da jogodeouro： Cricket is the second most popular sport among adults in South Africa aftersoccer, according to the latest research conducted by BMI-Sport Info
UCBSA Press Release13-Nov-2002Cricket is the second most popular sport among adults in South Africa aftersoccer, according to the latest research conducted by BMI-Sport Info.Cricket has moved from fourth position to second in just a year, with aphenomenal growth of over two million adults showing new spectator interestin cricket. Part of this growth has been attributed to new interest amongblack African adults.According to the 2002 Adult SportTrack Report, over 8.3 million adults inSouth Africa follow cricket, behind soccer and ahead of rugby. Last year’sfigure for cricket followers was just over 6 million.The report is used extensively in the commercial sector, especially forsponsors to gauge the success of their sponsorships. It provides businesspeople and electronic media channels with the necessary information in orderto evaluate different sports.Cricket has also shown significant growth in the period between 1992 and2002, making it the second-fastest growing spectator sport over the past 10years. The sport has grown its spectator base by an average of 4,8% per yearin the decade, just behind basketball’s 5,6% average growth. Extreme sportsshowed 5,4% growth in spectator interest in their first year of measurement.Most of the 45 sports measured showed a decline in this period, with theaverage being a negative growth of 0,2%. (This historical growth analysisincludes only whites and blacks as historic information is not available forother groups.)Cricket is the second most popular sport for white males and the third mostpopular for black males. For white females, it is the third most popularsport and for black females, the fifth most popular.The research measures “spectators” as people who follow the game at livevenues, on television, radio and through newspapers.”This research is very good news for us,” said UCB CEO Gerald Majola today.”The results are indicative of the fact that our game is developing amongstall South Africans and that our development programme is bearing fruit asmore people take an interest in the game. It shows that our sponsors aregetting value for money and that our plans to make cricket the people’ssport are well on track. I am proud to be associated with cricket,” Majolaadded.