Cricket, society and religion: a study of increasing religiosity in the national cricket team of Pakistan

Abstract

In the 1990s, two major controversies struck Pakistan cricket– match-fixing and increased religiosity within the team. I argue that these issues represent the culmination of changes that Pakistan and Pakistani cricket had been experiencing since the country’s birth in 1947. Specifically, I examine, through fieldwork (September 2015 – November 2017), how the idea of redemption through religion came to be the ‘moral’ response to an ‘immoral’ period of match-fixing in Pakistan cricket. Therefore, while the character of the team was affected by overarching sociopolitical trends whereby religion and certain religious groups became increasingly prominent in the public sphere, it was also moulded by influences that were specific to the cricket team. These influences came together at a particular moment and culminated in the overt religious character of the cricket team. The ‘local’-level examination, therefore, complicates our understanding of the larger processes and their ability to shape the culture within the team.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 A legal and fuller definition of match-fixing was given in the Qayyum Report (‘The Cricket Inquiry Report’ by Justice Malik Muhammad Qayyum) on match-fixing in Pakistan which was released in 2000. The report defines match-fixing as ‘deciding the outcome of a match before it is played and then playing oneself or having others play below one’s/their ability to influence the outcome to be in accordance with the pre-decided outcome’ (Qayyum Report, 8).

2 Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari’s report (‘Inquiry Report, World Cup, 1999’) into match-fixing allegations in the 1999 World Cup.

3 See Townsend (2007), Edwards (2007), Brenkley (2006), Cricinfo Staff (2007) and “Religious beliefs” (2007).

4 See, for example, volumes by Bandyopadhyay (2015), Majumdar (2009), Majumdar and Mangan (2005) and Wagg (2005).

5 See Khan and Khan (2013), Little and Valiotis (2012), Oborne (2014) and Heller and Oborne (2016).

6 ‘In the context of Pakistani politics, the term denotes a set of laws and policies implemented in Pakistan over a period of several years, with particular reference to those legislated during General Zia ul-Haq’s period (1978–88). Thus Islamization would mean the process of bringing the laws of Pakistan in accordance with a specific interpretation of Islamic sources, an interpretation that did not necessarily have a particular methodology at its foundation’ (Dolnik and Iqbal 2016, 10–11 (n. 1)).

7 General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who in July 1977 toppled the democratically elected Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and immediately initiated a process of sweeping Islamization.

8 This was during Sharif’s second term as Prime Minister from 1997 to 1999.

9 See ‘Latest-Maulana Tariq Jameel [sic] Bayan in [sic] FBR Custom Officers’.

10 The other two were Mushtaq Ahmed and Inzamam ul Haq.

11 Since Imran Khan retired in 1992, Pakistan have had 16 captains – Australia have had 4, England 8 and India 6.

12 For example, Saleem Malik and Salman Butt were banned for fixing matches. Both were from Lahore and relatively well educated. Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Amir were also banned for fixing and were from the smaller urban centres of Sheikhupura and Gujar Khan and were less well educated.