a) The origins of Indian cricket, that is, cricket played by Indians are to be found in Bombay and the first Indian community to start playing the game was the small community of Parsis. Brought into close contact with the British because of their interest in trade and the first Indian community to westernise, 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 white cricket elite in India offered no help to the enthusiastic Parsis. In fact, there was a quarrel between the Bombay Gymkhana, a whites-only club, and Parsi cricketers over the use of a public park.
When it became clear that the colonial authorities were prejudiced in favour of Englishmen, the Parsis built their own gymkhana to play cricket in. The rivalry between the Parsis and the racist Bombay Gymkhana had a happy ending for these pioneers of Indian cricket. A Parsi team beat the Bombay Gymkhana at cricket in 1889, just four years after the foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1885.
b) Matches in Sydney could now be watched live in Surat. This simple fact shifted the balance of power in cricket: a process that had begun by the breakup of the British Empire was taken to its logical conclusion by globalisation. Since India had the largest viewership for the game amongst the cricketplaying 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.
