In no particular order.
What do you guys think...
1. Bowling
2. Sychronized skydiving
3. Pool (Billards)
4. Golf
5. Racquetball
6. Rodeo
Discuss.
Seriously, Cricket. I'm an American, with absolutely no interest in it, but I work in IT, and I see the frenzy that many of my East Asian colleagues get into when world tournaments are going on with India in the mix. The India/Pakistan games literally shut down IT departments.
Given that England is the birthplace of the sport, the # of countries where it is played - Australia, the Carribean, Europe, and India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka, you could get a lot of eyeballs watching the matches, and the Olympics is all about how many are watching so they can sell to advertisers. Also given the growing East Asian population in the U.S., again you have very high viewership.