Cricket Cauldron: The Turbulent Politics of Sport in Pakistan

Pakistan is a country beset with politicized instabilities, economic problems, ethnic conflicts, religious fervor and crises of identity. It is also a country in which the game of cricket has become a nationwide obsession. How has that happened? How does a Muslim country, jealous of its independence and determined to forge a Pakistani identity, so passionately embrace the alien gentleman’s game imported by the distant and departed former colonial masters? What do we learn of Pakistan from its attitudes and responses to cricket? This book sees Pakistan – its history, politics and society, not to mention its fractured relations with India – through the prism of cricket. Shaharyar Khan examines how this very Western sport came to embed itself into the psyche of Pakistanis old and young, and how understanding the state of cricket in the region is the key to understanding Pakistan itself. Demonstrating how the turbulence around cricket has much wider political implications, Khan provides an unusual and highly original perspective on Pakistan. This book will fascinate general readers and cricket enthusiasts, at the same time proving essential reading for observers of Pakistan, India and the South Asia region.