Abstract
Half-a-century after the end of colonial rule, the popularity of cricket in the Indian subcontinent is greater than at any point in the past. With the emergence of globalized television markets, the metropole of the sport has shifted away from England to the subcontinent and its settler colonies, such as Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, and Toronto, Canada. Cricket in the decolonizing world functions as a metaphor of war between old and new metropoles, and simultaneously provides marginal populations with the means of overcoming their marginality in global popular culture. This article examines some of these battles, including the furore over K.S. Ranjitsinhji's presence on English cricket fields in the 1890s, and more recent confrontations over corruption and national character. I argue that cricket has long been a forum for contests over race, culture, gender, and moral authority in the British Empire/Commonwealth. Even as the game has functioned as an instrument for the assertion (and defense) of English-elite-male models of authority, the colonized have attempted to subvert or capture this authority. These attempts have been resisted by the defenders of the old centre, by co-option if possible but, if necessary, by casting aspersions on the morality, masculinity and centrality of the challenger.
Published Version
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