As a sport linked inextricably to the 'civilising' mission of imperialism and colonisation, cricket is always played in the shadow of the discursive and systematic practice of racism. In very few sports do we see as significant engagement between the populations and medias of nations that possess such an (unfair) imbalance of economic and geopolitical power.
We all know what's going on in the world right now. Anti white-supremacy protests have spread around the world and forced conversations in all states marked by the spectres of white supremacy, anti-blackness, and neo-colonialism/imperialism.
These conversations bleed through into cricket. We've already seen a reckoning of the anti-black racism (erroneously called 'colourism') that is all too present in South Asian societies and which has mediated the relationship between players from South Asia and the Caribbean.
What's unfortunate is that in the cricket sphere, conversations on racism have seemed to centre on modes of accusations against non-white populations as uniquely dysfunctional societies, where racism is apparently tolerated and enabled and unquestioned at rates that would be completely untenable in white-majority states. These conversations neglect the white-supremacist medium by which much systematic and interpersonal racism actually materially harms oppressed communities in the present time. They neglect the historical and sociopolitical reality, the structural legacy of imperialism as it plays out in acts of racism between people of colour, and the significant ways in which racism in cricket continues to be meted out by white states that hold the legacy of administrative power against their non-white populations, and non-white playing nations.
Because of all this I wanted to share some of the research articles largely published since the year 2010 that examine racism and cricket. These probably would be quite hard to access for those who don't have university library access. Which is unfortunate, because the academic inquiry into racism should be shared and easily available to the general public, because it's the academic discussion that evidences the experiences of non-white people, and which actually forms the intellectual basis of a lot of anti-racist activism.
England specific
British Muslim experiences in English first-class cricket
Cricket drinking and exclusion of British Pakistani Muslims
It’s because we’re Indian, innit?’ Cricket and the South Asian diaspora in post-war Britain
Strangers of the north: South Asians, cricket and the culture of ‘Yorkshireness’
Australia specific
Managing Racism on the Field in Australian Junior Sport - go to chapter 7 of this book
The televised sport ‘monkey trial’: ‘race’ and the politics of post-colonial cricket
General
‘Who do ‘‘they” cheer for?’ Cricket, diaspora, hybridity and divided loyalties amongst British Asians - this talks about the British context, but the discourse surrounding which team immigrants support, and the relationship this has to their 'assimilated' status, is one that plays out in Australia and NZ quite frequently too.
Cricket, migration and diasporic communities
Cricket, Race and the 2007 World Cup
The politics of purity: discourses of deception and integrity in contemporary international cricket
Hopefully this will be instructive and interesting. Spending time on this sub itself, in my experience as a South Asian person I have seen a lot of racist ideology mediate the discourse that frequently plays out between the South Asian users and the white users. Which is not to say that all white users are racist of course, but there does seem to be a bit of ignorance surrounding what is appropriate and what crosses the line into racism. Something that can be called 'white arrogance' (again not an inherent trait of being white but a specific mode of white supremacy racism) gets expressed in episodes of sledging and seems to be founded on the belief of sociocultural superiority.
The BLM movement should not be coopted by other peoples of colour, because it's quite specifically about anti-black racism. South Asian communities need to interrogate their own anti-blackness. However, I do think that broader conversations about racism are worth having in this moment, when the world is reflecting on itself and when people are primed to listen and act. All people and all communities have an opportunity to learn and grow, and hopefully as part of that we can engage in critical reflection of the ways that white supremacist rhetoric can sometimes be a part of cricket discourse.
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