Last week, former Bangladesh cricket captain Mashrafe Mortaza publicly condemned the recent attacks against the Hindu community in Bangladesh. Mortaza took to social media to express his grief over the happenings in his country saying that it wasn’t the “red and green we wanted to see” adding that it has “shattered” his heart. The former captain said that the incidents of communal violence against the Hindu community was a “loss for the entire nation.”
Meanwhile, in the recently concluded T20 World cup match between India and Pakistan on Sunday, the Indian team was seen taking the knee to express solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement. This was quite ironic, considering how these same Indian players have over time subtly ignored, brushed past atrocities and violence perpetrated on the minorities in their own country and conveniently stayed silent. Irony is also not lost, considering how when former West Indies captain Darren Sammy had come out and complained of facing racism by Indian cricketers during the IPL, not one Indian cricketer came out in support of him or took accountability.
concluded T20 World cup match between India and Pakistan on Sunday, the Indian team was seen taking the knee to express solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement. This was quite ironic, considering how these same Indian players have over time subtly ignored, brushed past atrocities and violence perpetrated on the minorities in their own country and conveniently stayed silent.
What’s more, Kohli has now confirmed that taking the knee at the match was communicated to them by the management.
Also read: Sportswashing: The Problematic Relationship Between Sports And Human Rights
The bunch whose silence have been louder than words
Mortaza’s statement and the Indian team taking the knee, have once again put the spotlight on the Indian cricketers and the resounding silence of the Indian cricket community as a whole on the atrocities in their own backyard. Over the past few years, the cricketing community in India has not just been silent spectators of the government’s injustices but has also gone ahead to justify these actions, as “sports should be kept separate from politics”. However, when it came to tweeting propaganda statements, there was a stream of tweets not just from current players but also former greats.
India has seen a socio-political turmoil unfold in the recent past with the Modi government keen on curbing dissent and freedom of speech by all means. The BJP government has ensured to use cricket to spread propaganda ideas and the cricketing fraternity has bowed to the command, especially with Home Minister Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah as the secretary of BCCI. During the anti-CAA and NRC protests which condemned the citizenship amendment act essentially anti-Muslim in nature, we saw barely anybody from the cricketing or the film industry take a political stand. The North East Delhi riots of 2020 too was once again met by silence from the cricket fraternity.
But with the pandemic putting everything to a stop, we saw the cricket community finally speak up, but this time putting out tweets and video messages to ask people to donate to the PM Cares fund. Most of them donated huge sums of money themselves. Over the past year, the authenticity of the PM Cares fund has been challenged multiple times, but the cricketers as always have been silent.
Also read: Poster Series: A Brief History Of Sexism In The Olympics
Speaking the propaganda language
When the farmers’ protest took over the nation late last year, the Indian government and Narendra Modi in particular received severe international criticism and condemnation from public figures like Rihanna and Greta Thunberg, over the handling and treatment of the protesting farmers. On the other hand, the entire cricket community