Before India’s T20 World Cup final against South Africa, photojournalist Frédéric Noy looks at the role that cricket plays on the sub-continent A

‘It is a religion here’: India united by shared love of cricket – photo essay

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2024-06-30 17:00:04

Before India’s T20 World Cup final against South Africa, photojournalist Frédéric Noy looks at the role that cricket plays on the sub-continent

A ccording to Ashis Nandy, an Indian political psychologist, “cricket is an Indian game accidentally discovered by the British”. In a 2018 survey, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said as much, estimating that more than 90% of the world’s one billion cricket fans live on the Indian subcontinent.

The first appearance of cricket in India dates back to 1721 with a match between English sailors in the port of Cambay, or perhaps further south, at Tankari Bandar, on the soggy banks of the River Vishwamitri, where the currents would have forced one of Her Gracious Majesty’s ships to wait a fortnight for the tide to rise. Regardless of the exact location, the consensus is that to kill time, the crew played cricket under the eyes of intrigued and attentive locals. “I read about it in the paper, and my father and grandfather told me about it. As a child, I knew that the British had played cricket down by the river in 1721. Cricket was born in Tankari Bandar,” says village chief Ranjit Sikh with aplomb.

Although it seems that the British had no intention of teaching the laws of the subtle game to the natives, during the 19th century cricket was played only by the Indian elite, anxious to curry favour with the colonisers. This patrician adoption of the game helped it to spread throughout the country, as well as raising its profile. By the end of the 19th century, the sport’s status as the preserve of the upper classes was fading as players from lower castes and disadvantaged communities began to play and make their mark.