The Intertwining Relationship of Politics and Cricket - Googly Mania

		
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
								
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
							
				
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
				
		
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        

	
        

        
        

        
        

	
        

        
        
		














		

    

    
        
        
        

The Intertwining Relationship of Politics and Cricket

With the ICC World Cup 2019, coming to an end on 14thof July, England and New Zealand both are more than ready to fight for the final glory, with the world welcoming a new champion at this stage. Being one of the world’s biggest sports events, World Cup tournaments are highly popular among the crowd, and provides the world to assimilate with each other at a varying level. The competitive ground of cricket refuses the conflicts of politics, but politics seems to never leave though and in 2019 World Cup, there have been varying demonstration of politics in and outside of the grounds.

There have been several instances in the ongoing tournament that either raised a lot of political criticism and boards showing dissent over ICC being unable to prevent such outbursts. From placards hoovering over the crowd and outside the grounds showing protests, scuffles happening in the stands, or air space being used for carrying political messages have sparked a lot of controversies in this year alone.

At the start of the tournament, MS Dhoni’s keeping gloves came under the scanner, for sporting army insignia paying tribute to the soldiers that lost their lives in the recent Pulwama attacks in India. This resulted eventually into, MS Dhoni removing the army insignia from his gloves in the very next match. However, with the game intensifying, with the group stage fight coming to an end, when neighbours, Pakistan and Afghanistan locked horns, the political tension brewing between the two nation also came crashing down. As Pakistan became victorious, fans outside the gallery engaged in an ugly scuffle with 2 people getting evicted for fighting in the stands as well. Previously in the match, an unauthorized aircraft invaded the airspace of the Headingley ground, bearing the message ‘Help end disappearances in Pakistan’ and'Justice for Balochistan'.

This was not the only incident with aircrafts; however, in 2 other games the same thing was revisited with ICC having no clue how to stop it. In the match between India and Sri Lanka a similar incident took place, with provoking slogans such as 'Justice for Kashmir', 'India Stop Genocide, Free Kashmir' and 'Help End Mob Lynching in India’ being sported across the airspace of Headingley stadium once more, to which BCCI reportedly filed a complaint and showed clear dissent. In the last incident so far before the final, ICC banned the airspace while India-New Zealand match, but another aircraft circled around in the second semi-final between Australia-England. ‘World must speak up for Balochistan’ and ‘Help end disappearances in Pakistan’ were the slogans carried during the semi-final clash. With the final at Lord’s cricket ground, the political protests using the World Cup as a platform will be looming over the head of World Cricket with ICC looking closely into the matter.

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