LISTICLE
Follow UsThe field is not a utopia. It is as much a part of the society it inhabits as we all are. That’s why it’s hard for people to shed their biases even when competing against ‘equals’ on a field. Inbred prejudices don’t disappear just because you wear a team’s jersey.
However, when the scale of the situation is bigger than the individual, the sport itself is affected, and we are crudely reminded that for society at large, sports are nothing but entertainment.
Like many other sports, cricket has faced these issues throughout its history. The current times are no different, as political violence in Bangladesh has put the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 in jeopardy. If that wasn’t enough, the ongoing racial riots in the United Kingdom (UK) have raised serious security concerns amongst the Sri Lankan players who’ll be playing a Test series there in a few days.
However, such abrupt interruptions in cricket aren’t new. The politics, political reactions, and political violence of participating countries have always affected the game. Let’s look at some prominent ones.
The World Wars
“I think the time has arrived when the county cricket season should be closed, for it is not fitting at a time like this that able-bodied men should be playing cricket by day and pleasure-seekers look on.”
That’s what WG Grace, arguably the most prominent cricketer to have played the game before the post-World War era, wrote in a letter in Sportsman during the early days of World War I in 1914 to bring a stop to cricket. As the country prepped for war and able-bodied men stood in lines to get conscripted, the County Championship was still on. Players were getting telegrams from the war office to join the efforts in the middle of games.
Cricket had to come to a stop in the English world just a few months after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated and the European world cried war.
However, the situation was quite interesting during the Second World War between 1939 and 1945.
Some of the best cricketers of the time, including Donald Bradman, had to join the army, and regular international cricket wasn’t possible. In fact, Bradman was part of the Royal Australian Air Force and was declared fit for aircrew duties. Later, he was given the rank of lieutenant and posted to the Army School of Physical Training at Frankston, Victoria, where he was the divisional supervisor of physical training.
Meanwhile, international cricket wasn’t happening in England, but the Lord’s hosted many domestic and charity games at the time. With the Germans air striking London regularly in that period, many times, players would hear an enemy plane flying overhead and drop to the ground as the aircraft passed over them.
The D'Oliveira affair and Apartheid
Basil D'Oliveira, a South Africa-born English cricketer of Indian and Portuguese descent, was selected for the South Africa tour to England in 1968 after a prolonged controversy. Despite coming in as a late injury replacement, South African Prime Minister John Vorster and other politicians opposed his selection.
South Africa practised Apartheid, and no coloured cricketer was allowed to represent the nation. This D'Oliveira affair triggered a vicissitude of events that eventually led to a complete boycott of South African cricket internationally, as sanctions from international bodies and other countries mounted on the apartheid nation.
South Africa could only return to international cricket in 1991 with their tour to India. It is ironical that the country now famous as the rainbow nation was ousted from cricket for more than two decades as it was 'too white'.
The 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War
The 1965 war had soured the cricket relations between India and Pakistan. Then, in 1971, another war broke out between the two nations in what was then called East Pakistan. The Indian army had crossed the border and was helping the Bengali protesters fight against the Pakistani army. Safe to say, things were far from peaceful despite the surrender of the Pakistani army then.
There was no cricket between the two neighbours for the next seven years. Two wars within a space of six years ensured that. However, things did resume in 1978 when Morarji Desai’s Janta Dal government tried to improve relations with General Zia-ul-Haq’s Pakistan.
Cricket resumed in 1978, but it was often brought to a standstill in the future. Sadly, the situation remains more or less the same more than 50 years after the wars.
Assassination of Indira Gandhi
Post Operation Blue Star, where the armed forces desecrated the Golden Temple by entering with arms, the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards. It shocked the whole nation, and the ramifications were naturally felt in cricket as well.
The Indian cricket team was on a tour to Pakistan then, having already played two Test matches. However, the third Test, which was scheduled to begin on November 4, was cancelled as the Indian PM was assassinated on October 31.
Meanwhile, the English cricket team arrived on the Indian shores for a tour on the day of the assassination itself. The tour was affected naturally, as within the next three months, anti-Sikh riots broke out in many parts of India, and later, the biggest industrial disaster of India - The Bhopal Gas tragedy - also occurred between the first and second Test.
1996 Cricket World Cup
International cricket’s power axis is situated in the subcontinent now, but things were quite different until the last century. The best example is from the 1996 ODI World Cup.
Right before the tournament, in January 1996, the Central Bank in Colombo was bombed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Post bombings, Australia and the West Indies refused to send their cricket teams to Sri Lanka, citing security reasons. Negotiations went on, but no results came out.
Finally, the International Cricket Council (ICC) ruled that Sri Lanka would be awarded points from both games, as the opposition forfeited them. That resulted in Sri Lanka directly qualifying for the quarterfinal stage of the World Cup without playing a single game. Arjuna Ranatunga’s men won the World Cup, which saw many violent incidents on and off the field.
2003 Cricket World Cup
As fans usually remember, Shane Warne failing his doping test wasn’t the biggest controversy of the 2003 Cricket World Cup. It was England's decision to not travel to Zimbabwe, citing political and economical instability as reasons.
While the 2003 World Cup was mainly held in South Africa, games were also scheduled in Zimbabwe and Kenya. The infamous Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe was in power then, and his racial policy in sports had created much furore in the cricketing world.
Tony Blair, the then Prime Minister of Britain, didn’t allow England to travel to Zimbabwe for their game. The African nation's politics was tumultuous, and Zimbabwean cricketers Andy Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands to "mourn the death of democracy" in their country. Moreover, Mugabe had directly criticised Blair for the war on Iraq.
England’s request to shift the game to South Africa was rejected, and the game was forfeited later, which allowed Zimbabwe to reach the Super Six stage. The other African nation, Kenya, did much better after New Zealand forfeited their game against them. Kenya made it to the semifinal of the World Cup, where India eventually defeated them.
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