A new exhibition which showcases the impact the South Asian community has had on cricket in Great Britain opened on Tuesday in the MCC Museum at Lord’s Cricket Ground.
‘The many worlds of British Asian Cricket’ has been curated by Prof. Prashant Kidambi, Dr. Amerdeep Panesar and the MCC Heritage & Collections department, and highlights the stories of British Asian cricket from grassroots to international level. The exhibition will run until spring 2027.
The exhibition, in the Community Gallery inside the museum, replaces the first community gallery exhibition Cricket and the Jewish Community, which had been on display for three years, and was co-curated by Daniel Lightman and Zaki Cooper, telling the story of the Jewish community’s relationship with cricket.
The Community Gallery is a dedicated space on the ground floor of the museum for rotating displays about different communities’ bonds with cricket.
In this unique feature, the exhibition incorporates the crests of numerous grassroots cricket clubs into its design, as an illustration of the rich mixture of identities expressed by British Asian players through cricket. The exhibition also includes cricket equipment and clothing used by British Asians who have risen to the very top of the game, from Raman Subba Row to Adil Rashid, and by great cricketers from South Asia who came to play club and county cricket in England and inspired new generations.
MCC’s Head of Heritage & Collections Neil Robinson said: “This exhibition offers a unique insight into a rich cricketing culture that is both South Asian in character and at the same time part of the fabric of English cricket.”
Professor Prashant Kidambi (University of Leicester) said: “British Asian cricket has been an integral, though often neglected, part of English cricket. By recovering this forgotten story, we hope to enthuse other communities to collect and communicate their own cricketing histories. And there is no better place than the Home of Cricket to present those stories.”
Dr. Amerdeep Panesar said: “The exhibition offers an important window into the incredible and largely untold stories and history of South Asian cricket in England. It is a tribute to the pioneers and communities who turned local parks into sacred ground, weaving the vibrant threads of their heritage into the very fabric of cricket in this country.”
