Nationalism and xenophobia in cricket: Identifying distinctions, examining promotion, and proposing solutions
Abstract
Various forms of racism are present in all types of sports. Xenophobia, in this context, is considered a new type of racism centered around the fear or dislike of foreigners, often intertwined with nationalism. As cricket’s most popular format is matches between countries, this qualitative study aimed to examine whether nationalism in the sport is intentionally or unintentionally spreading xenophobia. A total of 20 participants (6 females and 14 males) from academic and professional cricket backgrounds, comprising sociology scholars, lecturers, PhD students, national-level umpires, professional players, coaches, journalists, and cricket board officials, participated in four focus groups, with five members in each focus group. The findings suggest that nationalism plays a role in partially promoting xenophobia, and within the context of cricket, nationalism may intentionally or unintentionally foster xenophobic attitudes, while also proposing potential policies to mitigate such issues. Overall, the study emphasizes the urgency of tackling xenophobia in cricket through proactive measures promoting inclusivity and combating discriminatory attitudes.
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The works and papers that are published in this Journal are subject to the following terms:
1. The Publication Service of the University of Murcia (the publisher) has the Publication Rights (Copyright) to the published papers and works, and favors and permits the reusing of the same under the license indicated in point 2.
© Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de Murcia, 2013
2. The papers and works are to be published in the digital edition of the Journal under the license Creative Commons Reconocimiento-No Comercial-Sin Obra Derivada 3.0 España (legal text). The copying, using, spreading, transmitting and publicly displaying of the papers, works or publication are permitted as long as: i) the authors and original sources (Journal, publisher and URL of the publication) are quoted; ii) it is not used for commercial benefit; iii) the existence and specifications of this users license are mentioned.
3. Conditions of Self-Archiving. It is permitted and encouraged that the authors spread electronically the pre-print (before printing) and/or post-print (the revised, evaluated and accepted) versions of their papers or works before their publication since this favors their circulation and early diffusion and therefore can help increase their citation and quotation, and also there reach through the academic community.
