then my grandmother would call over and tell us to come eat. Not 10 seconds after dinner we'd be in a heated game again. In the winter time while my friends were all sleigh riding and writing their names in the snow, I would be over on the court with a snow shovel clearing off the court. I always had to get one last pass from Magic to win the NBA Championship before I could go home and warm up. I guess the reason for it being my favorite sport is that I have alot of very good memories of playing it when I was a kid....Who am I kidding, I still am

As for sports to watch. I don't think anything beats NCAA basketball, espicially during tournament. All the cindarella teams like Gonzga, Santa Cruz,UNCCharlotte takin out the big boys always makes me smile.

Cheers to all!!!!!!

Easy Question. Rugby.

My friend above me posted that Cricket is the game they play in heaven. I must be quick to remind all that Rugby is the game played in heaven. Cricket is permitted only in the off season

Boo to Soccer. Great skills wasted on bad actors. hehe.

Soccer...as it takes more wits, less brawn, more style than any game I've ever witnessed or...um...played.
Another thing that I like about it is that it can be played by anyone anywhere...you could almost play it with a can!

The last World Cup showed how just about any nation could participate.
I've always preferred a sports that didn't need a lot of equipment or gear that no one could find, nor afford.
And women do well at it too...

American sports, I'm going to make friends and endear myself today, but out of the triumvarate, football, basketball and baseball, baseball would have to be my choice.
Football requires too much brawn, and not everyone is built that way, too much emphasis on it. Basketball requires height, I went to school with a pro or one who was courted to be one...7 foot three...so I saw the way he was treated like a commodity as he could also play!
Baseball is once again my choice out of the American sports.

But now, I really prefer soccer to watch and even to play.

Might as well reveal my bias, I don't like sports that women could not concievably play without watering it down like American football or something and "powder puff" or flag football.
We can play basketball of course, yet we'd need to be taller than average. (My grandmother played basketball in the twenties!)
But soccer, doesn't require a physique that's out of the ordinary. Women teams are very good in the States at least.
Vollyball is fun, played in a league for a while.

As to the martial arts, I'm still observing my son's judo participation, to see what I think. I never did anything like that as a girl...
Seems good in terms of values, and sportsmanship, but I see a definite tendency to favor the stockier type..not the string bean I gave birth to...but crying out "my baby!" isn't good form.
I didn't do it, the guy next to me did! I swear!

Nope, soccer is top scoring for me...really.

Dalgleish is right in my opinion. The game they play in Heaven can only be cricket. Of course, it's ideally suited to Heaven because there are no time constraints there. Unfortunately, here on earth there may not be much chance, in the long term, for a game that takes several days to play (the one-day limited-overs (per)version of the game can be amusing but shouldn't be confused with the real thing).

In reply to:

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I think a good team sport is one that translates well into different cultures.

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Well, cultures are changing everywhere all the time, and cricket isn't adapted to cultures in which the average attention span is continually diminishing. Maybe this is why the game has taken root so firmly in the Indian sub-continent (cf Bruyere's reminiscences about Indian train timetables in the FT time-zone thread). In India and Pakistan, I'm told, televised Test cricket gets audiences that American and European soap and sitcom producers would die for.

In reply to:

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Soccer...as it takes more wits, less brawn, more style than any game I've ever witnessed or...um...played. Another thing that I like about it is that it can be played by anyone anywhere

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Bruyere, I just can't see at all how football is superior to cricket in any of these respects.

More wits? There may be a certain amount of skill and cunning needed to execute or avoid a tackle or to time a shot, and a manager may need a good tactical brain to make decisions about substitutions. But a good game of cricket is a battle of wits that can last for thirty hours: a captain needs to be a strategist as well as a tactician. Even the toss for innings can pose problems (Why did that b****y fool Hussain elect to field at the Gabba?). The state of the pitch alters all the time; and since the ball reaches the batsman on the half-volley (not full pitch as in baseball), this makes a hell of a lot of difference. It made even more difference in the good old days when you couldn't re-cover the wicket after it was uncovered at the start of a match.

