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You might think of cricket as one of the more benign legacies of British imperialism – a game that unites blazer-wearing English toffs and players who first used bat on ball in the slums of Kingston or Kolkata Was. But in Monfalcone, a town in north-eastern Italy, cricket has become political football. (Apologise.)
About a third of Monfalcone’s more than 28,000 residents are of Bangladeshi origin. Most of the men were attracted to the city by work opportunities in the vast shipyards of Monfalcone. And, with rare exceptions, they are obsessed with cricket.
But, says city councilor Sani Bhuiyan of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), they can’t play it. “In practice, there is a ban on cricket. “An environment has been created that if you play, you will be fined.” Anna Maria Sisint of the hard-right League, who was mayor when the police started imposing fines, denies that this is because cricket is an unsportsmanlike sport. -Is Italian or because many of its fans are immigrants. She says, “It’s just that in some public places, as is the case everywhere, acts that are potentially capable of damaging property and injuring people are prohibited.” Cricket balls are undeniably hard and can be driven at high speeds by capable batsmen. But the nearby local authority controlled by the PD had no difficulty finding a venue for a tournament this summer.
Ms Sissint has taken aim at immigrants before. As mayor, he removed several public benches that were frequented by Bangladeshis, and he also ordered them not to pray in the city’s Islamic centres. Bangladeshis, who have no mosques, succeeded in getting that ban overturned in the courts. Ms. Sisint’s policies have nevertheless brought her and the League success: in this year’s elections, she won a seat in the European Parliament, and her party retains control of the city council of Monfalcon, in which it still has one seat. . Her fellow townspeople, she says, are fed up with “the arrogance of the Islamic community.”
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© 2024, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under license. Original content can be found at www.economist.com
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