Cricket:
India win World Twenty20

By Scott Anderson

The Asian uproar that has greeted the winning of cricket’s newest form of pyjama cricket – on the world stage – has been heard as far as central Europe. In Germany to be precise. This can be explained on a number of fronts:

Asian Tiger(s). The fact that India played Pakistan in the final (described as a ‘very good game’) brings together two of the most numerous, most dedicated (not to mention rabid) national followers of sport in the world. Various other factors (religion, (civil) wars), pre-, post-, and neo-colonialism) guarantee this fixture a captive audience.

The world is a village. There are now very large Indo-Pak communities in all large cities of Europe where IT and IT services are in situ. The outsourcing/onshoring/offshoring revolution (and I choose that word extremely carefully) has made big inroads in these societies. So much so that curry houses are springing up, and ….. cricket teams are being formed. I myself have played a couple of matches against the all-Indian Fechenheim team (Fechenheim is a suburb of Frankfurt). I believe they are a splinter/spinoff of the official Frankfurt team, who are all-Pakistani and they didn’t really get on (the field). The latter provide a number of the German national team who play regularly in the European Cricket Championships (along with some of the ‘minnows’ previously mentioned).

Anglo-Saxon yearning. While tennis could be debated, it is a fact that the faster growing sports in Germany over the past couple of decades have included golf, rugby, squash, ….. Football (soccer to some) shouldn’t really be put in this category (and who cares?). There is a certain section of the German populace that aspires to a certain Englishness that artistically could be iconized by names such as Rosamunde Pilcher, Peter Ustinov, or even Freddie Frinton.

The ICC World Cup. Played in the West Indies earlier this year, it was seen as an unmitigated disaster on all fronts – sporting, financial, human interest. No small part in this was the complete failure of both India & Pakistan to lose in the early stages of the competition to part-time teams (‘minnows’) such as Ireland - part-timers from a country it rains all the time and Zimbabwe (a place where respectable cricketers face ‘blackballing’ - enough said).

The Bollywood factor. Indian cricketers are treated as film stars (sometimes are film stars). No joking. Next time you meet an Indian, mention the name Sachin Tendulkar and they will get down on their knees in subrogation. And not only because the great man is no more 5 and a half feet talk in his stocking soles.

Sept 28, Frankfurt on Main, Germany