SPS102 Spring 2023 Process Essay Final

Submission date: 5/24/2023

Student’s full name : Raamiz Khan Niazi
Student ID number: 32741

Research Question:
With respect to both colonial and post-colonial eras, how impactful was the introduction of
cricket into colonial states by Great Britain in the 20th century and onwards?

Topic: Cricket Colonization

Word count: 1355

Essay:

Cricket emerged as a luxury sport amongst the British elite, having long been considered an

essentially British leisure bat-and-ball activity, played without any competitive spirit. This sport

was transported along with these elites into the colonial states where they exerted their influence,

with the practice finding its way into Great Britain’s colonies in the 20th Century. This spread

would soon have a significant impact, evolving to be more than a simple recreational sport, with

the renowned International Cricket Council governing the politics of the sport, while national

leagues such as the Ashes or World Cups take place periodically to date. Therefore we can argue

that cricket was successfully used in the 20th century to transplant Britain’s colonization

ideology onto relatively underdeveloped colonies such as the subcontinent and Caribbean

colonies, by introducing it as an exclusive and superior practice. This resulted in Britain

controlling the barriers to entry amongst the elite classes, as well as leveraging participation in

the sport and social mobility in exchange for servitude, ultimately developing a permanent

association between Britain and cricket for post-colonial states today.

The first primary use of the sport evolved from a leisure activity to an exclusive one, allowing

the British elite to control the class hierarchy. This was made possible through gatekeeping the

sport to a limited demographic, primarily the British nobles running affairs in the colony.

Kaufman and Patterson narrate this elitist dynamic, stating that “Britons like Lord Harris,

governor of Bombay from 1890–95, sponsored tournaments between Indian and English teams…

cricket reaffirmed the authority of English and Indian elites over their respective

constituencies”1. According to the aforementioned authors, cricket functioned as a medium of

governance for the upper class, while being packaged as a communion between the classes.

Jussawalla builds upon the nature of cricket by arguing the plot of Swami, in which the character

is shown to be “taken in by the exotic appearance of the elitism of cricket”, proving how this

elitism found its way into popular culture depictions as evidence to the effective influence the

British lords had managed to create2. This barrier to entry is made evident, for example, when

Swami becomes embarrassed to take part in the “colonial enterprise”3. It can be inferred that

through this narrative of excludability, coupled with the existence of only the elite within the

borders of the sport, ultimately created a longing for entry to this sport, which the British

exploited to pick and choose the members of the hierarchy at the time.

While considering the exclusion of undesired actors from participation, another important

element to be considered besides political elitism is the propagation of the superior civilization

mindset. We observe Kaufman and Patterson’s evaluation of the motivations behind the

encouragement of cricket in the 20th century, which was made possible due to cricket’s ability to
1 Jason Kaufman and Orlando Patterson, “Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread of Cricket,”
American Sociological Review 70, no. 1 (February 2005): 92.
2 Feroza Jussawalla, “Cricket and Colonialism: From Swami and Friends to Lagaan,” South Asian Review 23, no. 1
(December 2002): 114.
3 Feroza Jussawalla, “Cricket and Colonialism: From Swami and Friends to Lagaan,” South Asian Review 23, no. 1
(December 2002): 114.
“discipline and civilize men, English and native alike”4. This essentially points towards a culture

of white superiority mentality that the British carried at the time with respect to their colonies,

rationalizing any exerted influence under the need to tame these ‘barbaric’ nations. The presence

of a power dynamic is made abundantly clear, which Jussawalla corroborates by analyzing the

British attitude as one viewing themselves as “inherently superior to the colonials because they

could play this "civilized" game with all its attendant heraldry of starched whites, cucumber

sandwiches and B.B.C. broadcasts”5. It may be understood from this that the very basis of the

power gradient that existed at the time may have been exacerbated through the use of cricket as a

‘civilizing’ sport. The British managed to use this to rule with an iron fist by ensuring that an

inferiority complex is engraved into the common man at the time, allowing an effective path to

maintain colonial power.

Secondly, cricket exerted a significant influence on communal relations. This ‘Cricket

diplomacy’ took place not only then, but is also heavily employed by the very colonies it was

used on. At the time of the 20th century, cricket was the ladder offered to move up the class

segregation, in exchange for the submission of will to the colonizing power. This barter of

loyalty is described by Kaufman and Patterson as “liberation cricket”, as it was a means of

access to more ‘British’ facilities such as English boarding schools. argue how cricket was

promoted as a climb up the social ladder in exchange for casting aside a part of their native

identity, essentially a ‘colonization’ of the mind6. As the British gave access to institutional

