The Gezira sporting club of Cairo

Abstract

Sports and their impact on the dynamics of empire offer a glimpse into the complex relationships between colonizers and the colonized. Such relationships have often imparted legacies of social identity. There are still, for example, Sudanese army officers who play polo and—the Internet notwithstanding— Indian business tycoons who conduct their affairs in the quiet setting of exclusive clubs reminiscent of London's Travellers’ Club or the Reform Club. Of course, cricket pitches dot the Caribbean and the Asian subcontinent, the national teams of these regions regularly beating the English team on its own turf, at the Marylebone Club in London. These practices are reflections of social and cultural imperialism.