Explain why cricket became popular in India and the West Indies. Can you give reasons why it did not become popular in countries in South America?

Cricket remained a colonial game, limited to countries that had once been a part of the British Empire. While British imperial officials bought the game to the colonies, they made little effort to spread the game, especially in colonial territories where the subjects of the Empire were mainly non- white such as India and West-Indies. Here, playing cricket became a sign of superior social and racial status, and the Afro- Caribbean population was discouraged from participating in organized club cricket, which remained dominated by white plantation owners and their servants. Despite the exclusiveness of the white cricket elite in the West Indies, the game became hugely popular in the Caribbean. Success at cricket became a measure of racial equality and political progress in British colonies.

South America was never been colonized by the British, hence the sport couldn’t reach to this part of the world. At present, Portugal, Spain, Mexico etc. form South American continent and none of these countries are into cricket because cricket was never propagated here.