benefits with cricket, it would often be exploited in the sphere of barbarism. Jussawalla similarly
4 Jason Kaufman and Orlando Patterson, “Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread of Cricket,”
American Sociological Review 70, no. 1 (February 2005): 91.
5 Feroza Jussawalla, “Cricket and Colonialism: From Swami and Friends to Lagaan,” South Asian Review 23, no. 1
(December 2002): 118.
6 Jason Kaufman and Orlando Patterson, “Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread of Cricket,”
American Sociological Review 70, no. 1 (February 2005): 99.
narrates the plot of Lagaan as “Russell says, "I'll forgive your tax [lagaan] if you beat us in this

game. But if you lose, I'll triple your tax."7. From the excerpt, it is not incorrect to comprehend

these acts as crude forms of diplomacy that would barter cricket and the rewards of the game in

exchange for the services and loyalties of members of colonial states. Kaufman and Patterson

corroborate further by highlighting that “Until 1965, in fact, it was the express policy of the ICC

to admit only Commonwealth countries as members” to point out how closely the sport

continued to be colonized by the British colonial system despite being an international body of

diplomatic repute; to conclude, Britain managed to politicize cricket as a means of exerting

hegemonic power, the influence of which continued successfully into the establishment of the

ICC.8

Another way to look at the concept of ‘Cricket diplomacy’ is to observe the legacy of the sport in

the diplomatic procedures of colonial states in their post-colonial eras. Perera speaks to this by

turning attention towards “The importance the Sri Lankan government attached to the visit…

including a proposal to lodge the entire team in India and fly them to and from each game with

full military escort” 9. This protocol attached to an inherited sport shows an unsuccessful

disassociation from the colonized mindset, as Kaufman and Patterson similarly elaborate upon its

standing in popular culture legacy by claiming that “Jawaharlal Nehru, first prime minister of

India, further encouraged participation in the sport, himself having been educated at Harrow in

England”10. The fact that these countries continue to assign such importance to the sport can be

7 Feroza Jussawalla, “Cricket and Colonialism: From Swami and Friends to Lagaan,” South Asian Review 23, no. 1
(December 2002): 125.
8 Jason Kaufman and Orlando Patterson, “Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread of Cricket,”
American Sociological Review 70, no. 1 (February 2005): 85.
9 Suvendrini Perera, “‘Cricket, with a Plot’: Nationalism, Cricket and Diasporic Identities,” Journal of Australian
Studies 24, no. 65 (January 2000): 17.
10 Jason Kaufman and Orlando Patterson, “Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread of Cricket,”
American Sociological Review 70, no. 1 (February 2005): 102.
interpreted as a failure to detach from the British, an inherent proof of the success with which

Britain managed to glue its sporting culture to its colonies. A flipside version of this is seen

through the existence of cricket series such as “The Ashes,” a biennial cricket match between

England and Australia” or as these ex-colonies associate a strict motivation to defeat their

colonizers, which Ponsford further explains as “seeking to forge unions in Asia as a conscious

political move to demonstrate less reliance on Britain”11 12. While on the surface this may seem

as the decolonization of cricket, the very attempt to prove merit in front of their colonizers with

such determination becomes conclusive evidence of the undeniable influence the British

managed to exert through this sport, to the extent that these ex-colonies attach a symbolic

significance to defeating their colonizers in what seems to be a mere sport.

While it superficially appears to be a globally followed sport, cricket comes with a history of

effective use to further the colonial motivations of the British Empire in the 20th century through

a hegemonic monopoly and a discrete politicization of the sport that finds its legacy well into the

post-colonial eras of respective countries. Even the motivations to decolonize the sport only

merit its decolonization to date. Britain remains largely relevant for these previously colonial

countries in the world of cricket, with the adoption of this part of British culture becoming a scar

from the colonial era. It cannot be denied, upon observing the magnitude of importance the sport

carries in the affairs of these post-colonial countries today, that the British did in fact manage to

use cricket as a tool for colonization successfully.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
11 Jason Kaufman and Orlando Patterson, “Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread of Cricket,”
American Sociological Review 70, no. 1 (February 2005): 104.
12 Megan Ponsford, “An Unsung History: The Birth of Indian–Australian Cricket,” Sport in Society 22, no. 1 (June
6, 2017): 3.
Jussawalla, Feroza. “Cricket and Colonialism: From Swami and Friends to Lagaan.” South Asian

Review 23, no. 1 (December 2002): 112–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/02759527.2002.11932232.

Kaufman, Jason, and Orlando Patterson. “Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread

of Cricket.” American Sociological Review 70, no. 1 (February 2005): 82–110.

https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240507000105.

Perera, Suvendrini. “‘Cricket, with a Plot’: Nationalism, Cricket and Diasporic Identities.”

Journal of Australian Studies 24, no. 65 (January 2000): 13–26.

https://doi.org/10.1080/14443050009387581.

Ponsford, Megan. “An Unsung History: The Birth of Indian–Australian Cricket.” Sport in

Society 22, no. 1 (June 6, 2017): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/21672857.2017.1329108.