Cricket World Cup: How India wields power at the crease

The state of Indian cricket reveals insights into how Prime Minister Narendra Modi governs and how he wants the world to see his country, writes Salil Tripathi.

The World Today Published 29 September 2023 3 minute READ

Salil Tripathi

Author and board member of PEN International

With Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, primed to run for a third term in next year’s general election, he has had a dazzling year so far, the most recent success being September’s G20.The men’s cricket World Cup, to be staged in India from October 5, will put India, and Modi’s premiership, back on the global stage.

In the summer Modi made a triumphant state visit to the United States. He was in Paris at the Bastille Day parade, and in South Africa at the BRICS summit in August he waved the Indian flag as Indian scientists landed an Indian spacecraft on the Moon’s south pole, a world first. Then at the hosting of the G20 Summit in New Delhi in September world leaders signed a declaration in which India had adroitly convinced the signatories to dilute Russia’s blame for its illegal invasion of Ukraine.

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