The Subcontinent

Playing Cricket: India’s Soft Power, Nation Branding and Future Prospects

“…Devan argues that these clubs and cricketing culture in these nations are an effective tool in fostering a sense of Indian identity and keeping a sense of belonging among people of Indian descent intact all over the world (Devan, 2012). Cashman has pointed out that setting up a cricket club is one of the important activities undertaken by the Indians who have just moved to a new country, which could be seen as an endeavour to be able to find and connect with other Indian in the same area (Cashman, 2017). The presence of the Indian diaspora in countries which is somewhat unfamiliar with the game of cricket plays a significant role in the popularisation, growth and development of cricket’s reach in such countries.…”

‘Jewish cricket’: black-Jewish relations in Wondrous Oblivion (2003)

“…32 Cricket essentially developed into a cultural statement of the private and exclusive nature of English colonial culture, segregating the ruling elites from the indigenous subalterns. 33 Cricket soon came to play a key role in the policy of Anglicization whereby an Englisheducated elite of colonial subjects was to be trained to become English in tastes, customs, and manners in order to assist the colonial bureaucracy and to act as a model for other colonised subjects. 34 As the most gentlemanly of sports, colonial subjects came to associate cricket with gentility, 'civilisation' and 'the perfect expression of the values of bourgeois civility, Anglo-Saxon ethics, and public school morality.'…”

Negotiating their right to play: Asian-specific cricket teams and leagues in the UK and Norway

“…According to Cashman (1998) an indication of this empowerment is that when communities from the Indian subcontinent settle in another country, they will often join or form culturally-specific sports clubs.…”