Cricket is the most popular sport in South Asia, with 90% of the sport's worldwide fans being in the region.[1]
Cricket has helped shape national identities across South Asia,[7] contributing to the self-esteem of peoples throughout the region and creating cultural bonds between them.[8][9][10] The game has played a role in reducing caste discrimination and other social barriers among South Asians.[11][12] Cricket's role in South Asia has often been associated with local geopolitical events; for example, India-Pakistan matches have been affected and even cancelled at times due to tensions between the two countries,[13][14] while the opposing sides in the Sri Lankan Civil War were willing to declare a ceasefire for the duration of the 2007 Cricket World Cup.[15][16]
Cricket started to become the most popular sport in South Asia around the time of India's 1983 Cricket World Cup victory, overtaking the previous local favorite field hockey.[17][18] Further growth happened with the televising of cricket in regional languages.[16] Another major milestone in Indian cricket was the 2007 launch of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which has become one of the wealthiest sports leagues in the world.[19] These developments have led to South Asia becoming very important in world cricket's decision-making, and being a financially important place for other countries to tour when playing international cricket.[17]
India and Pakistan have a very heated cricket rivalry, with India-Pakistan cricket matches (particularly at global events) being some of the highest-viewed matches in global sport.[20] Cricket has been suggested by a number of commentators as a possible way to create peace between the two countries.[21][22][8]
Televised matches in indigenous languages have also helped build and maintain a wide fan base, as has the transference of regional political tensions onto the wicket—international test matches between India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are, today, rabidly nationalistic events replete with hooliganism, jingoism, and sometimes outright violence (Appardurai 1996; Nandy 2000).
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