I have a hard time sitting in one place for several hours watching a sporting match (and am rather unfamiliar with the rules of Cricket), so I decided to walk around Bangalore and watch other people watching the game.
Can you tell that things started getting a little wilder towards the end?
Actually these scenes reminded me very much of some that I saw last year when I was in Colombia during the final match of the World Cup (soccer/football, not cricket).
Here are a couple of pics from that match:
When I started writing this post, the game was still afoot, and fairly close. Now India has won, and is headed for a final duel with another sub-continental rival, Sri Lanka.
Ever read or heard of the book "Beyond a Boundary" by C.L.R. James? Not all of what he says is relevant today in India (especially the claim that cricket is a game that negotiates class boundaries). But one of the most famous quotes from his book reads "What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?" Cricket was the ultimate instrument of colonial ideology. Power and political ideology - nowhere do these two meet in a more powerful manner than in the narrative of cricket and the colonized masses.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Madhu. I had not heard of the book before, but now I plan to check it out. I'm curious to know, if cricket is an instrument of colonial ideology, do you think it has a rightful place in modern India?
ReplyDeleteI have no answer to that one James. In fact, I don't think this is an argument about right and wrong...rather just a historiographical viewpoint. And we all know if there is one relativist body of knowledge out there, it is history. Also, take a look at this article.
ReplyDeleteArticle link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.maati.tv/beta/to-afridi-with-love/