End Of White Hegemony?

"Racialists do not ever want the eyes of the world on their crimes" -- C.L.R. James 

While soccer has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2001, cricket continues to aspire to being the 'gentleman's game' -- one that cuts across class and racial boundaries. Yet, closer scrutiny reveals that both continue to be cauldrons of racial hatred, and what renders the situation a greater complexity is the inability of the authorities of both these sports to do anything about this plaguing evil.

Such persistent racist hatred with sinister implications for society at large, makes both cricket and football contesting battle grounds for the modern day sports fan. Will good sense prevail, heralding a quick remedy, or will there be further degeneration leading to a gradual decline of these sports, is the question that continues to haunt sports researchers across the globe. At the same time, in European soccer, crowds continue to boo and shower racial insults at Asian, African and Middle-Eastern players, often leading to occasions of violence on the sporting fields.

In cricket, the authorities, it has been observed, have also become party to racism often unjustly penalising the Asians. This is in complete ignorance of serious breaches of sporting behaviour from the whites. In the recently concluded Test match between India and Australia, Michael Slater clearly abused Rahul Dravid for standing his ground ignoring Slater's appeal of having completed a clean catch. This was after TV replays had demonstrated that the ball had hit the ground before being caught. Instead of suspending Slater for unsportsmanlike behaviour, a fact even acknowledged by the Aussie skipper Steve Waugh, the match referee only had a few words of caution for him. The scenario would have been radically different had Dravid been in Slater's boots. 

Dravid himself was a victim of such behaviour in South Africa after being abused by Allan Donald a few years back. Having hit Donald for a straight six (arguably the best shot of his career), he received a shower of abuses from the speedster in return. Yet, Dravid despite being seen muttering angrily to himself in retaliation was issued a stronger reprimand, with Donald escaping with mild words of caution. 

In Sharjah, Ricky Ponting, after having been stumped off Harbhajan Singh's bowling was seen charging down to the Indian offie in anger, uttering the sweetest of words! Strangely enough, he was not even cautioned for such behaviour. Even Saurav's suspension for over appealing in the last series against Zimbabwe, (while Slater had literally abused the Indian) is clearly demonstrative of this undercover racism.

In the recently concluded one-day series between New Zealand and Pakistan, Kiwi captain, Stephen Fleming, was often seen chatting with the umpire, as if to suggest that Shoaib Akhtar was chucking. He seemed to forget that noticing such anomalies was exclusively the umpire's job. While Shoaib was reported by the umpires for suspect action to the ICC, Fleming got away unscathed. Such examples abound in modern cricket, where the authorities have been unduly harsh on coloured players while letting the whites go scot free, for equally similar, often greater, offences. 

Even a cursory glance at the history of the ICC, cricket's apex body, reveals this glaring truth. This attitude fostered by the ICC came very near creating a permanent fissure in the cricket world during the anti-apartheid campaign of the 1960s. With the coloured world up in arms against South Africa's racist policy urging the ICC to ban the Springboks from Test cricket, the ICC with tacit support from the white bloc continued to defer its decision on the subject for more than a couple of years. Negating persistent pressure from the Asians the ICC allowed Australia and New Zealand to undertake official tours of South Africa in 1963-64.

Even in recent years the no-balling of Muthiah Muralitharan and the illegal check imposed upon Jagmohan Dalmiya's assumption of the ICC presidency speak of rampant undercover racism. Dalmiya, despite having won the presidential elections handsomely, had to wait for more than a year before he was finally allowed to take up office. Resistance was made on the flimsiest of grounds thwarting his bid, despite realising, that it was a lost cause and stopping him was near-impossible. 

In the recently concluded Kolkata Test, this differential attitude reached its climax with discriminatory treatment being meted out to the Indian spectators in their home soil. While Australian supporters were allowed into the ground with bottles of water, (a local newspaper carried a photograph of the same) the masses had to suffer without water on all five days, (the pouches being sold inside were inadequate in numbers and full of chlorine) with the mercury touching 36 C around noon. The police were relentlesson any spectator trying to sneak in a bottle of water, forbidding him to enterthe ground altogether. Even an old man of 65, a person whose appearance wasproof enough that he was incapable of causing violence by throwing abottle,  was stopped from taking a bottle of mineral water in.

What is most alarming in this discrimination is that it happened in Kolkata under the aegis of our own security personnel! If we contribute towards the perpetuation of such racist behaviour in our own country, it's needless to say that the major proponents of this evil are certain to get strengthened.

In contemporary European soccer, the problem is more deep rooted to say the least. In a recent press interview Paul Thomas, the FSA internationalco-ordinator, stated "the game at Stade de France last September may as well have been a Nuremberg rally". "There were people 'sieg heiling' during 'God save the Queen' and ushered racist abuse throughout the match not just directed at the French players but also at England players like Sol Campbell". In Holland, when bulk of their soccer legends over the past decade have been dark, the successors of Gullit and Co. continue to be victims of rampant racism. Things came to a head when Patrick Kluivert, arguably the best forward in contemporary football had to abruptly leave Den Haag last year after being attacked by racists attached to the Den Haag FC.

This reaches its climax in Austria where crowds have hissed at Polish and Jewish players stating, 'We shall build a track that will take you as far as Auschwitz'. A few months ago Hannes Kortnig, President of Austria's champion club Sturm Graz, trying to justify his side's defeat in the hands of Manchester United said "We lost because we played against Manchester United - not against any Negermannschaft," which translates as 'nigger team'. This problem assumes a far more serious dimension, as UEFA chief Lennart Johannson admits, when you consider that the governing body, despite being aware of the situation, does not do enough to remedy these ills.

Ironically for the racist bastion, however, statistics reveal that in countries where blacks have been most discriminated against on account of the colour of their skin, their rise to sporting excellence has been all the more remarkable. The U.S. leads this pack with most U.S. sports today being dominated by a few blacks while they are watched by thousands of whites. Gradually reducing the whites to a minuscule minority, the blacks and browns are demonstrating that they will answer such insults on the field of play itself.