In the latest episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, the comedian talks about the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup. Hasan begins by revealing the number of people who watch cricket around the world. For those living in the sub-continent, cricket is no less than a religion but the Western countries are still not familiar with the madness of the sport. Hasan tries to translate that for the American audience. The episode can be described as an outsider’s guide to the politics of cricket. Hasan talks about the diplomacy of cricket and how it has affected the relations between India and Pakistan. He soon brings up the point that BCCI has largely been controlling ICC for many years now. “India has become so dominant, that it is stifling the growth of international cricket,” Hasan says. Cricket came to India with the British and in fact, many countries that play the game got it from the same colonizer. In an interesting clip, West Indies player Brian Lara shares, “Most of the countries that play the game, have that element of wanting to get back at the British.” Hasan Minhaj acknowledges the remarkable rise that India has had but also points out the corruption and politics that has basically restricted the sport from spreading across the world. Minhaj shares that India controls about 70% of the cricket revenue in the world and they also take out a lion’s share from the ICC’s earnings. Minhaj points to IPL as being the catalyst in reforming the face of cricket. It brought in money, entertainment and made the sport a “cultural phenomenon.” He interviews Lalit Modi, the founder of IPL, and questions him about the same. Modi has not returned to India ever since corruption allegations surfaced against him. Modi denies all charges, of course, but agrees that BCCI fully controls ICC. Cricket experts believe that it is India’s dominance that has led to the sport not getting included in the Olympics. Hasan talks to Ayaz Memon, a cricket journalist, who believes that BCCI is in a dilemma as being a part of Olympics means the boards working together and BCCi does not want to let go of its power. He ends the episode by saying that it is a matter of immense pride that India are the champions of cricket but it feels like we have now colonized the sport, that we got from our colonizers, for our advantage.
