Abstract
Cricket’s imperial lineage continues to define its meaning in parts of the erstwhile British Empire. Simultaneously, the game is now a metaphor for the forces of globalization and a vehicle for asserting new post-colonial identities. The creation of the lucrative Indian Premier League and India’s rise as the financial epicentre of the game is reflective of its rise as an emerging engine of the new global financial structure and as a major market for the consumer economy. India’s rise as a new “cricket capital” is intrinsically linked to the forces of global capitalism and this has significantly changed the game power structure itself. This essay analyses the discourse around the Indian Premier League, debates around cricket’s new ‘Asian bloc’ and the racism row between the Indian and Australian cricket teams in January 2008, to delineate the shift in the international power dynamics of cricket and its implications for debates about post-colonialism and globalization.
Bombay Sport Exchange: cricket, globalization and the future
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Nalin Mehta
Professor Nalin Mehta is Dean, School of Modern Media, UPES; Advisor, Global University Systems and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University Singapore. He is an award-winning social scientist, journalist and author who has held senior leadership positions in major Indian media companies; international financing institutions like the Global Fund in Geneva, Switzerland; taught and held research positions at universities and institutions in Australia (ANU, La Trobe University), Singapore (NUS), Switzerland (International Olympic Museum) and India (IIM Bangalore, Shiv Nadar University).