Cricket has become more popular than the national sports in the sub-continental countries. What do you think are the reasons behind this?
Sample Response
There is a very famous adage in India, "If Cricket is religion, then Sachin is the god". That is a statue of a cricketer in India. Admittedly, Cricket is more popular than the national sports in the subcontinent, be it India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka. Almost entire subcontinent came to a standstill in April 2011 during the India and Sri Lanka World cup final match. High TRP's of TV channel during the cricket season are evident. I think the main reason for the popularity of this sport is the good performance of the team. All the subcontinent teams are among the top playing teams and have won the world cup at least once (except Bangladesh). Prior to India winning 1983 world cup, Hockey was more famous as India's hockey team performed well and but after winning the world cup, people started following cricket too and since then owning to good performance, cricket became popular in India. People would hate to see their team losing all the time and would stop following the game. Many Subcontinent players are among the best in the worlds and have several records in their kitty. For Instance, when we go to foreign country and people asks, where are you from? When I say "India", their first reaction is, "Oh! That’s where Sachin is from". That instantly makes me proud. Another reason of popularity is, Cricketers get more media attention, and they get good endorsements and are constantly in public eyes. As compared to other sportsmen, Cricketer earns better and have a high standard of living. Everyone wants to become professional cricket player and get all the benefits that they receive. In earlier days, if you are not part of an international team, your career is finished; earlier opportunities were very less but now with the IPL, many players are getting chances to play in front to a large crowd and show their talent. With the increase in opportunities, even parents are now encouraging their children to take cricket as their full-time career, this leads to better engagement of people towards the game. In a nutshell, I think, people will love any sport, if it entertains them, make them feel proud.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Fix articles and capitals Original: If Cricket is religion, then Sachin is the god Suggested revision: If cricket is a religion, then Sachin is a god Why it matters: The common noun needs lowercase and both singular countable complements require appropriate articles.
- 2. Fix capital and number Original: Cricket is more popular than the national sports Suggested revision: cricket is more popular than the national sport Why it matters: The sport name is lowercase in running text, and each country has one national sport in this comparison.
- 3. Add definite article Original: Almost entire subcontinent Suggested revision: Almost the entire subcontinent Why it matters: The specific geographical region requires the definite article.
- 4. Remove plural apostrophe Original: TRP's Suggested revision: TRPs Why it matters: A simple plural abbreviation does not take an apostrophe.
- 5. Use plural noun Original: channel Suggested revision: channels Why it matters: The general reference requires the plural noun 'channels'.
- 6. Fix fixed phrase Original: worlds Suggested revision: world Why it matters: The established expression uses the singular noun 'world'.
- 7. Use formal expression Original: records in their kitty Suggested revision: records to their names Why it matters: The replacement conveys achievement in a more appropriate academic register.
- 8. Fix capitalization Original: Instance Suggested revision: instance Why it matters: The second word in this introductory phrase should not be capitalized.
- 9. Add indefinite article Original: go to foreign country Suggested revision: go to a foreign country Why it matters: The singular countable noun 'country' requires an article.
- 10. Fix noun collocation Original: reason of popularity Suggested revision: reason for its popularity Why it matters: The noun 'reason' takes 'for', and 'its' makes the reference explicit.
- 11. Fix clause structure Original: is, Cricketers get Suggested revision: is that cricketers receive Why it matters: The complement requires 'that' rather than a comma, and the common noun should be lowercase.
- 12. Fix idiomatic expression Original: in public eyes Suggested revision: in the public eye Why it matters: The fixed expression is 'in the public eye'.
Suggested Rewrites
- If Cricket is religion, then Sachin is the god If cricket is a religion, then Sachin is a god
- Cricket is more popular than the national sports cricket is more popular than the national sport
- Almost entire subcontinent Almost the entire subcontinent
- TRP's TRPs
- channel channels
- worlds world
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response offers several distinct and relevant reasons for cricket's popularity, supported by concrete references to team success, national pride, media exposure, and the IPL. Its effectiveness is reduced by presenting the argument as one dense paragraph and by frequent grammatical and collocational lapses; the highest priority is to divide the reasons into focused paragraphs and systematically correct agreement, articles, and sentence boundaries.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response directly explains several relevant reasons and supports them with specific examples, though a few assertions remain broad or informal.
Clarify the causal link between each example and cricket's popularity, particularly the claims about earnings and career aspirations.
Coherence and Cohesion
The reasons progress in a generally logical sequence, but the absence of paragraph breaks and several long transitions make the argument dense.
Separate team success, media influence, and career opportunities into distinct paragraphs with clear topic sentences.
Lexical Resource
There is a useful range of topic vocabulary, but several inaccurate or awkward choices reduce precision and formality.
Correct word choice and collocation in expressions such as status, owing to, media ratings, and opportunities were limited.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of sentence forms is attempted and meaning remains clear, but errors in articles, agreement, punctuation, and clause control occur frequently.
Revise long sentences into controlled units and check every noun phrase and verb for articles, number, and subject-verb agreement.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Cricket has become more popular than the national sports in the sub-continental countries. What do you think are the reasons behind this?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.