It’s just not cricket!

In 1990 Norman Tebbit proposed the "Cricket test", where he suggested that people from ethnic minorities in Britain should not be considered truly British until they supported the England cricket team, as opposed to the country of their or their ancestors' birth.

That might have been the case of immigrants to the UK but not the case for those born in the UK. What about those of Scottish and Welsh roots living in England. Should they be associated with England and support the English Cricket team?



Since Tebbit made those comments, more and more British Asians have been supporting local & national sporting teams. Previously they were deterred because of hooliganism and fear of racism from people like Norman Tebbit but now we are seeing more asian faces supporting British teams as well as representing them in the sporting field.

Sporting professions are not considered a “proper job” in many Asian housholds but we are seeing a change, probably due to earning potential in sports. I hope this does not create a shortage in the UK medical industry!

Sajid Mahmood & Monty Panesar may sound like names that would feature in the FBI most wanted list but they are the future of English Cricket. They played against Pakistan and India and did brilliantly. In boxing we have Amir Khan and hopefully there will be more to come not just in sport but society as a whole, in music, business & politics. If asians are given an equal chance in society (instead of being perceived as would be terrorists) they can show just how much they care about this country and what being british really means.

Data collected by the Office for National Statistics in England showed that a majority of black and Asians see themselves as British rather than English, while the white population in England generally see themselves as English rather than British. In Scotland and Wales, members of all racial groups had a much stronger identification with those respective regions than Britain.