Cricket, society and religion: a study of increasing religiosity in the national cricket team of Pakistan

Abstract

In the 1990s, two major controversies struck Pakistan cricket– match-fixing and increased religiosity within the team. I argue that these issues represent the culmination of changes that Pakistan and Pakistani cricket had been experiencing since the country’s birth in 1947. Specifically, I examine, through fieldwork (September 2015 – November 2017), how the idea of redemption through religion came to be the ‘moral’ response to an ‘immoral’ period of match-fixing in Pakistan cricket. Therefore, while the character of the team was affected by overarching sociopolitical trends whereby religion and certain religious groups became increasingly prominent in the public sphere, it was also moulded by influences that were specific to the cricket team. These influences came together at a particular moment and culminated in the overt religious character of the cricket team. The ‘local’-level examination, therefore, complicates our understanding of the larger processes and their ability to shape the culture within the team.