Book excerpt: This interesting book discusses the emergence and development of five extremely popular team sports — baseball, basketball, football-soccer, ice hockey and cricket — since the 1800s in 15 different countries. It addresses some of the most provocative, recent and unique economic and business issues associated with team sports in the various nations. For example, to what extent has each of these spectator sports prospered as industries, and will they expand into other regions of the world during the early to mid-2000s? This book answers these questions, and compares the performances of each country's amateur, semiprofessional and/or professional sports leagues and their respective teams by providing detailed statistics and other relevant historical information.