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Abstract
This article explores the contemporary relationship between Yorkshire cricket and South Asian communities through oral testimonies with white and British Asian cricketers within the region. The article documents how the myths and invented traditions surrounding Yorkshire as an insular county have extended to all levels of Yorkshire cricket culture. Evidence is presented to argue that, despite the growing representation of British Asians within the Yorkshire leagues and within the structure of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, cultural and institutionalized forms of racism continue to be intrinsic to the sport. The article presents evidence to suggest that, regardless of being committed to Yorkshire and their ‘Yorkshireness’, white Yorkshire people may never fully accept British Asians as ‘one of us’. Finally, Yorkshire cricket's (alleged) commitment to ‘colour blindness’ is deconstructed by presenting evidence that British Asians continue to feel marginalized by, and on the fringes of, mainstream cricket culture in Yorkshire.
Notes
1 An earlier version of this article was presented at the Critiquing Sport: Theory and Practice, 4th Political Studies Association Sport and Politics Group Annual Conference (Leeds Metropolitan University, February 2010). I would like to thank the conference delegates for their constructive feedback and especially, Peter Millward for inviting me to participate.
2 CitationOrwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, Part 7.
3 CitationRussell, Looking North.
4 CitationRussell, ‘Sport and Identity’.
5 CitationSearle, ‘Sheffield Caribbean’, 223.
6 CitationWagg and Russell, ‘Introduction’, viii.
7 CitationSearle, Pitch of Life, 15.
8 CitationBurdsey, ‘Midnight's Grandchildren at the MCC’.
9 CitationWilliams, Cricket and Race.
10 CitationSearle, Pitch of Life.
11 CitationWilliams, Cricket and Race.
12 There is debate over how best to describe and label those settlers from South Asia. This article regularly employs the labels of ‘South Asian’ and ‘British Asian’. The term ‘South Asian’ is used to broadly delineate people from the Indian subcontinent. The term ‘British Asian’ is used to refer to those British citizens who trace their ancestry back to, or who themselves have migrated from, the Indian subcontinent. Although there is debate over whether one has to be born in Britain to be a British Asian, I prefer to incorporate those who have been born outside Britain, but who have become British citizens because this represents the democratization of British citizenship. Thus, ‘British Asian’ is a very broad category and subsumes a tremendous plurality of identities (CitationBrah, Cartographies of Diaspora). Although these categorizations are conceptually limited, they are commonly employed within academic literature and were commonly cited and conceptually understood by the participants.
13 CitationLong et al. , Crossing the Boundary; CitationMcDonald and Ugra, Anyone for Cricket?; CitationMalcolm, ‘Malign or Benign?’.
14 CitationYoung Jr, ‘Experiences in Ethnographic Interviewing’; CitationFletcher, ‘Being Inside and Outside the Field’; “Aye, but it were wasted on thee”.
15 CitationCohen, The Symbolic Construction of Community.
16 CitationHobsbawm and Ranger, The Invention of Tradition.
17 CitationCohen, The Symbolic Construction of Community.
18 CitationSpracklen, ‘Black Pearl, Black Diamonds’, 71.
19 CitationSpracklen, ‘Black Pearl, Black Diamonds’, 74.
20 CitationMosey, We Don't Play it for Fun, 2.
21 CitationFletcher, ‘Yorkshire, Cricket and Identity’.
22 All participants were encouraged to choose the name by which they wished to be recognized. This was done because I wanted them to feel a sense of ownership of their voices and their part in the research. Moreover, it is as well to appreciate that applying pseudonyms randomly or comically is not necessarily appropriate for all cultural groups. Aarti Ratna discusses the importance of, and complexity behind, naming children of South Asian descent, for example, and acknowledges that names, randomly applied and out of context, could cause offence (CitationRatna, British Asian Females' Racialised and Gendered Experiences of Identity and Women's Football).
23 Interview, 27 October 2008.
24 cf. Fletcher, “Who do ‘they’ cheer for?”; CitationMarqusee, Anyone but England; CitationWagg, ‘To be an Englishman’.
