Is caste a factor in the selection of the Indian team?

Top Contributors
M

mas cambios

Active Member
Is caste a factor in the selection of the Indian team?

The peculiarity of a multi-layered, multi-everything country like India is that if you assemble a bunch of Indians randomly, you can pretty much draw any sociological conclusion you want. And like all generalisations, it will carry a ring of truth. But like all correlations it will demonstrate coincidence, not necessarily causality.

In a provocative piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, Andrew Stevenson has seen something in the Indian team in Sydney that has eluded most observers: that it is dominated by Brahmins. (Except Siriyavan Anand, who Stevenson quotes; Anand, of course, is a writer specialising in Dalit issues, and has even published a book, Brahmans and Cricket: Lagaan's Millennial Purana and Other Myths, critiquing the Bollywood classic, and the structure of Indian cricket.)
Click to expand...

Full article can be found here.

Now this isn't something I have enough knowledge to really comment on but I know that we have enough members who will have something to say about this.

The article moves on to look at some other countries but the main concern of the article and the make up of the Indian team. There is also a line about the Palwankar brothers and how when they played in India their cups were made of clay, so that they were easier to dispose of after use.

I guess the jist of it all is as the title of this thread says and is caste a factor in the selection of the Indian team?
 
Re: Is caste a factor in the selection of the Indian team?

that used to happen before....but these days the selectors dont do such things..the indian society has changed now....lower caste people are not considered untouchable anymore
 
Re: Is caste a factor in the selection of the Indian team?

thats a good thing to know. people should be picked on their skills rather than their money situation. like rajan said it was in the past but the scales have evened a bit know.
 
Re: Is caste a factor in the selection of the Indian team?

rajan said:
that used to happen before....but these days the selectors dont do such things..the indian society has changed now....lower caste people are not considered untouchable anymore
Click to expand...

Have any 'untouchables' ever played for the test side though?
 
Re: Is caste a factor in the selection of the Indian team?

i dont think...but thats not because of discrimination...there is no dalit cricketer thats good to play in the team.
 
Re: Is caste a factor in the selection of the Indian team?

Just to say that I'm not trying to stir up any racist feeling or accuse anyone of it, I'm just curious about the article that was posted in the Australian press, the reply on cricinfo and how the actual fan in the street sees it.
 
Re: Is caste a factor in the selection of the Indian team?

Totally Outrageous and sad to read such an article.
Like Rajan mentioned above the early days;I cannot comment on that.
If he has the facts or details to support his statement;he can freely share with us.
But the selection in the Indian team happens purely on merit.We have seen Sachin,Saurav,Sehwag,Rahul Dravid,Yuvraj,Kaif,Suresh Raina and many others been dropped at times due to their nonperformance.
The writer Andrew Stevenson cannot judge about the selection procedure sitting in Sydney.
Emotions are very high about cricket in India and the selection board are very well aware about it.
Secondly;the Media presence,the followup after each and every selection meeting followed by stats and expert comments by ex-cricketer makes the BCCI officials and selectors answerable for their decisions.So no one wants to take any chances; so the selection happens on merit.People are very aware about the current cricket's condition;Which player is in form and which player needs to be dropped or so called "rested".
 
Re: Is caste a factor in the selection of the Indian team?

I think that article contains incomplete and in some aspects, incorrect, analysis. Even though some of his main points and support are lacking, there has been regional bias in the past. For example, I grew up hearing my father talk about how many talented cricketers from our state simply couldn't get in, because most of the selectors were from the North. He was probably biased to a certain extent, but there is probably some truth to it.

Two responses, for the sake of fairness:

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/Brahmin_dominance_in_Indian_team/articleshow/2677760.cms
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/329291.html
 
Re: Is caste a factor in the selection of the Indian team?

Moving the topic on slightly, and there has probably been regional bias in most countries. Though maybe not to a highly noticeable degree, there were times when the England test side was seemingly made up of players from one county or group of counties.

I'm sure that this has been the case in other teams, whether Islands in the West Indies dominated or a particular state in Australia supplying most of the team.

I guess that one factor in regional bias in India may have been down to the size of the country and the location of the selectors. It was more than likely easier to get reports of and visit the players in their locale than travel long distances.

As for the current articles, I can't see any real caste bias in the Indian team and it seems that it is largely picked on merit. There will always be one or two selections that may cause a bit of head scratching but then that is true of most test nations.

The only team that picks on race is South Africa but I believe that their quota system has been scrapped in response to the Kolpak situation and the fact that it's time to pick purely on merit again.
 
Re: Is caste a factor in the selection of the Indian team?

I pretty sure that it doesnt quite happen like that in Australia. Although that said there isnt a single bushranger(victorian) in the squad at the moment, Shane Warne was the last one. The 12 currently goes:-
3 From Queensland
1 From Tasmania
3 From WA
1 From SA
4 From NSW
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top