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A cricketing crucible called England

Peter Roebuck

Within a decade, players of Asian extraction will dominate the England cricket team.

They will lead a revival in that country's cricketing fortunes. Alongside settlers from Africa and opportunists from the antipodes, these communities will produce a stream of players with the love of the game and determination needed to match even the mighty Australians.

Whereas cricket has lost its place amongst Anglo-Saxons still living on that cloudy island, it remains an important part of the culture of sub-continental families. Old England no longer functions as a cricket-playing nation. It depended on its mines, private schools and top universities to produce strong bowlers and skilful batsmen.

Times change, economies evolve and the mines have mostly been closed and their working-class communities dispersed either into a middle- or under- class that thinks about soccer or survival. Schools still foster the game, but in the half-baked way favored by modern theorists responsible for the collapse in the education of boys and the consequent rise in the use of drugs. England's collapse goes beyond cricket and is reflected in the decline of its newspapers, comedy, fiction and royalty.

Accordingly, it has fallen to the relative newcomers to restore the name of English cricket. Already the change is underway. After all, the captain was born in Madras, as it was called, whilst Ronnie Irani hails from a long line of Parsees, the first Indians to take to the game. The Parsees used to field their own team in the quadrangular tournaments played on the sub-continent in the days of British rule, turning out against the Europeans, Hindus, Muslims and so forth.

Several other young Asian players have represented the country of their birth or adoption, including Kabir Ali, Uftab Afzal, Owais Shah and Vickram Solanki. Some of these fellows were lucky to play, but England was struggling and they were not alone.

Solanki is a typical case. He spent his early days in Udaipur in the colourful, dusty, traditional state of Rajasthan. His father is Indian and his mother is English. Solanki speaks Hindi and is a practicing Hindu. When he was eight the family moved to England and settled in the Birmingham area, where the Asian community is strong and gaining confidence by the day.

Already, Warwickshire is enjoying the fruits of this cricket-loving collection and this county and city will be the backbone of their country's cricket for the next 20 years. These families are founded upon faith and respect, their lives are built on stone, not sand.

Happily the commitment shown by this rising group has had an effect upon their Anglo-Saxon contemporaries, and Birmingham is also producing the best white-skinned cricketers in the country, including Ian Bell and James Troughton.

But the Asian takeover has only just begun. Inevitably, the first few players will be the trailblazers. Of course, old-timers like Ranji and his nephew Duleep must be ignored because they were the product of a different age, the Raj and its servants dominating their outlook.

Hussain, Solanki and friends will be followed by youngsters capable of cutting through all the nonsense, overcoming all challenges. Already, England’s Under19 team includes five boys from Asian backgrounds. Doubtless their range is wide -- Englishmen are inclined to lump sub-continentals together, as if Peshawar and Chennai are more or less the same place, which is not quite the view taken locally.

These young men will find their own music and fashions, dedicate themselves to the game whilst contemporaries pursue careers in soccer or else fade owing to pampering or divorces in the family. Cricket reflects its time, says something about a nation.

Even the current political troubles will not put them off. The terrorists are not trying to crush a satan in New York. They are trying to hold back the tide, hold youngsters who have seen the world and want to join it. Indeed the coming generation of England cricketers with Hindu or Muslim affiliations will prove that there is nothing to fear and that a faith can survive the challenges of capitalist culture.

At present, Sri Lanka has the most mixed team in the arena, fielding Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Tamils, Sinhalese and much else besides. India has been led by a Muslim. Now, England has a wonderful chance of taking advantage of an opportunity presented by the arrival of so many families from cricket playing countries.

Nor is it only the Asian countries that have a role to play in the restoration of cricket as a national game in the old country. African immigrants contribute enormously to English football and athletics but remain almost untapped as a source of cricketing talent. Barriers must be broken down.

Here is hope for England. Provided these communities do not start thinking in the clever, emaciated English way, so long as the families do not lose their standards by allowing newspapers to influence their thinking, they will play a big part in the revival of the game in their adopted country.

England will be strong again, and its team will be full of Asians, Africans and players from the Celtic fringe -- including Yorkshire and Cornwall, represented by the current opening pair.

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