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Abstract
The International Cricket Council and civil prosecutions of three Pakistani cricketers and their fixer brought player corruption in cricket to public scrutiny once more. A range of English media commentators and the sentencing judge referred to cricket’s loss of innocence because of the deception of the Pakistani cricketers. However, commercialisation, racism and dealings with corrupt political regimes have all exposed cricket as less innocent than many of its English defenders would admit. Furthermore, the demonisation of Pakistani cricketers as cheats blurs the boundary between individual responsibility and cultural characteristics with negative consequences for Muslims in the post-9/11 world.
Notes
1. The Telegraph, May 29, 2012. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/southafrica/9298694/Strong-emotions-about-disgraced-South-Africa-captain-Hansie-Cronje-even-10-years-after-his-death.html.
2. New York Times, December 6, 2000. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/06/sports/azharuddin-and-4-others-are-punished-for-cricket-match-fixing-former.html; ESPN Cricinfo.com, July 22, 2013. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/654219.html.
3. For example, BBC News, May 16, 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22549897.
4. Gilroy, Postcolonial Melancholia.
5. Ibid., 99.
6. Noble, “The Face of Evil,” 14.
7. Reichmuth and Werning, “Pixel Pashas,” 247.
8. Carrington, “Introduction: Sport Matters,” 965–6.
9. Malcolm, Globalizing Cricket, 58.
10. Appadurai, Modernity at Large, 93.
11. Fletcher, “Making of English Cricket Cultures,” 21.
12. James, Beyond a Boundary, 38–9.
13. Perera, “Cricket with a Plot,” 516.
14. Ibid.
15. The Guardian, July 2, 2006. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2006/jul/02/cricket.features1; Malcolm, Globalizing Cricket, 53–60.
16. Carrington and McDonald, “Whose Game is it Anyway?” 49–50.
17. Sen, “Enduring Colonialism,” 238.
18. Malcolm, Globalizing Cricket, 57.
19. Holden, “World Cricket,” 353.
20. Farred, “The Double Temporality of Lagaan,” 103.
21. Ibid., 96–7.
22. Ibid., 101.
23. Fletcher, “Cricket, Migration and Diasporic Communities,” 148.
24. Pace bowlers shine one side of a cricket ball as a game unfolds. One side becomes progressively rougher and a skilful bowler can use the shiny/rough combination to make the ball swing through the air. A batsman will note the way a bowler holds the ball to predict which way it will swing. Reverse swing is an art that sees a ball swinging in the opposition direction to what it should such that it swings towards the shine with an inswinger becoming an outswinger. It is a most difficult bowling art to master.
25. Rumford, “More than a Game,” 213.
26. Fletcher, “Making of English Cricket Cultures,” 27.
27. Bailey, A History of Cricket, 135.
28. Gandhi, Affective Communities, 81–2.
29. Ibid.
30. Sen, “Enduring Colonialism,” 242.
31. Ibid., 243.
32. Carrington and McDonald, “Whose Game is it Anyway?” 52.
33. Williams, “Paki Cheats!” 93.
34. Ibid., 102.
35. The Telegraph, August 30, 2010. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/7971394/Pakistan-cricket-scam-Sport-dies-the-moment-cheats-join-the-game.html.
36. Sen, “Enduring Colonialism,” 238–9.
37. Searle, “Cricket and Mirror of Racism.”
38. Marqusee, Anyone but England, 189; Searle, “Cricket and Mirror of Racism,” 45–9.
39. The Guardian, September 29, 2006. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2006/sep/29/cricket.sport.
40. Searle, “Cricket and Mirror of Racism,” 48.
41. Bowyer Bell and Whaley, Cheating and Deception; Kagle, “Are We Lying to Ourselves?”
42. Robinson, Deceit, Delusion and Detection, 70–2.
43. Ibid., 106–10.
44. Alatas, Myth of the Lazy Native.
45. Scott, Weapons of the Weak.
46. Scott, Domination and Arts of Resistance.
47. Bowyer Bell and Whaley, Cheating and Deception.
48. Porter, Military Orientalism, 48.
49. Ibid., 18–29, 98–102.
50. Bowyer Bell and Whaley, Cheating and Deception, xxii.
51. Kass and London, “Surprise, Deception, Denial and Warning,” 65.
52. Ibid., 62.
53. Probyn, “Sporting Bodies,” 20–1.
54. Cole, “Close Encounters,” 345–7.
55. ESPNCricinfo, May 9, 2012. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/story/564249.html.
56. Reddiford, “Cheating and Self-Deception,” 230.
57. Ibid.
58. Loland, “The Varieties of Cheating,” 14.
59. Ibid., 11–12.
60. Cooke, “Sentencing Remarks.”
61. ESPN Cricinfo.com, November 3, 2011. http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/539114.html.
62. The Guardian, November 5, 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/nov/05/pakistan-cricket-scandal-mike-brearley.
63. The Independent, February 6, 2011. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/icc-lay-down-the-law-in-bid-to-fix-the-fixers-2205715.html.
64. The Express, November 2, 2011. http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/281174/Pakistan-cricket-cheats-facing-gaoljail-over-Test-match-fix.
65. The Daily Mail, November 4, 2011. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2056982/Pakistan-spot-fixing-players-corrupt-agent-gaoledjailed-cricket-betting-scandal.html.
66. The Guardian, September 25, 2010. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2010/sep/25/darrell-hair-pakistan.
67. Marqusee, Anyone but England, 43–4.
68. Jefferys, Sport and Politics, 107.
69. The international body governing cricket was formed as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by England, Australia and South Africa and was renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965. It took up its current name and form as the International Cricket Council in 1989.
70. Marqusee, Anyone but England, 205–41.
71. Sen, “Enduring Colonialism,” 239–40.
72. Marqusee, “In Search of Unequivocal Englishman,” 127; Fletcher, “Making of English Cricket Cultures,” 18. The organisation was established in the wake of Robert Henderson’s article in a 1995 edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly arguing it was the presence of non-white players that explained the malaise in the England cricket team.
73. Williams, “Paki Cheats!”
74. ESPNCricinfo.com. August 2, 2007. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/286356.html.
75. ESPN Cricinfo.com., March 20, 2012. http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan/content/current/story/558047.html.
76. The Observer, February 5, 2011. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2011/feb/05/icc-suspension-pakistan-players.
77. ESPN Cricinfo.com. November 15, 2011. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/current/story/540683.html.
78. Appadurai, Modernity at Large, 107; Gupta, “Globalization of Cricket”; Rumford, “More than a Game.”
79. Holden, “World Cricket,” 343.
80. Gupta, “Globalization of Cricket,” 263; Rumford, “More than a Game,” 203.
81. Werbner, “Our Blood is Green.”
82. Williams, “Paki Cheats!” 103.
83. Bateman, “Cricket Writing,” 41.
84. Ibid., 33.
85. Farrington et al., Race, Racism and Sports Journalism, 103.
86. Williams, “Cricket,” 126.
87. Searle, “Cricket and Mirror of Racism,” 48–9.
88. Nixon, “Apartheid on the Run,” 80.