The Cultural Utility of Cricket Among International Students at U.S. Colleges and Universities

Abstract

Sport can facilitate social inclusion and acculturation for immigrant populations. For instance, recreational sport participation for international students is positively correlated with the acculturation process. Yet, scant research explores the acculturative capacity of specific sports. This study considers how cricket plays a role in the acculturative process for international students in U.S. higher education. Data were collected from 126 research participants using a single-sport modification of Allen et al.’s (2010) scale to measure adaptation to a multicultural environment and cultural maintenance through sport. Results indicate international students use cricket primarily for purposes of cultural maintenance, as well as an opportunity to interact with others from diverse cultural backgrounds. However, cricket appears to be used less by this population for purposes of adaptation to American culture. As such, cricket, as a predominantly South Asian diasporic space, is both an important cultural lifeline and bridge, which the researchers suggest is being used selectively by international students through an approach that renders cultural separation as a form of belonging. The study offers practical implications that center around the opportunity to simultaneously leverage cricket as a tool for cultural maintenance to grow the game among more captive audiences while also capitalizing on the non-exclusionary nature of the sport to drive participation among non-traditional audiences.