I now doubt that this is true. I was lucky enough to go to a baseball game at Yankee stadium in the US when I was visiting my friend Joe there, and this week I went to the games between the LA Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks and an Australian team in Sydney.
Look at these comparisons:
Yankee stadium during a match between the Yankees and Red Sox
The Sydney Cricket Ground during last year's match between Australia and England:
The jersey of the LA Dodgers:
The shirt worn by an Australian cricketer:
Who has advertisements painted on the ground? Who has ads for beer and banks on the shirts? Australia does, not the US teams.
As anyone who has been to a cricket test match recently would know, there are constant commercials blaring from the large screens at the ground, the sight boards have moving ads and large bottles of sports drinks come on the fields constantly. None of this happens at the baseball.
Who preserves traditions, like singing "take me down to the ball game" during the 7th innings stretch? Baseball does. In contrast, cricket has abandoned its traditions and now has 3 versions of cricket, all based on which is supported by its sponsors.
We have a lot to learn from baseball.
