Diaspora, Soft Power and the T20 Cricket World Cup 2024 – The Geopolitics

The Indian diaspora has made a mark in every sphere — business, academia, IT, law and of course politics (US, UK and Canada are clear illustrations of the same) across the globe. Amongst its several other achievements, the diaspora has also been an important tool for promotion of cricket globally.

Promotion of cricket in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region

In the Gulf region, especially the UAE and now Saudi Arabia – the South Asian diaspora in general and the Indian diaspora in particular has been an important stakeholder in the promotion of the game. The UAE has been an important cricketing centre for nearly four decades for 50 over one day games, test matches for nearly two decades and more recently T20 matches.  In recent years, the IPL (Indian Premier League) has also been played there. Saudi Arabia too has been trying to popularise cricket and has sought assistance from former Indian cricketers. Both these countries have also been heavily banking on the South Asian expats for the promotion of the game (not merely as spectators, but to represent their respective teams). Promotion of cricket in the Gulf countries is part of their strategy to promote sports, attract more tourists, especially from South Asia — and to bolster their ‘Soft Power’.

Even in North America, the Indian diaspora is playing an important role in promotion of the game as is evident from the T20 2024 cricket World cup being held in the US and West Indies. The overwhelming number of spectators in these matches is from South Asia. It is not just the cliff hanger between India and Pakistan, eventually won by India — which attracted several spectators, but other matches as well (Pakistan was knocked out of the T20 world cup on June 14, 2024).

The US cricket team, which consists of 11 players either born India or whose parents migrated from India, was referred to as H1B team by Congress MP, Shashi Tharoor: “As some brilliant wag also put it: Not the Indian A team, not the Indian B team, but the Indian H1B team.”

The cricket matches, especially the India-Pakistan match played at Nassau County International Stadium gave a strong boost to the economy of the Long Island area (New York).

South Asian bonhomie

There are players from other South Asian nations – Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal as well. The Canadian cricket team consists of seven players born in India or Pakistan (ironically, most of them happen to be from both the Panjab’s and they communicate in Panjabi!).

Several social media influencers did not miss the fact, that there are 2 turbaned Sikhs in the USA cricket team, while there is one representing Canada. There are five turbaned Sikhs in all who are playing in the current world cup; one from India – Arshdeep Singh, two from US – Jasdeep Singh and Harmeet Singh, one representing Canada – Dilpreet Singh Bajwa and one representing Netherlands – Vikramjit Singh. Here it would be pertinent to mention that outside India, the first turbaned Sikh cricketer was Monty Panesar who represented UK.  

It was tough not to miss Indian fast bowler, Arshdeep Singh — bowling to US batsman Harmeet Singh during the Indo-US clash. Arshdeep’s stellar bowling performance of 4/9 had played an important role in India’s win against the US.

Cricket, especially the T20 version of the game has found resonance globally, though the sceptics very rightly point to its detrimental impact on the longer form of the game. The South Asian diaspora with its increasing presence and clout globally is likely to play an important role in the popularising the game in several parts of the world – Gulf, North America and other regions.

While on the one hand, we live in an insular world, on the other it is interesting to see the diaspora not just of India, but other South Asian nations, promoting cricket a ‘colonial’ game.

South Asian Diaspora, Soft Power and Globalization

This highlights the impact of migration, an important dimension of globalization – on not just the global economy, but global culture and sport.  Here it would also be important to point out that ‘Soft Power’ may have lost its relevance in recent years due to the increasing focus on ‘smart power’ and ‘hard power’ in a changing geopolitical order, but it cannot be written off. Both the ‘South Asian Diaspora’ as well as the game of cricket itself are important connotations of ‘Soft Power’.

Another important question comes to mind, if South Asians can coexist peacefully and play together in cricket teams, can we not hope for harmony back home? While players of South Asian teams do hit it off, several times they cannot escape the acrimony prevalent at the political level. In conclusion, the current T20 Cricket World Cup has not just been exciting for cricket fans but has also highlighted the increasing influence of the South Asian diaspora, especially from India, on global cricket.

[Photo by NCanny2, via Wikimedia Commons]

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.