ABSTRACT
India now rules world cricket, but the game may never have taken off without the Parsis knocking persistently on the English door until they finally opened it to the people who collaborated so readily with their rule in India. The British may have brought the game to India, but they showed little desire to play with the Indians. The Parsis, finding the game fascinating, had to fight to find space in the maidans of Bombay to play, overcoming the British, who wanted to use the space to play polo. Eventually, they were granted a match against the Europeans, as the British called themselves in India. The Parsi success made other Indian religious communities, the Hindus and Muslims, take to the game, creating a remarkable cricket tournament where three of the Indian teams were religious teams, while the European team was based on race, with only people of pure European blood allowed to play in the team. This launched Indian cricket and laid the foundations of the game in the country.
