A Change In The Field: Australia-India cricket and the possibilities for cultural openness in the shadow of colonialism

Abstract

A common view in the discourse of Australia-India cultural relations is that for a more meaningful relationship to develop, Australia must move beyond approaching India through the prism of practices which have their roots in the two countries' shared - but contrasting - history of British colonialism. Cricket, it is often said, provides a shallow point of connection and acts as a reminder of the racial and cultural injustices of Empire. This thesis problematises such received wisdom. It begins from the premise that while there is little doubt that a colonial lens limits Australian understandings of India, cricket continues to be a major point of popular cultural contact between the two countries, and has, in the last three decades, moved beyond the colonial power dynamics of its past as India has become the pre-eminent force in the sport.

In light of this, this thesis asks how and to what extent cricket might move Australia-India cultural relations beyond their mediation through the echoes of the British Empire and foster a disposition of greater cultural openness from Australia towards India. It presents a detailed study of media representations and in-depth interviews with commentators, journalists, administrators and players, examining how India's rise to power in cricket was negotiated in Australia. Through analysis of a series of ruptures in the sport during the late 1990s and early 2000s, the thesis charts how long-maintained Australian narratives of Indian racial and cultural inferiority were rendered unsustainable by India's exercise of its newfound power. This was due, I argue, partly to the specificities of sport as a cultural field, its lusory nature providing space for changes in Australian attitudes, and partly to the impact, in Bourdieuan terms, of the economic field on the cultural, with India's economic power changing fundamental aspects of the form of the sport.

The shift in cultural power opened new possibilities and posed still unresolved challenges for Australian cricket and the broader Australia-India cultural relationship. On one hand, the period of conflict, ironically, established a site of nostalgic memory which now provides a meaningful point of connection between the two countries. On the other hand, the changes in the form of the game mean that cricketing traditions which have positioned it as part of the Australian national imaginary are threatened, and that the financial health of the sport is tied to a hyper-commercial and increasingly politicised Indian cricket establishment. Through my research, in addition to adding to the discourse of Australia-India relations, I add to contemporary debate in cultural studies and postcolonial studies. I propose that, for all the game's colonial history and contemporary neo-liberal capitalist logic, the changes in cricket are an example of how formerly colonial cultural practices can, in complex and imperfect ways, move beyond their racially hierarchical histories, act as a shared point of reference across national-cultural boundaries and provide a site for the development of attitudes of cultural openness. Show more