Cricket lives in the lives of many people in South Asia. It is not just a sport, rather it is deeply embedded within the socio-economic and political repertoire of a country. According to Ashis Nandy, “cricket is an Indian game accidentally discovered by the British.” This statement recognizes that this sport has gone through tremendous transformations and transitions in order to achieve prime importance in the area of sports across the region. As a sport which constantly appeals to the collective consciousness of nations, it has been associated with the building of national identity. Unlike any other sport, cricket in the twenty first century embodies the growing power of South Asia in several ways. Sayan Kandar writes.
The 2023 ICC ODI Men’s World Cup hosted by India has testified to a unique phenomenon fraught with rivalry, emotions, excitement and spectatorship. It has also been saturated within contemporary regional power politics. This world cup finds itself in hot water with regard to the refugee crisis in West Asia because Pakistani and Afghan cricketers use this ICC platform to express their concerns and solidarity with thousands of displaced and dispossessed people in Palestine and Afghanistan respectively. This article is an attempt to unpack the politics of biased and problematic media representation of these two issues by Indian media.
On 10th October, 2023, Pakistani batsman, Md. Rizwan scripted a fascinating 131 off 121 (not out) and helped his team successfully reach the highest ever total of 345 against Srilanka in world cup history. Rizwan’s inning was forced into background, but what stood out was his personal post on X (formerly Twitter). His post read – “This was for our brothers and sisters in Gaza. Happy to contribute in the win. Credits to the whole team and especially Abdullah Shafique and Hassan Ali for making it easier. Extremely grateful to the people of Hyderabad for the amazing hospitality and support throughout.”
The post was divided into three parts, but what grabbed all the media attention in India was the first line. The mention of Gaza made the post most controversial in the media portrayal of the match. This is not the first time that cricket has been used as a tool to protest against Gaza tragedies. Earlier in 2014, Moeen Ali from England used a wrist band “Save Gaza, Free Palestine” during a test match. He was banned in the next match for making political statement while playing on field. In recent times, Usman Khawaja from Australia has used shoes bearing the inscriptions “all lives are equal” and “freedom is a human right” on the field of play before the match. The ICC not only debarred Khawaja but also forced him to keep it away in order to depict cricket as an apolitical sport.
This was a shameful act on the part of ICC to depict cricket as a apolitical sport while it is explicitly influenced by the political interests of big, powerful cricket playing nations. However, the case of Rizwan was slightly different because he articulated his solidarity with the Gaza victims in his personal social media account which ICC cannot control. Here the sisters and brothers apparently referred to those hundreds and thousands of Palestinians who are being systematically killed amidst an escalating Israel – Hamas war. While the world is watching a cinema of genocide in Gaza, which has been turned into an open air graveyard consisting not only of Palestinian people, but also of human rights principles, Rizwan’s post is a moral support for these people. His mention of Gaza has reflected our collective failure in terms of efforts to protect these victims. In doing so, he has also created a space of subversion or nonconformity in social media which provides the opportunity to bypass the rule book of International Cricket Council.
To speak of Afghanistan cricket is to invoke the history of war, displacement and humanitarian crises in the country. The rise and journey of Afghanistan cricket maybe characterized by grit, sacrifice, perseverance and relentless striving for excellence, amidst all adversaries. The sport has given their country a new identity. Their cricket journey is deeply rooted in the country’s disruptive socio – political structure which has been variously influenced by war, militancy and widespread human rights abuses since the last few decades with the onset of the cold war. Large scale displacement has been and still is one of the major issues. As a neighboring country, Pakistan hosts above five lakh Afghan refugees of which, according to the Government of Pakistan, above two lakhs are undocumented who must be sent back amidst a soaring economic and political crisis in Pakistan. This idea of sending back Afghan refugees has been strongly condemned.
The initial Afghanistan cricket team began it’s journey from a refugee settlement in Pakistan. Raees Ahmedzai, a refugee in Pakistan and currently the Assistant Coach of the Afghanistan cricket team, remembered the precarity of refugee lives in Pakistan in a post match conference. He highlighted that they lacked some of life’s basic requirements such as shoes, drinking water, food, clothing and so on while being always under heavy inspection from the authority. Ibrahim Zardan, player of the match against Pakistan, with a brilliant, match winning knock, in his player of the match speech, dedicated it to the Afghan refugees who are being badly treated and forced to return to their homes. After another win against Netherlands, Afghanistan skipper Hahmatullah Shahidi dedicated his player of the match trophy to these refugees – ‘there are a lot of our refugee people in struggle. We all are watching their videos and we feel their pain. I dedicate this win to them.” And, to remember is to resist.
