A Japanese scholar at Chepauk
The World Cup’s last league game, between India and West Indies, will have an unusual spectator in the stands
Tariq Engineer
25-Feb-2013
The World Cup’s last league game, between India and West Indies, will have an unusual spectator in the stands. Japanese scholar Mari Sekiguchi, who specialises in the modern history of India, has made the trip all the way from Tokyo to catch the action at Chepauk. She managed to get a ticket through the Hindu, and can’t wait to watch her first live game.
She started out with an academic interest in the social history of South Asian nations, and gradually realised that a complete understanding of India would be elusive if she did not delve into a pastime that keeps most of its citizens enraptured.
“I stayed with Indian friends the first time I visited New Delhi as a student in the mid-1980s. I saw her entire family sitting in front of a TV for almost the whole day watching cricket. I was amazed. Even in Japan people watch baseball and soccer, but that's mostly in the evenings, and not for so long.”
“Then, when I went out, I saw children playing cricket in the street, in the downtown, on dried fields and in deserted lanes. That's when I realised that cricket was important to understand the concept of India, its colonial history,” she says.
Tariq Engineer is a former senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo