Religion of the religion of India
After a long gap, I watched a cricket match between India and South Africa the last weekend, and Mohammed Siraj, Avesh Khan and Shahbaz Ahmed were tormenting the South African batters.
As the ads came on, I had an epiphany of sorts.
From childhood, We are taught to label people as them and us. We identify others based on their religion, ethnicity and caste in that specific order.
I couldn’t refrain from thinking about three Muslim bowlers playing in that match. Their “Muslimness” didn’t matter; it was just there. In most cases, when we tag people in our head (as a Muslim, a Sardar, a Mallu, a Baniya), there’s no malafide intention, judgment, hatred or other feelings per se. It’s just a quiet acknowledgement, and then we move on.
And we do it mostly unconsciously
But when I realised this, I went into a rabbit hole: What’s the representation of the different religions in cricket?
This graph shows the cumulative share of the cricketers who have played ODI internationals for the country since 1975, split by their religion. The three solid lines are the share of players, and the three dotted lines are the share of the general population in the country.
In a country of the size of India, where even minor religions are almost as big as some countries, we would assume the share of players to be representative of the population.
I couldn’t find evidence which points to any difference in physical abilities or interest in pursuing the game among followers of the different religions. So it was surprising to see the share of Muslim cricketers being substantially lower.
It could only be explained by the lack of family support in picking up the game, the inability to afford continuing playing, or a selective exclusion from top opportunities. In any case, this points to the fact that there is a significant hurdle for Muslim cricketers in jumping across the invisible fault lines of society,
Digging a bit deeper, the average matches per player was 44 for Hindu cricketers, 45 for others and 63 for Muslim cricketers, which points to the fact that those who make it to the bigger stage stay longer. There’s probably a big barrier to entry
While I have used religion as an example because it was the most accessible identifier available, this could be true for any other marker (caste, ethnicity etc.). In some cases, it would be starker.
Cricket is referred to as a religion in India. But looking at this, it seems that the religion of the religion is not secular enough.