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an picked an influential student leader aftab gul for the 1968 9 lahore test whilst he was on bail and who went on to represent salman butt at his spot fixing trial the relationship soured for good in the 1980s pakistan won in england in 1987 and england s tour that winter saw the infamous gatting rana clash chris broad refuse to walk and each england player receive a hardship bonus at the end of the tour rana had previously incensed jeremy coney when new zealand toured and imran khan s calls for neutral umpires seemed increasingly necessary gatting s response does maggie thatcher back down when she s given no choice suggested a hardening of english attitudes towards pakistan home umpires were the catalysts of the next dispute when aaqib javed clashed with roy palmer when pakistan toured in 1992 that tour escalated into mutual recrimination with accusations of ball tampering in the twenty first century moin khan s time wasting shahid afridi s pitch scuffing inzamam s forfeiting and butt amir and mohammad asif s spot fixing have all lead to the further deterioration of the relationship add in mutters about bowling actions crowd trouble and political instability all of which have cropped up before and the situation seems practically irreconcilable moreover the geopolitical situation has deteriorated further one of the reasons that pakistan versus england should be taken more seriously as a sporting rivalry is that it is one of the few that exists based on the defining questions of the century so far what has been loosely termed the war on terror perhaps only the footballing rivalry between france and algeria has the same post colonial tension morphing into new questions about national identity this is not to argue that england playing pakistan should be seen as somehow representative of some specious clash of civilisations rather as mike marqusee argued in 1994 the pakistani cricket team is often used especially by the english media as a sporting shorthand for islam perpetuated through negative stereotypes the vocabulary volatile excitable the suggestions of untrustworthiness and suspicion of religiosity casually elide as marqusee noted the pakistani cricket team and pakistanis especially british pakistanis it is notable then that there were three british pakistanis in england s original touring party moeen ali adil rashid and zafar ansari moeen and rashid are from birmingham and bradford respectively home to two of the largest british pakistani communities ansari s background hampton trinity hall cambridge is recalls a different generation of england cricketer but his father is an academic who specialises in british muslim identity perhaps a clue to détente lies with them they are not ambassadors and have no duty or special task to perform but moeen in particular open about his faith and close to saeed ajmal who other england players have denigrated suggests that a working relationship might be possible between england and pakistan for the series not be marred by controversy would be a major step both teams would of course love to win but perhaps something of a hard but fair attitude might prevail there is historical baggage that the contest will never be able to shake but the possibility of moving beyond a strictly oppositional relationship the logic of the tebbit test and mutual recrimination would be a huge positive at a time where many british muslims face suspicion a broader acceptance of complex identities could be reached a multiracial national team reflecting multiracial clubs across the country is a sign of a new england hopefully one less irascible towards its supposed other british society still has a long way to go and international sport rarely provides a healthy atmosphere for national reconciliation but the nation would benefit with a more fraternal relationship with pakistan on the cricket field a recognition of past faults and of common identity over misunderstanding and ignorance posted in cricket tagged england identity pakistan 1 comment capturing the spirit cricket in popular culture posted on september 28 2015 by christian drury a revolution conducted according to the rules of cricket is an absurdity arthur koestler darkness at noon what can the work of a hungarian communist exile tell us about cricket arthur koestler might not seem like a likely source of wisdom about the game darkness at noon his best known work is a powerful critique of political power but a guide to thinking about cricket the sole line doesn t even seem to make much sense of course the laws of the game can t tell you about revolution of course popping creases and proletariats don t mix but look a little deeper the absurdity is not that cricket and revolution make a surreal mix rather they are diametrically opposed the rules of cricket are the opposite of a revolution hence to combine the two is ludicrous koestler is using cricket as shorthand for what he calls the nineteenth century s liberal ethics of fair play cricket symbolises what the revolution is opposed to what must be overthrown using cricket to signify liberal bourgeois values is not an uncommon trope especially in an english or in koestler s case european context the enduring idea of cricket in popular culture is as pastoral staid and moral it is a game of the village green with breaks for tea played with a certain spirit of social harmony and honourable conduct in fiction film and television cricket is an easy symbol for representing a certain mindset and milieu as raphael the teenage mutant ninja turtle says nobody understands cricket you got to understand what a crumpet is to understand cricket in recent years this has begun to shift and this is not a universal cliché but it lingers in the subconscious of the non cricket fan and it influences the game as experienced by those who would consider themselves knowledgeable many would bristle at this suggestion surely those who follow watch and play the game know better than those who are strangers to it in reality cricket s place in the popular imagination shapes our understanding of it more that we would like to admit cricket fans bask in the imagined themes of morality or modernity often unwilling to engage with the structural flaws that these may obscure afraid to critique popular misconceptions about the game they should recognise their own willingness to perpetuate them and we should attempt to understand why those with only a vague conception of cricket think about it certain ways what should we take forward into new exciting opportunities and what should we jettison as regressive and limiting we can and should encourage discussion in a way that produces depth nuance and maybe even art this is not a comprehensive attempt at listing cricketing references in culture or an attempt to sift them into neat categories rather it is an appeal to think about the meanings that have been ascribed to the game many allusions may defy cliché and we should be aware of them ready to wilfully complicate our conceptions of the sport a lot of explicitly cricket themed work is interesting and different shehan karunatilaka s novel chinaman about a sri lankan spinner mysterious in more than his bowling is a good example but where cricket hovers loosely formed on the edge of the imagination we might ask to paraphrase c l r james what do they know of cricket who nothing of cricket know if the spin is positive those who feel they know cricket are far