ANTIGUA, W.I. – As I write this column, the West Indies are buzzing with cricket. That is, the sound of radios and televisions tuned to the World Cup of Cricket now underway in Britain. Like the Soccer World Cup, the competition attracts international attention and nationalist rivalries, but in this case with a notable tilt towards former colonies of the British Empire: India, Pakistan, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the West Indies. In other words, all the places that used to be the same color on maps of the world printed prior to the Second World War come together to settle old scores on the playing field.
Sharing the house in which I am staying is a gentleman who belongs to the Antigua Cricket Association. Although the rules of the game are almost incomprehnsible to a Yankee (it takes five days to play a match!), he has taken time to explain to a visiting American the enthusiasm of West Indians for the British tradition (though the younger generation apparently is taking to basketball instead). After talking about various players and teams, he showed me a book of essays devoted to C.L.R. James and traditions of West Indian nationalism.
The noted West Indian political philosopher C.L.R. James dedicated a great deal of his intellectual output to the role of cricket in the Carribean. He pointed out that the game was more than an interest to islanders, it became an obsession. And even a visit to a local doctor’s waiting room shows how right he was, as a television set was tuned to coverage of the day’s cricket match was watched hypnotically by waiting patients.
Sir Vivian Richards is perhaps the most celebrated Antiguan. The legendary batsman for the West Indies Team, among the greatest players in the history of the game, works as a coach for the Sultan of Brunei, the richest man in the world. His picture is featured in the local papers and tourist brochures.
Close attention to cricket is not just a West Indian phenomenon. It is found throughout the former British Colonies. The appeal of the game, which C.L.R. James finds quintessentially Carribean, is associated with many lands where the Union Jack once waved. For example, Imram Khan is to Pakistan what Sir Vivian is to Antigua.
What is it about cricket? To this outsider, the explanation of the game goes beyond the intrinsic appeal of the competition, the skill of the bowler and batsman, the wobble of the “googlie”, and the arcane rules and regulations. Cricket is an essentially British symbol. And the appeal of cricket is that former colonial subjects can and do regularly beat their ex-masters at their own game.
Today England is ranked near the bottom of the world of international cricket. The skills of players from the former colonies are so far superior that there is no hope that England will triumph in the near future. The only question is which former colony will be triumphant in any given year.
It must be supremely satisfying for peoples once treated as second-class citizens to be better than their “betters” at what they did best. And satisfying to for the British. For in spreading cricket around the world, the Empire spread British ideals across the globe. The very name of the game has a double meaning: Cricket is “fair play,” once a very British concept, now shared by * of the world’s population.
That is why there is a special interest in cricket here. Not only does the game reveal that the British are no better than Antiguans, or any other former colonial subjects, but victories in cricket instill confidence in the new nations that emerged from the Empire that they can do anything Britain can do –better.
And that kind of vigorous competition towards excellence is cricket, indeed.
Alistair Cooke's Letter From America (BBC)