I remember seeing Chris Old bowling over after over to Craig Serjeant at Lord's in 1977, and it was a fantastic duel: the crowd was savouring every ball from the bowler and every reaction from the batsman.

Less brawn?. Well, cricket certainly has a place for brawn, and most of us feel a thrill watching a fast bowler hurling a ball down at 100 miles an hour, or seeing a big hitter like Botham smashing the ball out of the ground for six. But the best fast bowling and big hitting needs skill as well as muscle. And you don't need brawn to be a spin-bowler, or to cut a ball through the slips or glance it to leg, and these skills are appreciated just as much if not more.

More style? I'm sorry, but to a man whose boyhood dreams were filled by Tom Graveney (before he gave way to Brigitte Bardot), this is sheer blasphemy.Compared to artistry like his, a lot of football has about as much style as mud-wrestling.

It can be played by anyone anywhere. Well, when we were kids we used an old box or crate for a wicket, or we chalked a wicket on a wall, and any bit of wood could be made into a makeshift bat. I don't see this sort of cricket much today (possibly because kids don't seem to be allowed to play except in "playgroups"; with adults watching every move they make), but I'm sure that something like it can still be seen in the Caribbean and in India.

What Tabby Tom said.

Except the Bridgett Bardot bit.

Soccer is indeed a master game. Well, it could be. If only the trumped up overpaid, primadonna players would just get up off the ground and play the damn game it would be a fantastic show of athleticism. Frankly, I'd rather watch the under 12's shot putt competition. At least they're genuine.

And cricket. I shouldn't be too harsh on cricket. It is in fact a passion of mine. I will admitt my life stops during the 5 day game. I love the delicate balance and one up-manships of a session of cricket. I marvel in the way the commentators fill the 6 hour voids with words that inspire. The records, the stats, the stories. It's such nostalgia.

But then there's Ruggers! Explosive, passionate, bodies on the line. The crunching defence, the sleek backline plays. The pure pace and the craft, the braun and the witt as one. It is indeed the greatest form of sport devised by man. It's both definitive and decisive. A result within two hours. The players hide their pain. They don't flaunt it for girly gain. The Black Knights of the sporting world.

As long as Rugby is the game played in heaven, I'm going to be good!

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Bertho, you might like to check out this old thread from last year sometime click here!

I suppose it is up to me to nominate Australian Rules for the winter sport to watch, and cricket for the summer game. I have watched Superbowls, and cannot understand why the 'two minute warning' lasts for 40 minutes .. I have watched World Series, and they only bowl full tosses- how easy is that?!.

The day they appoint an organist at Lords, is the day that I start supporting the Eulo lizard races

Well, now that you've reassured me that anyone can play cricket by rigging up boxes and things...I'm reassured.

But I do stand by my statement that for me soccer is the best as women can actually play it and in fact, women in America are quite good.

Here I managed to get over not looking very patriotic towards my national sports...but I particularly hate the emphasis that existed on my generation on football, basketball and baseball.
Football, I attended every single football game as a band member, and yet, only watched the ones with mud because they were hilarious.

I'm feeling much better about cricket.
Forgot rugby...went into the newspaper shop the other day, and the Christmas calendars were already out...the French Rugby team has decided to captalize on the masculine beauty aspects and they've made the second calendar with the athletes posing semi nude, they're selling like hotcakes...
I think I'll have to do some more research.

My Top 5 Best Sports are

Rugby League
Cricket
UFC
NFL
Soccer

My favorite sport is Thoroughbred horse racing. I like jump racing, but I don't have much chance to watch it. Mostly flat racing is what I know about.

For me

To play( in order of preference): (1) Soccer (2) Basketball (3) Olympic Weightlifting (4) Volleyball (5) Table Tennis

To watch: (1) NBA basketball( or maybe a top FIBA game as consolation) (2) Soccer (3) Athletics(Olympics, World Championships, or Diamond League level meetings) (4) Ice Hockey (5) Tennis