Thread by @shrikanth_krish

There is a tendency among "nationalists" on both the Left and Right to decry Cricket as a colonial leftover

But this myopic attitude does not recognize the reasons for Cricket's immense popularity in India

Why is Cricket so much more popular than Football, also a British import

https://twitter.com/teasri/status/1142582156121858049

There is a reason

And it has to do with the compatibility of Cricket with Indian temperament and culture

Cricket deep down is a sport that values diversity

And so does Indian culture

It is not a sport that "demands" you to be an athlete

You could be a curd-rice eating brahmin from Madras, or an Aloo-paratha munching flabby Punjabi from Delhi, and yet be a world beater in Cricket

Even in the highly professionalized transformed game of the 21st century

It is a game that remains something that "gentlemen" can engage in, without being athletes. Without being Adonises

And that's because it values character more than skill. And skill more than fitness and brawn

And the skills it accommodates are varied

An Inzamam Ul Haq became a legend of the game despite being a very poor runner between wickets, and a poor fielder

A spinner like R Ashwin of our times is a legend despite being a dud on the field

You don't have to meet a common minimum athletic requirement to be a great cricketer (though T20 being a different sport does have some baseline)

Your awfulness in many aspects can be pardoned as long as you are outstanding in a niche skill

So Shane Warne was one of the greatest cricketers of all time, despite being ill-disciplined, despite being visibly unfit (by the standards of other sports) for most of his career

Because he had that rare skill. To bowl wrist spin like few people in history

Indian culture relates to Cricket like no other culture.

Because ours is a culture that values diversity

We value diversity in society. We are OK with hierarchy. With varied rights and responsibilities. With absence of uniformity

And Cricket is the same

E.g.. In cricket there is almost an unwritten law, that you cant be a captain if you are a fast bowler. Very few fast bowlers become captains in Cricket

It is almost a caste rule of sorts that is seldom broken by selectors

This kind of variation in roles, and discrimination between people having different skills, is natural to Cricket.

Also natural to Indian culture

So it is not surprising at all that Cricket today is the No 1 sport in India, and far more popular than it is in England

(though Indians do underrate its popularity in England too)

Similar arguments can be made to understand why certain British authors have a following in India that is far greater than their following in England

E.g. PG Wodehouse

Why is Wodehouse so dear to Indians? Why does he survive, and not so many other popular British writers younger than him and less remote from us in terms of time?

Because the World of Wodehouse with its diversity, with its familial orientation, with its hierarchy bears similarity to the household culture of India

Also Wodehouse with his intricate, complex plots, bears a similarity to so much of classical Indian literature, as well as indigenous Indian theatre / cinema

The incredibly complex movies of the 60s/70s with their ingenious plots have a Wodehouse feel to them

So there is a reason why certain aspects of British culture are popular in India

Not because we are "slavish" but because these aspects are "Indian" in their characteristics

We don't like British food for instance. As its blandness does not relate to Indian palates

Nor do we relate to British impiety and secularism. Indians can't relate to that

So let's stop decrying "Cricket" as a foreign influence.

Yes, it is foreign. But there is a reason why we relate to it. It's because it appeals to the Indian in us.