Deep Backward Point

Imran Tahir by megara_rp via Flickr

This is perhaps an obvious point, but I’d like to belabor it here:

• The captain of Canada is named Ashish (and they have Rizwan, Nitish, Parth and yes, a Patel)
• Kenya has a Patel
• England, of course, has Ravi and Ajmal
• South Africa has Hashim and Imran
• West Indies has Ravi, Ramnaresh and Shivnarine

This is diaspora.

Cricket’s growth around the world in the past, such as it has been, was largely due to the Raj. The future may be in the hands of the diaspora.

∞

I recognize that there is a bit of convenient conflation by including someone like Hashim Amla, whose grandparents emigrated from Surat, India, and Imran Tahir, who barely met the residency requirements to play for South African at the World Cup.