question_answer 7)

Give brief explanations for the following.  (a) The Parsis were the first Indian community to set up a cricket club in India.   (b) Mahatma Gandhi condemned the Pentangular tournament.   (c) The name of ICC was changed from the Imperial Cricket Conference to the International Cricket Conference.   (d) The shift of the ICC headquarters from London to Dubai.  

Answer:

The first Indian community to start playing the game of cricket in India was the small community of Zoroastrians, the Parsis.   (a) They came into close contact with the British because of their interest in trade and were the first Indian community to westernize themselves. The Parsis founded the first Indian Cricket Club, the Oriental Cricket Club, in Bombay in 1848. Parsi clubs were funded and sponsored by Parsi businessmen like the Tatas and the Wadias. The Parsis built their own Gymkhana to play cricket in. A Parsi team beat the Bombay Gymkhana at cricket in 1889. The establishment of the Parsi Gymkhana became a precedent for other Indians who, in turn, established clubs based on the idea of a religious community.   (b) Mahatma Gandhi condemned the Pentagular tournament as a communally divisive competition that was out of place in a time when nationalists were trying to unite India's diverse population into a cohesive force, a force which would strengthen the National Movement.   (c) The name of the ICC was changed from the Imperial Cricket Conference to International Cricket Conference as late as 1965. Till then it was dominated by its founding members, England and Australia, which retained the right to veto its proceedings. This privileged position of England and Australia was scrapped in 1989 in favour of equal membership of all the test playing countries.   (d) The shift of the headquarters of the ICC from London to Dubai took place because the technology of satellite television and the worldwide reach of multinational television companies created a global market for cricket. Matches in Sydney could be watched live in Surat. Since India had the largest viewership for the game amongst the cricket playing nations and the largest market in the cricketing world the game's centre of gravity shifted to South Asia. This shift was symbolised by the shifting of the ICC headquarters from London to tax free Dubai. The shifting of the ICC headquarters from London to Dubai marked the end of the Anglo-Australian domination over the game of cricket.