Cricket is a means to bring back smiles on their faces in Afghanistan. The skipper has recognized that the sport can erode divisions and make people united amidst such a tumultuous environment. Thus, Afghan players view the ICC event as a political platform to speak against the injustice inflicted on the lakhs of refugees. It is also interesting to see how the idea of national pride is associated with defeating Pakistan in cricket. The Assistant Coach has defined this win as something special and has compared this happiness with the one that can be felt on the day of Eid. On the contrary, losing a match is synonymous with a blemish. This invocation of nationalism through cricket bears a long tradition in South Asia. When a country after long period of colonization, oppression and exploitation tries hard to establish its self identity, it takes a popular means. In this case, it is cricket.
These two incidents have sparked a biased, distorted media representation by far right nationalist media. Rizwan’s reference to Gaza has been projected as “extremely shocking” by Indian media because it has been assumed to celebrate the savagery and ruthless violence of Hamas in Israel. In their media representation, Hamas is a terrorist organization which must be “taught a lesson” by Israel. Thus Israeli attack, accompanied by bombardment and complete destruction of Gaza is being justified. Further, media debates have projected Israeli occupation and onslaught against Palestinian people as legal. Aajtak has condemned Rizwan, has portrayed him as a “Hamas sympathizer” and has viewed his comment as being inclined towards terrorist mentality, invoking religious fundamentalism. They are demanding a strict and swift action from ICC against Rizwan for his tweet. This also means that these media channels attempt to impose censure on the social media space in their own way. They have constantly attempted to establish that since both Rizwan and the Palestinians belong to the religious identity of Islam, Rizwan is vilifying and using the ICC event as means to fight for Muslim cause in Gaza, and, in doing so, these media outlets are reducing these lakhs of refugees only to their religious identity. This maybe observed as a deliberate attempt at obliterating the long history of suffering, death, destruction and displacement of these Palestinian people.
While media representation of Rizwan is saturated with racist and communalist statements, Afghanistan cricketers’ statements on the Afghan refugees’ situation have reflected glory and celebration as a response to Rizwan and Pakistan. From this perspective, Afghanistan’s achievement has been viewed as an outcome of strong cricket-based relationship between Afghanistan and India. Having dedicated their triumph over Pakistan in cricket, the Afghan cricketers have attempted to push the game of cricket out of boundary to assert that cricket is not just an entertainment or popular sport, but also a political sport. The far right Indian media channels such as Times Now, Aajtak, and so on have presented a twisted version of their statements. On the other hand, these media are happy because cricket in Afghanistan is not just a sport and the losing side in this case is Pakistan. The Indian media have highlighted the Indian link with Afghanistan cricket in the form of IPL and have referred to Narendra Modi’s emphasis on cricket in one of his “Maan ki baat” in 2018 where he asserted that cricket could be a new form of tool for strengthening the bilateral bond between these two countries. Therefore, the media representation seems to be dubious and twisted. In case of Afghanistan, they have projected Pakistan as an oppressor of Afghanistan while Rizwan has been stripped off his right to express his solidarity on his personal social media handle.
These two cases have exposed the hypocrisy of far right, propagandist media representation in India. This also illustrates that the Indian media narrative is embedded within ideologically charged world politics where refugees are discriminated according to religion and government’s interests. So, when a Pakistan cricketer mentions Gaza to protest against ongoing genocide, he is vilified, projected as a threat to cricket and accused of spreading religious propaganda through cricket. On the other hand, Afghanistan cricketers’ recognition of the deplorable lives of refugees is used to depict the barbarity of Pakistan in general and boost anti-Pakistan sentiment in India. The problem lies in such problematic media representation and distortion of a serious issue like refugee tragedy which is unfolding in manifest forms across the world. These biases must be addressed. However, amidst ICC’s hypocrisy regarding politics of power, these cricketers assert their socio political opinions within their limited opportunities. Their statements highlight what Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish once wrote – “silence is not an option. In silence we become accomplices.”
[Cover Image: Usman Khawaja. Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, 2023]
Sayan Kandar completed masters in English from the Sanskrit College and University. Sayan maybe reached at sayankandar81@gmail.com.
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