Indian Cricket and the Indian Nationalist Movement

In the early twentieth century, when the indian clubs got a chance to participate in tournaments, suddenly this gave indians the confidence that they can actually compete with the british on a level playing field. So cricket became part of their nationalist consciousness to such an extent that they would declare holidays on days of important cricket matches. When barbadoes became independent, the prime minister's address was to was fedul on the day of a very important inter island cricket match. The cricket match could not be disturbed, so the Prime Minister's address was postponed until the next day. This was the importance of cricket for nationalist politics.