Miguel is joined on the podcast by Priyansh, a University of Toronto PhD candidate and new co-host of The End of Sport Podcast. In this episode, Priyansh outlines cricket’s spread through British colonialism, elite club patronage, and later mass popularity in India via television and commercialization, noting the earlier prominence of field hockey and persistent class and regional inequalities.

Furthermore, Miguel and Priyansh discuss Modi-era Hindu nationalist institutional capture of Indian cricket (BCCI), symbolic nationalism around stadium naming, and cricket’s geopolitical implications, including Bangladesh being removed from the T20 World Cup amid tensions and Pakistan’s threatened boycott of the India match, later reversed after talks. Priyansh connects this to state-capital consolidation, Indian corporate power in global cricket leagues, India’s Olympic ambitions, and revisits C.L.R. James to stress fans’ marginalization under capitalist sport.

Links:

* India-Bangladesh tensions rock cricket, as sport turns diplomatic weapon by Tauseef Ahmad and Sajid Raina/AlJazeera

* Bangladesh firm on not playing T20 World Cup in India despite risk of exclusion by ESPNcricinfo

* BCB accuses ICC of double standards over T20 World Cup venue issue by ESPNcricinfo

* How India’s politics is reshaping international cricket by Priyansh/360Info

* PSL signs record broadcast deal until 2029 by Danyal Rasool/ESPNcricinfo

* Donate to the Comrade Brotha Amp Da Truth

* RU Spring 2026 Cuban Legal Studies Donation Drive

Miguel Garcia and Comrade E produced this episode. The Sports As A Weapon Podcast is part of the @Anticonquista Media Collective. Subscribe to the ANTICONQUISTA Patreon and follow ANTICONQUISTA on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.

All the video episodes are on the ATICONQUISTA YouTube, and listen/subscribe to the Sports As A Weapon Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Deezer, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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