A different history of cricket and pluralism

Kumar Sangakkara's Cowdrey Lecture was the testament of a great cricketer trying to be a good citizen and that’s reason enough to listen, writes Mukul Kesavan in the Telegraph.

Sangakkara’s experience of what cricket meant to a small, racked nation and his ability to evoke both the darkness of the time and the role of the team as a kind of beacon, make his belief that Sri Lankan cricketers are the keepers of a sacred trust seem deeply felt, not just inflated windbaggery. The Sri Lankan team in its diversity becomes a blueprint for a pluralist Sri Lanka, and cricket becomes, potentially, an agent of reconciliation at the end of a brutal war.