25 CitationFletcher, “Aye, but it were wasted on thee”.
26 Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora; CitationGreenfield and Osborn, ‘Oh to be in England?’
27 CitationWagg, ‘Muck or Nettles’.
28 CitationClarke, ‘The Skinheads and the Magical Recovery of Community’; “Aye, but it were wasted on thee”.
29 CitationKalra, From Textile Mills to Taxi Ranks.
30 CitationBallard, ‘Introduction’.
31 CitationKalra, From Textile Mills to Taxi Ranks.
32 CitationMaguire and Stead, ‘Far Pavilions’.
33 CitationKalra, From Textile Mills to Taxi Ranks; CitationWilliams, Cricket and Race; CitationBurdsey, British Asians and Football.
34 CitationAlam, ‘…and Now for the Magic of Khan’.
35 On 11 September 2001, four commercial planes were hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists. Two crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, another crashed into the Pentagon in Virginia, while the third crashed into suburban land. In the aftermath of 9/11, America (under a coalition with Great Britain) launched the ‘War on Terror’.
36 The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of coordinated suicide attacks on London's public transport network. Three bombs exploded on London's underground trains and another on a double-decker bus. The perpetrators were three Leeds-based British Pakistanis, Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Mir Hussain and one British Jamaican, Germaine Lindsay.
37 CitationAlexander, The Asian Gang.
38 Interview, 31 October 2008.
39 CitationCarrington, ‘Leeds and the Topographies of Race’, 125.
40 CitationGeaves, ‘Negotiating British Citizenship and Muslim Identity’.
41 CitationDavies, From Queen's to Kings.
42 CitationDavies, From Queen's to Kings.
43 CitationWilliams, Race and Cricket; CitationBurdsey, ‘No Ball Games Allowed?’.
44 Focus group interview, 16 March 2009.
45 The term black British is used to delineate individuals of African and/or Caribbean (Afro-Caribbean) descent who were either born in Britain, or whom have migrated to Britain and claimed British citizenship.
46 CitationLong et al. , Crossing the Boundary;, Cricket and Race; ‘Paki Cheats’.
47 CitationLong et al. , Crossing the Boundary.
48 Rashid was nominated for an award at the coveted British Asian Sports Award (BASA) in both 2009 and 2010.
49 CitationLawton, ‘Talent Issue’.
50 Pakistan-born Rafiq played a number of first-class games for Yorkshire during the 2009 season. Most of which he played when Rashid was in the England Ashes and one-day international squads which faced Australia. Rafiq is perhaps best known for his involvement in YCCC's controversial removal from the 2008 domestic Twenty20 tournament after it was found he had been ineligible to play in a match against Nottinghamshire. After working his way through the academy and second XI systems, Bradford-born Ashraf made his Yorkshire first XI debut in 2010.
51 Citation SPIN: The Cricket Magazine , ‘I'd Like to be a Role Model for British Asians’.
52 The Quaid-I-Azam League (named in honour of the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah) is an Asian cricket league based in the North of England. It was formed in 1981 by South Asian communities in Bradford (cf, CitationKhan, ‘Welcome to the Quaid-I-Azam League’; CitationValiotis, ‘Runs in the Outfield’).
53 Interview, 13 March 2009.
54 Interview, 2 March 2009.
55 CitationBurdsey, British Asians and Football.
56 CitationBurdsey, British Asians and Football.
57 CitationBack, Crabbe, and Solomos, The Changing Face of Football.
58 CitationPuwar, Space Invaders.
59 CitationPuwar, Space Invaders., 58.
60 Citationhooks, Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination. Goldberg observes how in whiter spaces racialized bodies are constantly under super-surveillance. As a result, the tiniest error in performance or judgement can be highlighted and amplified as proof of the person not being quite up to the job (CitationGoldberg, ‘In/Visibility and Super/Vision’). Puwar also notes how under these conditions, ethnic minorities are under undue pressure, which in itself can induce mistakes, which are indicative of the anxiety and nervousness produced, rather than the actual abilities of the person (CitationPuwar, Space Invaders, 62).
