Of cricketing roots (20 May 1999)
The next month can allow minority communities and ex-pats to return to their roots
20-May-1999
20 May 1999
Of cricketing roots
The Daily Star
The next month can allow minority communities and ex-pats to return
to their roots. If BACKSIDES on seats are any indicator of support,
it is not England, but India, who are on course to enjoy the
strongest advantage in the World Cup. The latter are the only nation
of the 12 competing whose five group games have completely sold out.
England have managed to sell out only four of their opening fixtures.
Most of the tickets for India's games were gone by March, and it is
probably no coincidence that the Indian population in the UK -
900,000, as defined by ethnic origin for census purposes - is higher
than any other competing nation bar England and Scotland.
The Pakistani population, at 600,000, is the next highest, followed
by the West Indian population (500,000). Strong ticket sales for
these nations' games, and for the games involving South Africa,
Australia and New Zealand (all of whom have substantial UK-based
support) indicate that the tournament's "carnival of cricket" slogan
may yet be borne out.
The only country which has yet to sell out any of its group matches
is Bangladesh, despite a potential UK-based support of 200,000. Local
observers think it is only a matter of time before interest
intensifies. "There's a lot of World Cup interest among the Bengali
community, especially with this being the first appearance for
Bangladesh," Suzad Mansur, an editor with Janomot, the
longest-established Bengali newspaper in Britain, said.
"We've been covering the run-up for a couple of weeks and there'll
be a special cup supplement this week. Bengali people are very
excited." Mansur added that around 2,000 Bengalis in total had
attended their side's warm-up matches, and said that more are likely
to go to matches once the tournament is underway. Support among
British Pakistanis for Pakistan is likely to be fervent, according to
Shahed Sadullah of the Daily Jang, a London-based bilingual Pakistani
newspaper.
"Most, if not all, of the Pakistani population here would fail the
Tebbit test," Shahed said, in reference to former Conservative
cabinet minister Norman Tebbit's statement that English-born members
of minority communities tend not to support England. "Cricket is one
area where the countries from the subcontinent have made progress and
can stand amongst the best," he added, and said there were several
reasons why South Asians have a particularly strong affinity for the
game. Aside from that fact that cricket is the major sport on the
subcontinent and that three of last four World Cup winners have come
from there, Shahed said that minority communities in the UK look to
their countries' cricket sides to show they can excel on the world
stage.
"For a community which considers itself underprivileged and facing
bias, it [supporting a team which can win on your behalf] is a way of
getting back," he said. Shahed added that he thought the side would
receive good support in the cup, a belief backed up by sell-outs for
Sunday's game against the West Indies in Bristol and the May 28 match
against New Zealand in Derby.
At the other end of the popularity scale - probably not unrelated to
having small UK-based support and being minnows - are Kenya and
Zimbabwe. "Kenyans aren't interested in cricket really," a High
Commission spokesman said. "I have to support my team," he added,
"but cricket is not a game that's spread in our country, not among
black Kenyans anyway. Those in the Asian community are more
interested." Robson Sharuko, a cricket writer for the Zimbabwe
Herald, said: "Except for a small clique that follows cricket, not
many people even know that there's a World Cup happening."
The same cannot be said of South Africans - who organisers said were
amongst the quickest to buy tickets for their side's game - or
Australians or New Zealanders. Mike Stead is a Kiwi who's lived in
England for 10 years. "When it comes to sport, you'll always fall
back to where you're from," he said of the type of support that he
and his compatriots will offer their side. "The English, apart from
the Barmy Army, are quite subdued and polite. The cucumber sandwich
image is still here. We're a bit more yahoo, a bit more raucous. New
Zealanders here will go to watch wherever they can a ticket."
Source :: The Daily Star