{"id":596513,"date":"2026-04-09T21:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T21:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/596513\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T21:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T21:38:08","slug":"cricket-diplomacy-in-crisis-brown-political-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/596513\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket Diplomacy in Crisis – Brown Political Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cNothing brings the people of the [Indian] subcontinent together more than our love for Cricket,\u201d declared former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, speaking to the Indian Parliament<\/a> about his belief in \u201ccricket diplomacy\u201d as a key cog in India\u2019s advancement toward a more peaceful relationship with its neighbors. India and Pakistan have been bitter economic, political, and religious rivals since their partition in 1947<\/a>. Additionally, ever since Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan in 1971 through the Bangladesh Liberation War<\/a>, the two have held an inconsistent and strained diplomatic relationship. However, what the people of all three of these nations share is an undying love for cricket. While cricket has not singlehandedly halted conflict in South Asia, \u201ccricket diplomacy\u201d has frequently created common ground for these nations to meet on a mutually-beloved playing field, thus playing a crucial role in facilitating diplomacy and normalizing the idea of peaceful relations. However, that neutrality\u2014and by extension, that invaluable, common space\u2014is becoming increasingly jeopardized as the governing forces of international cricket act with more and more unmitigated bias toward Indian interests at the expense of other nations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

International play has always been governed by the International Cricket Council (ICC), which organizes all major events and enforces financial and fair-play rules. Throughout the past decade, power in the ICC has become increasingly concentrated<\/a> in the \u201cbig three\u201d countries with the largest cricket markets\u2014England, Australia, and, of course, India (Australia and the UK generate more ICC revenue<\/a>, despite Pakistan having a larger population<\/a> than either country). India in particular stands above the rest as the largest cricket market in the world, with estimates suggesting that 70 to 80 percent<\/a> of the ICC\u2019s revenue comes from India alone. A 2014 restructuring of the ICC constitution granted all three nations permanent spots<\/a> on the five-member ICC governing council, disproportionately skewing power towards larger nations. Now, a decade later, the ICC\u2019s current chairman<\/a> and CEO<\/a> both have deep, longstanding ties to Indian cricket. This power imbalance has played out financially, with new TV deals granting the Board of Control for Cricket in India (Indian cricket\u2019s governing body) twice as much revenue<\/a> as Pakistan, England, and Australia combined.\u00a0<\/p>\n

International Cricket has not always been so out of balance. In 1987, with troops on both sides of the India-Pakistan border ready for battle, Pakistani president Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq made a trip<\/a> to India to watch an India-Pakistan cricket match, and he was welcomed by Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at the airport before the two men dined together and discussed their respective plans for peace. Despite their two countries being on the brink of war, the two men watched many games together\u2014they were even spotted laughing and joking with one another, revealing that, in the shared neutral environment of a cricket stadium, it was possible for both men to simply connect as humans. Whatever their differences, the shared love the two had for the sport may have served as a reminder of their shared humanity; if they were both able to derive so much joy from the same, simple bat-and-ball sport, it is possible that they were not\u00a0 so different after all. By the end of Zia-ul-Haq\u2019s trip, some Indian and Pakistani troops had been ordered to withdraw from the border, and tensions had eased significantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Similarly, for the younger and smaller nation of Bangladesh, cricket has created an avenue of neutrality with its larger neighbors. In 2000, the ICC unanimously voted<\/a> to grant the Bangladeshi national team \u201ctest status,\u201d allowing the team to play international \u201ctest cricket\u201d\u2014the sport\u2019s most prestigious format<\/a>\u2014alongside India and Pakistan. Saber Chowdhury, president of the Pakistani Cricket board, described<\/a> the moment as the third most important in Bangladeshi history, behind only independence and the adoption of a national language. In November of that year<\/a>, Bangladesh played their first ever test match<\/a> against the Indian national team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The decision, which was strongly backed<\/a> by India, represented treatment of Bangladesh as a cricketing equal worthy of playing with its larger and more established neighbors, and it had symbolic significance far beyond the sport. For decades, Bangladesh had existed in the shadow of its larger neighbors. It had to struggle for independence from Pakistan with India\u2019s support and relied<\/a> on India again for reconstruction after the conflict. Following the war of independence, India and Bangladesh immediately signed the \u201cTreaty of Peace and Friendship,\u201d<\/a> tying the two inextricably together economically and in foreign affairs. In the decades following their independence, Bangladesh made consistent efforts to diversify economically and foster other diplomatic ties, developing into a self-sufficient player in the region. Entry into test cricket, then, was arguably not only a judgment of the Bangladeshi team, but also a statement that the nation as a whole was worthy of the same respect as its larger neighbors. The following two decades represented a \u201cgolden age\u201d<\/a> for India-Bangladesh relations. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the two nations diplomatically handled decades-old border disputes, increased tourism between themselves, and developed a deeper and more equitable economic relationship. Under Hasina, the two became powerful and closely linked partners on the global stage, making concrete what the ICC had recognized symbolically at the turn of the century.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the aforementioned erosion of neutrality in the ICC\u2014and that erosion\u2019s unfortunate political implications\u2014have never been clearer than in recent weeks. The T20 world cup<\/a>, one of international cricket\u2019s most important and prestigious competitions, is currently being co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka. This tournament comes at a time of extreme tension on the subcontinent, largely between India and Bangladesh. Hasina resigned her office<\/a> in late 2024 following a student movement turned revolution protesting increasingly authoritarian policies. She fled to India, where she claimed asylum and now resides, frequently speaking out <\/a>against the new Bangladeshi Government. India\u2019s support of Hasina, an unpopular figure viewed as an arbiter of authoritarianism and human rights violations in Bangladesh, has led to extreme tension and even spurred violence. In late 2024, for example, protestors broke into<\/a> the Bangladeshi consulate in India, vandalizing the building and the Bangladeshi flag. In light of such tensions and citing fear for their safety, the Bangladeshi national team requested from the ICC the right to move their group stage matches from India to Sri Lanka<\/a>. In response, the ICC rejected their request and denied the existence of a security threat. When the Bangladeshi team still refused to play, they were removed from the tournament and replaced by Scotland. Notably, when the Indian national team made a near identical request to the ICC in 2025 and asked not to play in Pakistan, the ICC approved without resistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In solidarity with the Bangladeshi team, the Pakistani national team accused the ICC of unfair treatment and opted to boycott<\/a> its game against India. However, this decision was short-lived. The ICC, citing its self-enforced international cricket code of conduct, threatened harsh financial penalties<\/a> on the Pakistani team, forcing them to play the match that is the tournament\u2019s biggest money-maker. Immediately, the Pakistani foreign office spoke out<\/a> against the ICC\u2019s decision, critiquing a double standard and the \u201cweaponization\u201d of the game they love.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On February 15th, Pakistan took the field against India while Bangladesh watched from the sidelines. The game broke viewership and revenue records<\/a>, but instead of being a confirmation of the shared humanity of Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis, as it had been so many times before, it was a reminder of the violent tension and ever-changing power dynamics in the region. For decades, cricket was an arena where all the tension, inequality, and animosity in the region could disappear; it was a place where Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis could enjoy something together and deeply connect over that enjoyment. However, the increasing bias and weaponization of the ICC has transformed that space into yet another political battleground, in a region already full of them. It might be true, as Manhoman Singh said, that cricket has the power to bring people together like nothing else. Right now, however, it is serving only to push them apart.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNothing brings the people of the [Indian] subcontinent together more than our love for Cricket,\u201d declared former Indian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-596513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}