India, Australia and South Africa are currently the top three teams in the cricket World Cup. All three are former British colonies with a rich cricketing history and a spirited following. And wherever there are people and passions involved, politics and policy follow close behind. The political part of it is opaque, but when it translates into law making, it highlights the role of sports in shaping society.
Let’s start with Australia, where in the April of 2013, its national cricket team desperately sought a spinner. Earlier that year, they had suffered a 4-0 defeat while touring India. Next up for the Baggy Greens was the Ashes. The feeling in the Australian Cricket Board was that a capable spinner would strengthen the team for the matchup in England.
The board had the perfect candidate, Fawad Ahmed, a 30-year-old refugee from Pakistan. Fawad had made an impression while playing in Australia during the pendency of his asylum case. Former batsman Damien Martyn (instrumental in the Australians winning the Test series in India in 2004) had declared Fawad the best spinner in Australia since Shane Warne. There was just one small problem. Fawad could not play an international match for Australia.
According to the International Cricket Council, for a player to represent a country, the individual had to be either born there, resided there for a specified number of days or held the country’s passport. Fawad was born in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, was falling short of the residency requirements, and, under Australian law, was yet to be eligible for a passport. And since Cricket Australia couldn’t do anything about the first two criteria, they set their sights on getting Fawad an Australian passport before the Ashes.
For the spinner to get the passport, it required a change in the citizenship law. The Australian cricket administration lobbied intensely with the government and convinced it to introduce the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Special Residence Requirements) Bill 2013 in Parliament. This Bill empowered the immigration minister to ease the requirements for an individual to become an Australian citizen.
The minister, in his speech on the Bill, specified that an “international cricket competition” was one of the activities for which the government could ease citizenship requirements, and Cricket Australia could support such an application. The proposal received support across the political spectrum.
Participating in the debate, MPs observed that “Representation in Australian sporting teams can be limited if citizenship requirements are not met before selection processes occur” and that “This can result in outcomes inconsistent with Australia’s national interest”. It took 21 days for the Bill to become law, and in another two weeks, Fawad got his passport, making him eligible to play for Australia.
Cricket has also been the focus of debate in the Indian legislature. Legislators were using cricketing metaphors as early as 1901, and by 1927, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was discussing issues like the Australian government imposing anti-dumping duty on Indian cricket balls. Post-Independence, Parliament questioned the government on the cricket team’s losses and celebrated its victories. MPs also raised matters like the non-inclusion of cricketers (Bishen Singh Bedi and Sourav Ganguly) in the playing eleven, betting in cricket, and the safety of cricketers after reversals faced by the team.
MPs also formed cricket teams and organised friendly matches against each other or with the press. Parliamentarians like Madhu Dandavate could not only dive into the nuances of a complex piece of legislation but also exhibit sporting prowess on the cricketing field. One of the earliest matches which saw the participation of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs occurred in 1953. In this game, the Prime Minister’s XI played against the Vice-President XI to raise money for flood victims in different parts of the country. After the match, bats and scorebooks were auctioned. Prime Minister Nehru also participated in the game, and part of the auction was a signed bat that a visiting West Indian team had gifted him a few years ago.
The popularity of cricket led to professional cricketers entering the halls of Parliament. A light-hearted fallout of this was that the Indian MPs defeated their British counterparts in a friendly outing in 2005.
Parliament has also debated and passed laws on sports. For example, in 2008, Parliament passed a law which required private broadcasters to share signals for national sporting events with Prasar Bharti. The idea was to ensure that a cricket-crazy nation could watch the matches free of cost on Doordarshan.
A critical discussion in our Parliament on sports was on the Prevention of Apartheid in Sports Bill, 1988. India was one of the first countries to cut sporting ties with South Africa because of its apartheid policies. The purpose of this Bill was to give more teeth to the sporting isolation of South Africa. Participating in the debate on this Bill, MPs decried the apartheid policies of the government in Pretoria and urged the government to make the provisions of the Bill even more stringent.
And when the dismantling of race discrimination policies started in South Africa, in 1991, India became the first country to welcome the multi-racial South African team to play in India. A year later, the Indian cricket team led by Mohammad Azharuddin toured South Africa, becoming the first international team to play in the country since 1970.
The Indian team met with Nelson Mandela, a believer in the power of sports. A few years later, Mandela said, “(Sports) has the power to unite people in a way that little else does… It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination.”
The writer looks at issues through a legislative lens and works at PRS Legislative Research
The popularity of cricket led to professional cricketers entering the halls of Parliament
7
0
05.11.2023
India, Australia and South Africa are currently the top three teams in the cricket World Cup. All three are former British colonies with a rich cricketing history and a spirited following. And wherever there are people and passions involved, politics and policy follow close behind. The political part of it is opaque, but when it translates into law making, it highlights the role of sports in shaping society.
Let’s start with Australia, where in the April of 2013, its national cricket team desperately sought a spinner. Earlier that year, they had suffered a 4-0 defeat while touring India. Next up for the Baggy Greens was the Ashes. The feeling in the Australian Cricket Board was that a capable spinner would strengthen the team for the matchup in England.
The board had the perfect candidate, Fawad Ahmed, a 30-year-old refugee from Pakistan. Fawad had made an impression while playing in Australia during the pendency of his asylum case. Former batsman Damien Martyn (instrumental in the Australians winning the Test series in India in 2004) had declared Fawad the best spinner in Australia since Shane Warne. There was just one small problem. Fawad could not play an international match for Australia.
According to the International Cricket Council, for a player to represent a country, the individual had to be either born there, resided there for a specified number of days or held the country’s passport. Fawad was born in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, was falling short of the........
© Indian Express
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Mort Laitner
Rami G Khouri
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
