According to recent cricket news, when the single T20 match was being played between Australia and South Africa earlier in the ongoing Aussie tour of South Africa, there banners welcoming the
IPL to South Africa were to be seen around the stadium. This is an indication of what power the Indian cricket spectator and the Indian cricket player wield in the world of international cricket. It wasn’t just the fact that there is a large Indian Diaspora in South Africa that was looking forward to seeing the IPL being played in the country, it was also the fact that pictures of the match were being beamed live back to India that saw the presence of so many banners.
India is now widely recognized as the hub of international cricket, and much to the chagrin of the powers that were, it is now the Indians who seem to be calling all the shots in international cricket. Even those Indians who are settled abroad or those many millions to yearn to do so, still are firm adherents of cricket as a national game, and view it essentially as something that helps them declare allegiance to their country.
If Bollywood is one passion of Indians that transcends geographical borders and defies physical location, the same is at least as true for cricket. Then again international cricket is the only sport where India and Indian players have such a significant presence, so much clout and influence which is what inspires such a passionate following.
There are historical reasons why South Africa has a close association with the BCCI. If the international cricket community had boycotted the South African cricket team for decades due to their policy of apartheid, then it was also the Indian cricket board that welcomed the team back to the international cricket fold. It was against the Indian cricket team that the South Africans played their first international cricket match in decades when the government finally gave up their hateful policy of apartheid.
The IPL’s shift to South Africa is now being seen as a continuation of the same association which had also come to the fore during the Mike Denness cricket controversy when the South Africans supported the Indians against the ICC itself. The
upcoming IPL will see a furthering of the hitherto cordial relations between CSA (Cricket South Africa) and the BCCI.
