The setting was the home of English cricket, Lord’s. India were playing England in the second edition of the World T20 on June 14, 2009. Lord’s, as is the norm these days with most venues where India play, was taken over by a sea of light blue (England too wore blue, but a slightly darker version). It did not stop here. Just as Paul Collingwood’s side came out for a pre-match warm-up at the Nursery Ground just behind the media centre, they were booed and jeered by a section of the crowd. England, the home team, booed at the home of English cricket, Lord’s. The home advantage had been surrendered and the significance of the act was not lost on the England captain, who mentioned at the post-match media conference that his side was acutely disappointed at such crowd behaviour.
British Asian support for India is central to debates on cricket-watching in England in 2025. While a section of ‘English’ society consider British Asian support for India an act of ‘betrayal’ and label these Asian communities as “the enemy within”, British Asians I interviewed consider this outcome logical. “We have hardly been included in the mainstream of British society,” says a young man of 21 on condition of anonymity. “Such marginalisation will inevitably lead to discontent. The cricket field is the best place to manifest it.”
They find it unnatural that they will either have to be “British” or “Asian” when it comes to cricket-watching, and that concepts of “dual ethnicity” or “cultural hybridity” are lost on the upper and middle-class natives who continue to hold on to a skewed notion of Englishness.
“On all occasions, we are reminded that we are immigrants,” he went on to add. “We are aware that we are in this country to work and earn a living. In an age of globalisation, our skill sets have allowed us to do so.”
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The British Asians too cross the line on occasions. When Sajid Mahmood, for example, turned out to play for England against Pakistan in 2006, sections of British Asians in his native town of Bolton considered this unacceptable. Mahmood, for them, was Pakistani and should have aspired to play for Pakistan. His own agency or right to exercise his choice was denied to him and he was booed and heckled every time he stepped up to bowl, prompting strong reactions from former English cricketers like Geoff Boycott.
Will it change in the future if multi-culturalism becomes a reality in England? Will it ever happen that a father will continue to support India, while the son becomes an England supporter after being born and reared in a country that is open and multi-cultural? The immediate answer to this question is that we don’t know. The more nuanced answer, if the current trends are anything to go by, is that all hope of assimilation is not lost. May be when India play at Lord’s in July, England will not be deprived of home support and India, tge away side, will not feel like the home team at the mecca of English cricket.
As we await the start of what promises to be a cracking series, the contentious issue of crowd support remains the focus of intense media scrutiny.
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