Tag: sports: nationalism and commerce

The white cricket elite in India offered no help to the cricket enthusiastic Parsis. In fact, there was a quarrel between the Bombay Gymkhana, a whites-only club, and Parsi cricketers over the use of a public park. When it became clear that the colonial authorities were prejudiced in favour of Englishmen, the Parsis built their own gymkhana called the Oriental Cricket Club in Bombay to play cricket.

Polo was a game invented by colonial officials in India and soon gained great popularity. Unlike cricket which came to India from Britain, other games like polo were exported from the colonies to Britain, changing the nature of sport in that country. 

The origins of Indian cricket, that is, cricket played by Indians are to be found in Bombay and the first Indian community to start playing the game was the small community of Parsis. Brought into close contact with the British because of their interest in trade and the
first Indian community to westernise, the Parsis founded the
first Indian cricket club, the Oriental Cricket Club in Bombay in 1848.

In 1788, the MCC published its first revision of the laws and became the guardian of cricket’s regulations. The MCC’s revision of the laws brought in a series of changes in the game that occurred in the second half of the eighteenth century. 

Tournament during colonial period was called Quadrangular cricket.The Bombay Quadrangular was an influential cricket tournament held in Bombay, India from 1912 to 1936. The communal teams contained in this cricket were the Europeans, the Parsis, the Hindus, Muslims. It was also called as colonial cricket.

International Cricket Council is headquartered in Dubai. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England, Australia and South Africa, renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and its current name is given in 1989.

Mahatma Gandhi believed that a sport was essential for a balance between the body and the mind. However, he often emphasised that games like cricket and hockey were imported into India by the British and were replacing traditional games. They showed a colonial mindset and were a less effective education than the simple exercise of those who worked on the land.

The brilliance and skill of players like the great Dhyan Chand brought India a string of Olympic gold medals. Between 1928 and 1956, India won gold medals in six consecutive Olympic Games. During this golden age of Indian dominance, India played 24 Olympic matches, and won them all, scored 178 goals (at an average of 7.43 goals per match) and conceded only seven goals. The two other gold medals for India came in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Cricket was widely popular in England. The world’s first cricket club was formed in the year 1760s. World’s first cricket club was Hambledon club in rural Hampshire. Hambledon's great days ended when the focus shifted to new Marylebone Cricket Club formed in 1787.