The Politics of Cricket

… in an op-ed in this morning’s NYT. It’s not exactly what you think it is.

WHAT broader lessons might the history of cricket have for the globalization of Western cultural practices? It shows that such practices can be promoted or discouraged from the top down; it is not necessarily a bottom-up process, as is commonly believed. Nor does such downward dissemination require the point of a gun. The passion for cricket in places like Pakistan and India also shows that a complex Western cultural practice can be adopted in its entirety by very different cultures, even when highly identified with its country of origin.

Might the same be true of other Western cultural practices, like democracy?

Worth a look. (ht: CJ)

APROPOS CRICKET: The Idler looked into it a couple of years ago.