Mid-pitch ruminations: The declining Anglo influence on cricket

(Note: This blog was scheduled to go out in March but got delayed. Some of the content, especially on series like India-South Africa and the Ashes, may seem dated. However, I hope it still makes sense!)

Colonization brought upon the Anglicization of the world, with a single culture seemingly dominating far-away lands in Asia and Africa. Not only does this force me to give proficiency tests in English, essentially determining the extent of my Anglicization, but it also created a commonwealth of countries that played the sport we love today.

Cricket was a tool used by the British to enforce the English culture in the regions they ruled, with aspects like ‘tea-break’ persisting and the sport still being referred to as a ‘gentleman’s game’ (now hopefully a less gender-specific term). The English cricket team has seen many a triumph, once hailed for its fierce attacking batters and seemingly age-less bowlers; now, not so much. The failure of the English team, especially in Test cricket, is not only a sign of their loss of power as forebearers of the game but a general decline in the Anglo influence on the game. Many of these observations will draw on from different series played, probably starting from when I last spoke about cricket!

The Ashes, a bi-annual 5-test series held between England and Australia, is undoubtedly one of the most important cricketing occasions in the sport. It’s a centuries-old tradition full of history and intense rivalry. Any cricket aficionado can’t help being attracted to it. The hype the Ashes generates helps Test cricket immensely. Yet, I think, in the over-excitement, each series becomes less and less important primarily based on the forms of the teams participating. England suffered a devastating 4-0 loss, narrowly escaping a whitewash due to some brilliant blocking by the tail in the dying moments of the 4^th test. On a home advantage, Australia has been a team undergoing management and personnel changes. The 2-1 loss at home against India was a turning point for them, but they too have just begun a resurgent effort that will truly be tested away from home.

The decrease in quality of cricket is primarily based on England’s lackluster approach to every area of the game. Their loss by an innings when set a lead of 68 was highly predictable to me and shouldn’t be written off as a freak incident. I did watch as much of the series as I could, in between work or on holiday, and every English collapse was painful to watch, purely as a fan of the sport. I’ve only heard stories about the rich 2006 series or the blitz England brought in 2011; 2021 was incredibly humiliating. I think the overhype might be why my perception of their quality has a low bar, which could have more far-reaching effects on England. More importantly, I think this might just be the shift cricket needs from its focus on just Anglo-Australian test cricket to other nations like New Zealand and a budding South Africa. Just after the conclusion of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, I saw Ricky Ponting, the late Shane Warne, and Michael Vaughan in a ‘build-up’ to the Ashes program. When I looked at their tweets from 4 months ago, it was clear that their priority was just the Ashes, and every other bilateral series was merely practice. As a biased Indian fan (yes, I agree!), I feel like this might be a disservice to resurgent nations like South Africa and actual World Champions New Zealand. The coverage of the Ashes, a prominent part of Anglo-dominance, could be harming the game, and a weak English team may probably help break that spell.

Regardless of their performances abroad, a troubling statistic shows us that England has only won 1 of the last 14 tests in the last 12 months. This includes the home series against a weak New Zealand team in June and the Indian team in August-September. The Pataudi Trophy, played by India in England, was entertaining for Indians but less for the English fans, who currently sit at a disadvantage at 2-1. Some memorable innings came from the series – Rohit Sharma’s first international Test century, KL Rahul’s revelation as a Test opener, Shardul Thakur’s rising stock as an all-rounder, and the strengthening of the lower order batting. The 2^nd Test’s Day 5 highlights, featuring Bumrah and Shami’s exploits, is exactly the video I need to see before giving any exam! It simply puts a smile on my face. For England, it was a shock to see dramatic losses at home, especially at the hands of a team they have consistently beaten at home for the better part of the decade. As I saw us pile on the runs, I was taken back to the movie Lagaan and how Indian farmers won the right not to pay land taxes by beating the British. All I could think about throughout the series was what this showed about colonialism and countries breaking free from it. There are still certain regions reeling from the effects of colonialism worldwide, but cricket seems like the right avenue to show this dominance. I remember Shashi Tharoor telling a hungry Oxford audience that the British introduced us to cricket, and India gave it back to them. I found it scarily beautiful that the India-South Africa series was called the ‘Freedom Series’, a homage to apartheid and colonialism (the initial propagator of racism). It just felt right.

I am still unsure why the idea of colonialism and its history is still fascinating to me. I really think emotion had more to do with the enslavement of almost half the world, stemming from feelings of superiority and this claim of civility. This was their primary claim over the subcontinent. Over the last two years studying IB Indian history, I have learned about enough historians who have identified different stages of the independence movement where the ‘façade’ of British civilization was unraveled, be it at the Jallianwala Bagh in 1919 or in repressing the national movement in 1942. To me, a much less dramatic but insightful display of waning civility has to be English spectators. They’ve gone from being pioneers of cricket to cork-throwing and racial-abuse hurling almost as fast as the English team has been bowled out in their last couple of innings. Even during the Euro Cup at the Wembley, English fans showed a severe lack of civility with their distracting lasers and booing of foreign national anthems. Interestingly, this used to be said about subcontinental crowds, Indians in particular!

Considering how important spectators are for cricket, especially Test cricket, the growing influence of the ‘Bharat Army’ is noteworthy. A group of British-based Indians, BA follows the Indian team on tour with their dhols, flags, and intense passion for the game. It can really be an unforgiving environment to play in, especially in raucous English and Australian settings. I’ve grown to understand their importance as I heard Indian players thank them for their music during their tour of England, actually creating an environment conducive for Indian cricket abroad. The movie ’83’ shows how antagonizing the dhols can be for the white crowd, but also how appreciative it is by the players. I remember the BA standing in the rain-soaked Southampton stands, their dhols easily the highlight amongst the only the other media (which, to be fair, just said ‘rain stops play’).

While most of what I have documented here may be symbolic gestures, their importance cannot be undervalued. Realistically, there isn’t much we can do today to symbolize our independence over colonial powers in this integrated world. That’s why photo-ops like the Indian team taking over the Member’s Pavillion at Lords to congratulate the Bumrah-Shami partnership go a long way in doing what we dream of showing the world. The dying embers of Anglo dominance may finally give rise to the Asian century and a chance for world cricket to move on from the gloomy English summer.