Cricket was initially exported to the British colonies to strengthen their cultural ties with the colonizer. In other words, the sport in this case acted as a tool of colonialism and was used to make the differences between “civilized” and “uncivilized” populations even more visible. In addition, cricket embodied some fundamental aspects of Victorian society. These are temperament and sportsmanship, and the fact that, for a long time, it was the game of gentlemen. Even the fact that the players wore all white spoke of puritanism and indeed symbolized it.
In its structure and duration, cricket evokes a time when people lived in a much less hurried manner and could enjoy matches lasting several days. Despite the stereotypical perceptions of cricket, many of these stereotypes are surprisingly true.
In the British colonies in the 19th century, cricket reinforced comparisons between white colonial settlers and the indigenous population. The game of cricket was a way to demonstrate the difference between the races. Cricket was the epitome of a gentleman’s sport, only available to those who understood British values.
The elite of India helped this sport transcend class boundaries. The Parsi community was the first in the country to take up cricket. Due to their historical peculiarities, they received almost the same education as the British, and thus, they became carriers of the British way of life. Gradually, the game was adopted by other communities, and now it is considered an important part of national culture in India. Over time, cricket even became a way of creating understanding between classes.
Eventually, the Indian Premier League was established in 2008, which completely changed the face of cricket. The values and traditions of the game are changing just as much as its characteristics. Cricket is not just becoming more popular—a new generation of players is revitalizing it. Cricket has demonstrated that it can transcend both class and ethnic differences.
A few years after the establishment of the Indian Premier League, cricket also attracted the interest of bookmakers, who did not refuse the opportunity to capitalize on the growing interest in the sport. At first, illegal betting shops accepted bets from all visitors. However, when online gambling became more or less regulated in India, many IPL legal betting sites with an official license from the Indian regulator began to emerge. It got to the point that today cricket is one of the most widely accepted sports in almost all betting sites accepting players from India.
But today, it has transcended the country’s borders to cover almost every continent, and continues its triumphant march as a multicultural sport. This is its new reality, which has made the game perceived as universal today.