It's just not cricket

Not just on screen, the debate of how important it is to be a fluent English speaker has now been sparked again after the recent South Africa-Pakistan match, when Pakistani captain Sarfraz Ahmed was trolled for his broken English during post match interviews.

During the post match press conference, the Pakistani skipper was a bit taken aback at all the questions being tossed at him in English and, unaware of the fact that the mic was on, asked, “Saare English wale hain kya?” (Does everyone talk in English here?) While the trolls had a field day, there were those who sprang to his defence, as being a professional cricketer has nothing to do with English skills.

With cricket being considered a gentleman’s game, there has always been an element of elitism associated with it. However, the fact that on field skill has nothing to do with one’s proficiency with a language seems to be something that Pakistani selectors have caught on to faster than most. “Pakistan should be proud that they have cricketers that cannot speak English,” says writer and columnist Aakar Patel.

He further explains, “The Pakistani cricket team is much more egalitarian than most others, indeed much more than India. The fact that their cricketers cannot speak English means that they are discovered from varied backgrounds. Many come from very impoverished families and have not been able to afford an English education, but that didn’t stop them from being able to be a part of the cricketing team. While India does have its share of cricketers from economically backward classes, most of our players come from an urbane, elite set-up.”

Indeed, English has been given so much importance that it almost swayed the selection of Kapil Dev as team captain, shares former cricketer Aakash Chopra. “One of the board members put up an objection saying that since his English is not very good, it might not be a good idea for him to be the captain. But then, the board member was unofficially told that English has nothing to do with it and that Kapil paji would do what he needed to — win matches for India,” he recalls.

He feels it is indeed unfortunate that proficiency in a language is given so much importance, particularly as it has nothing to do with the game itself. “It’s not as if people ask South Africans or Australians to speak in Hindi when they come to play on Indian pitches. So why should players from the Indian subcontinent be called upon to speak in perfect English?” he asks, indignant.

Comedian Sanjay Rajoura, who performs most of his pieces in Hindi, says that people who troll others by language should have some minimum information about who they are speaking about before they say anything. “Many cricketers in the Pakistani team are from Karachi and have a turbulent history of being displaced from their original homeland. As a result, they’ve had stressful lives with a lot of economic problems. This shouldn’t come in the way of them being on the field,” he says.

Indian theatre personality and ad filmmaker Alyque Padamsee may speak the Queen’s English himself, but he believes that it is this adherence to the original linguistic purity that keeps the language from expanding. “English is now a global language, and no one speaks in the elite diction of the Queen anymore. That died out with colonialism. Half the time, I don’t understand the commentators when they talk in their own accented English. The English spoken in America is also a very broken and ‘imperfect’ form of the language. So, I think that we have come beyond times when someone’s accent should be a subject of ridicule. English is a global language, and everyone has the right to speak it however they want,” he asserts.

Sanjay seems to have the last word on proficiency in English that ends every debate. “I know that we’ve had our share of proficient speakers among our captains, but Sachin Tendulkar was one of the poorest speakers but did that affect his game or his fan following?” he asks.

To that, we say — aye, aye, captain.