Cricket, Race and the 2007 World Cup by Boria Majumdar Jon Gemmell

Author:Boria Majumdar, Jon Gemmell [Boria Majumdar, Jon Gemmell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780415494588
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2009-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

Pakistani Cricket at Crossroads: An Outsider’s Perspective

Kausik Bandyopadhyay

Introduction

Within the country, sports have provided one of the few sources of collective joy in a society that has had its fair share of woes. [1]

In Pakistan it [cricket] is the strongest unifying force amongst its people, young and old, rich or poor, man or woman, Shia or Sunni, Pathan or Sindhi. It brings a unity in peacetime only achieved in times of war. [2]

If ever I was struggling out in the middle, pushing for victory or staving off defeat, the sight of the Pakistan flag fluttering defiantly would warm my heart and keep me going. Whenever we played in Sharjah, I used to run laps around the ground before the start of a match. … The atmosphere was full of passion for Pakistan, and it would uplift us. It is this passion, this purely Pakistani passion, which has fuelled my cricket and has motivated me to do whatever I have been able to do. [3]

As the perception grew that the Pakistanis were incomparable when it came to hospitality, intolerant as cricket lovers and insufferable as victors, Indians kept to tested friendships – or themselves. [4]

We are going there [India] to better the relations between the two countries, and I hope the Indian Government will not allow a handful of people to deprive cricket lovers of some action and tension packed cricket. [5]

Comments can be multiplied. But what the above quotations clearly suggest is the centrality of cricket in the social and political life of Pakistan. Cricket is the de facto national game in Pakistan, if not its only secular religion in the last few decades. Pakistanis, it is often suggested, like talking, reading and writing about cricket. The passion with which Pakistani cricketers play the game, the emotion with which the Pakistani masses watch their national team play, the admiration with which they worship their cricketing icons and the cricketing culture that has grown around this nationalist obsession are fascinating enough to invite comparison with those of India or Sri Lanka. In fact, Pakistani cricket is an integral part of the subcontinental cricket culture and economy now being led by India at the international level. As Shaharyar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board has rightly argued:

In India and Pakistan – as indeed all over South Asia – cricket has assumed an all-consuming hold on people from all walks of life. From Quetta camel-cart driver to the Chennai professor, from the Lahore shopkeeper to the Bombay housewife, from the Dhaka student to the Colombo hotel waiter, cricket has become an overwhelming passion, its huge energy like incandescent lava flowing down a live volcano, ready to be channelled towards peace and harmony. [6]

Cricket’s pre-eminence in Pakistani life has also led to its construction and interpretation in terms of political transition, social tension, economic transformation, diplomatic relations and cultural development.

Cricket has always remained an emblem of national pride in Pakistan since its birth in 1947. On the other hand, like India, Pakistani cricket

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