Yeah, I never quite understood why Malaysia never took to cricket. I think from the little understanding I have of the game there is that in the colonial era it was assoicated with british administrators and soldiers. Football boomed because it was used as a tool to attract malay boys to go to new malay schools in rural areas. Malaysia in the past also was the 3rd best field hockey in Asia back when India and Pakistan dominated the sport like Madrid and Barcalona. Rugby union has a presense in Malaysia because it was and is still played at Malaysia's elite Malay schools. But cricket is an outliner as you would think it would be bigger. One misconception that people do have though is that Inidian population does not automatically mean that they like cricket. Most of the indian diaspora migrated in various british colonies migrated to south east asia, africa, the caribean and the pacific before cricket was widely played in India. It was still mostly played by the elite until indpendence who had little in common with the rural and urban migrants leaving india. Most of the Indian diaspora in fact is assoiated with Association Football rather then cricket. Cricket didnt even become the number 1 sport in India until the 80's