Cricket comes to America
As the World cup cricket starts in the West Indies, aided by its relatively unknown cousin, the US, it is clear that the game has advanced in its hidden power to integrate countries, continents, cultures, religions and ideologies. Twenty countries (10% of all countries in the World) will compete for the top prize in the fastest version of the game in the month of June.
They come from everywhere, highest and lowest GDP, highest and lowest GDP per capita, those who don’t have enough to eat and others who discard most of their food, old and young, men and women, and everybody else. They come from every continent but they are united in a singular passion. And now, it is perhaps the only thing that could integrate countries fragmented by religion and idiotic leaders. As a famous cricket player from India recently remarked, “attacking someone over religion is the most pathetic thing,“ in reference to his Muslim colleagues in the Indian Cricket Team. Most cricket players also did not attend the saffron clad leader’s inauguration of an ill conceived temple in the South Asian country. Cricket will force religion to the back foot for the benefit of humanity.
But now, let’s celebrate the start of the integration of the World through sport. America needs cricket more than cricket needs America. A country slowly getting split up by ideology and religion and at the brink of losing democracy, America needs cricket more than ever.
Could cricket save democracy?