Actually many sports were spread by British expats especially football. Prominent clubs like AC Milan, Genoa,Newell's Old Boys, FC Barcelona, Mohun Bagan were founded by British expats. Interestingly, many of the founding clubs were football and cricket clubs but somehow football gained popularity but cricket didn't.
Cricket remained popular only in the former colonies, but now is hugely popular in the Indian subcontinent. The cricket teams in the lesser countries like USA, Canada, Italy, UAE are almost made up of South Asian expats or origin