too content to accept stereotypes uncritically those who write and talk about the game regularly raise the idea that cricket is somehow unique and superior among sports for its conduct values and ethical integrity this spirit of cricket an amorphous idea based around respect and responsibility is frequently raised but little understood it was only recently codified in the form of the preamble to the laws a brief summary of its ethos written by colin cowdrey and ted dexter two former england captains and introduced in 2000 the preamble is slight a collection of platitudes and common sense covering what is already defined as cheating by the laws and references to ideals of fair play and good conduct the idea of the spirit of cricket as understood by the public is far broader encompassing play that is considered unsporting and behaviour that might be ungentlemanly it is probably best encapsulated by the phrase it s just not cricket for something that is considered to be unacceptable even if not unauthorised the phrase has been stretched beyond useful definition or meaning into the realms of parody it is hardly a useful tool for sanctioning behaviour or underwriting a code of ethics there is however a wide public knowledge of the phrase a sense that cricket is as koestler suggests synonymous with fair play the problem with this is that a historical sentiment is hard to define and harder to apply cricket s perennial bouts of moralising are a product of this confusion the attempted use of a public perception as an ethical code when during the trent bridge test of 2013 stuart broad s fine edge hit brad haddin s gloves and looped to michael clarke at slip his decision to allow the umpire to make a decision as to whether he had hit it was perfectly legitimate he did not question the decision or advance towards the umpire in an aggressive manner whilst appealing two contradictions of the spirit according to the preamble clarke arguably broke both of these yet broad was pilloried as a cheat by everyone from the english tabloid press to richard dawkins australian antipathy being a given broad acted within the laws whether he acted within the spirit is unclear he certainly was seen to break the spirit of cricket as the public imagine it no batsman would stand his ground on the village green similarly when the following season jos buttler was run out by sachithra senanayake whilst backing up a mankad many denounced the sri lankan spinner as a cheat that his action had previously been scrutinised may have added to the controversy but his act was entirely legal he had even given buttler the non compulsory warning an unwritten rule seen as part of the spirit of the game this didn t stop alastair cook buttler s captain criticising the run out as a pretty poor act a curious denunciation of an entirely legal dismissal this leads to an odd position can the spirit can override the laws ben stokes recent dismissal at lord s where he was given out obstructed the field having stopped a throw from mitchell starc from hitting his stumps whilst simultaneously taking evasive action is another example of this inconsistency many felt that steve smith was wrong to uphold his appeal when it became clear that stokes would be given out others felt that stokes was out under the laws and therefore smith was entitled to his appeal once again the spirit in its unwritten form and the laws were seemingly opposed these contradictions knots in the fabric of the game result from the fact that cricket exists as much in the imagination as on the pitch or paper we rarely remember matches as they were or the behaviour of the past as it was even in an era of instant access to scorecard databases and video archives the past is fragmented and illusory our understanding of the game is influenced by how when and where we experienced it moreover our interpretations are not simply based on cricket as it exists fictional representation plays a role in the understanding of the layperson as much as the fan when broad stands his ground or buttler wanders out of his our reaction is one influenced by the same novels and programmes as the casual follower who sees the incident on the evening news in an english context this is overwhelmingly the narrative of rural fair play and bourgeois idyll that koestler uses on television the detective dramas morse and midsomer murders have both used cricket as a quintessentially english pastime timeless and tranquil sharply contrasted to the brutal homicides of middle england cricket as arcadia can be seen in p g wodehouse s novels wodehouse was a cricket lover and in the character of mike jackson he creates a cricketing archetype public school sporting prodigy decent chap adventurous without being dangerous cricketing excellence is just part of the make up of the ideal pre war british man mike plays a game that trains young men for imperial service sport as a means not an end the spirit of the game is part of his moral instruction cricket can also be a mark of harmless eccentricity the mark of an obsessive in the 1938 alfred hitchcock film the lady vanishes two cricket fans charters and caldicott are distracted from helping to find a missing woman on a train across central europe by their determination to return to england to see the last day of a test match cricket consumes the fan distracting and fixating them but cricket s followers in english popular culture at least are never dogmatic or fanatical in the long running television series doctor who the fifth incarnation of the doctor might be an all powerful time travelling alien but he dresses in a traditional cricket jumper and a panama hat he might be fighting evil across the universe but he appears innocuous eccentric and distracted but he is a moral figure fighting for good the fan s fondness for the popular perception is however not necessarily a good thing for the sport cricket in england and perhaps elsewhere is too in love with the idea of fair play and morality it induces conformity where the challenging talent and driven professionalism of a figure like kevin pietersen questions the limitations of what a cricketer in england can be and achieve pietersen may not have intended to be but was an iconoclast challenging the imagined traditions of english cricket ones which popular culture had done much to develop moreover by claiming that cricket is moral socially inclusive and cordial systemic flaws are disguised it is estimated that 30 to 40 of recreational cricketers in england are non white but only 6 of professional cricketers mostly from a south asian background in 2013 29 of professional cricketers were privately educated compared to 7 of the population as a whole women s cricket is still seen as secondary ignored on its own terms and patronised on others these problems are intersectional but english cricket s nostalgic fantasies do not help tackle them the pastoral visions of a past england perpetuated in the popular imagination elide social divisions and inequalities as the historian g m trevelyan had it if the french nobility had been capable of playing cricket with their peasants their chateaux would never have been burnt class identity is a challenge to cricketing amity injustice can be glossed over on the pitch mike jackson is seen as a paragon not a member of a privileged elite as such modern inequity can be ignored cricket s mythical social salve supposedly rendering unequal opportunity irrelevant and invisible this vision of a rural en...