I am a huge Toronto Blue Jays baseball fan and have spent the past few days in agony over whether the team will trade their pitching ace--Roy 'Doc' Halladay--to the highest bidder before the 16.00EST dead-line today. But, living 3500 miles and a 5hr time zone change away, it is a bit difficult to watch baseball games live unless one is willing to go nocturnal or give up sleeping altogether. Neither is a viable option for me, so I've been getting by with reading box-scores in the Toronto Star and catching the odd highlight.
Meanwhile--to my surprise--watching cricket has become my replacement. Although one could best describe it as baseball on quaaludes, I've been drawn into the similar levels of strategy, tactics, intensity, and even athleticism that cricket showcases.
But beyond the immediacies of the game itself, there is something absolutely fascinating about cricket as a socio-political artifact. In particular, cricket is imbricated within the dynamics of colonial and post-colonial projects to an extent that appears unparalleled by other sports. Even the sheer amount of leisure time necessary for a test match--five days give or take--speaks volumes about the political economic aspects that were necessary to make cricket possible as a sporting activity.
The role of cricket in the maintenance and dissolution of empire and its effects was the focus of a recent BBC documentary series called 'Empire of Cricket'. Anyhow, the series--which is as much about nationalism, imperialism, classism, racism, and resistances to them as it as about cricket--is well worth watching. Episodes are currently available via youtube and scores of the usual torrents sites.
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