Shri C B Patel's article ("When Cricket Fist went to India" 21st May 2016) for me raises the question why cricket went to India.
When the English descended upon the "India", it was their middle classes which made first contact with the Indian masses, Army Colonel's, Priests, Lawyers and merchants they set up shop and Empire in India.
The middle classes drank whiskey and played the gentleman's game of cricket while the working classes back home, drank beer and where allowed to play football at weekends.
The working classes were not needed in India as there was a ready supply of labour in the colony.
The coolies or Indians looked up to their new "middle class"sahibs and wished to emulate them aspired to be like them, drink whisky, play cricket and converse in English which they still do today.
Even the word "India" is English.
Contrast this with the US colonies, fellow white English, Anglo Saxon Christian brothers, where both classes settled, and on their Independence, kicked out all vestiges of the hated British cousins, including cricket, football, the class system and even English spelling, trying to create their own language where none existed now that was true Independence and result is, today worldwide, people aspire to live like Americans the new ruling class.
Jayesh A Patel
Wimbledon