61 CitationBonilla-Silva, Racism without Racists.
62 Interview, 23 January 2009.
63 Interview, 23 January 2009.
64 Interview, 28 October 2008.
65 Interview, 2 March 2009.
66 CitationNayak, ‘White English Ethnicities’; CitationHewitt, White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism.
67 CitationWilliams, ‘Asians, Cricket and Ethnic Relations in Northern England’; Cricket and Race.
68 CitationFleming, ‘The Role of Sport in South Asian Cultures in Britain and the Indian Sub-Continent’.
69 CitationSearle, Pitch of Life.
70 Interview, 19 February 2009.
71 CitationWilliams, ‘Asians, Cricket and Ethnic Relations in Northern England’.
72 CitationSearle, ‘Sheffield Caribbean’.
73 CitationSearle, ‘Sheffield Caribbean’
74 I would argue that the extent of racism in Yorkshire league cricket can be attributed in large part to different stages in time; namely the different periods of migration from the colonies. During early waves of migration throughout the 1940s and 1950s, for instance, many white people are thought to have moved away from the leagues in protest over the sudden influx of players from minority ethnic communities. According a number of informal oral testimonies I undertook with spectators from older generations, the perception at the time was that ethnic minorities were taking over their traditional white spaces.
75 CitationNandy, The Tao of Cricket.
76 Focus group interview, 16 March 2009.
77 CitationCrawford, Consuming Sport.
78, British Asians and Football; ‘British Muslim Experiences in English First-Class Cricket’.
79 CitationBurdsey, ‘From Ranji to Ravi’.
80 These players were Adil Rashid, Ajmal Shahzad, Azeem Rafiq and Moin Ashraf.
81 CitationSports Council, Sharing Good Practice.
82 Interview, 3 February 2009.
83 It should be noted that Gary is, in fact, a white man who is president of the Aylesworth's club. Despite representing the interests of a club with predominantly Asian membership, Gary did identify openly with a traditional sense of ‘Yorkshireness’.
84 Interview, 26 July 2009.
85 CitationMcMillan, ‘Ian McMillan’.
86 Interview, 3 December 2008.
87 Interview, 13 March 2009.
88 CitationFletcher, ‘Yorkshire, Cricket and Identity’.
89 Interview, 14 March 2009.
90 Citation Daily Times , ‘Cricket Bridges Ethnic Divide in Yorkshire’.
91 CitationWilliams, Cricket and Race.
92 CitationYorkshire Cricket Board, ‘Black Minority Ethnic Cricket’.
93 CitationYorkshire Cricket Board, ‘Yorkshire Cricket Development Strategy 2008–2011’.
94 International cricket is not currently played in Pakistan because of the threats of political unrest and terrorism. The Pakistan team therefore, plays all its ‘home’ matches at neutral venues.
95 CitationHoult, ‘Job Fears as Pakistan v Australia Ticket Sales Slump at Headingley’.
96 CitationHoult, ‘Job Fears as Pakistan v Australia Ticket Sales Slump at Headingley’
97 Fieldnotes, 23 July 2010.
98 Interview, 12 December 2008.
99 Interview, 12 December 2008.
100 CitationMcDonald and Ugra, Anyone for Cricket?; CitationCarrington and McDonald, ‘Whose Game is it Anyway?’ 61.
101 CitationSiddique Seddon, Hussain and Malik, ‘Preface’.
102 CitationHylton, ‘Race’ and Sport.
103, Straight Bats, Brass Bands, Flat Caps and Whippet Racing?; ‘The Making of English Cricket Cultures’.
104 CitationCohen, The Symbolic Construction of Community.
105 CitationMarqusee, Anyone but England, 144.
106 CitationMarqusee, Anyone but England, 144
107 CitationSpracklen, ‘Black Pearl, Black Diamonds’, 77.