Watching "Master Blaster" delivering powerful shots and clapping and shouting to encourage him definitely shows your love for your team and for cricket as a whole. Cricket lovers can do anything for watching the game. They can get drenched in rain or get harassed by a mob while striving to buy tickets! They can pay high fees for the tickets even if they need to take a "loan" from their friends at the end of the month. Those who watch cricket matches in the television, will go a long way to fight with the other family members who are more interested to watch the popular Ekta Kapoor soaps. And some of us even take a few more steps. We go down to the road and start playing just when the cricket season begins! It's good to think or imagine ourselves getting selected to become a member of Team India, but it is better to think how playing cricket can benefit us in terms of our health.
As all sports, cricket demands some physical activities like good hand-eye coordination, ball-handling skills, sprinting between wickets, running to stop balls, as well as bowling and throwing. Therefore you need to have considerable amounts of physical fitness to be able to play cricket. And this "bat and ball" game in turn, will bestow you with the following health benefits:
- Enhances Endurance: Cricket demands stamina to continue the game for hours. Thus, cricket can be a good option for those who lack endurance. Like all exercises you have to be regular to get the desired results. If you are a beginner you can be a bit flexible and set the match accordingly. Say for example, you may start with "20-20" and then gradually progress to 50 over matches.
- Promotes Balance and Coordination: Cricket involves static as well as dynamic activities. All these activities are known to improve balance as well as co-ordination.
- Improves Hand-Eye Coordination: Hand-eye-ball coordination is one of the unique benefits of cricket. A batsman must have hand-eye co-ordination to hit the ball with the bat and a fielder has to become an expert to be able to catch the ball or to aim at the stumps.
- Builds Strength: Cricketers have well-developed strength especially in the upper parts of their bodies. Activities like striking the ball high and projecting it to the farthest distance, bowling a ball with the desired speed or throwing the balls demand much strength and regular playing improves strength.
- Increases Flexibility: Smooth and unrestricted movements are very important while playing cricket. Activities like bending, twisting and arching cause stretching, thereby improving flexibility.
- Promotes Mental Well-being: Cricket is not just a competitive event but it is also a recreational activity. It promotes relaxation and relieves stress. People who are regular with such type of activities are less prone to depression, hypertension, diabetes and other lifestyle diseases.
- Social Benefits: Apart from the physical and mental health benefits, cricket can also bring other benefits and opportunities in terms of development of social skills like cooperation, communication and the ability to learn to cope up with winning and losing. In other words, cricket is a game which will promote team spirit in you. It also allows for social interaction whereby you get a chance to meet new people and to make new friends.
Cricket has its beneficiary effects in almost all spheres of life covering physical, mental and social well-being. It can be played for competition or for fun! But no sport is injury free and so you must take appropriate safety measures by using protective gears to avoid injury.
