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 G L O B A L C U LT U R E A N D S P O R T
SPORTS AND THE
GLOBAL SOUTH
Work, Play and Resistance
in Sri Lanka

S. Janaka Biyanwila
Global Culture and Sport Series

Series Editors
Stephen Wagg
Leeds Beckett University
UK

David Andrews
University of Maryland
USA
Series Editors: Stephen Wagg, Leeds Beckett University, UK, and David
Andrews, University of Maryland, USA.
The Global Culture and Sport series aims to contribute to and advance
the debate about sport and globalization through engaging with various
aspects of sport culture as a vehicle for critically excavating the tensions
between the global and the local, transformation and tradition and same-
ness and difference. With studies ranging from snowboarding bodies, the
globalization of rugby and the Olympics, to sport and migration, issues
of racism and gender, and sport in the Arab world, this series showcases
the range of exciting, pioneering research being developed in the field of
sport sociology.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15008
 S. Janaka Biyanwila

Sports and The

Global South
Work, Play and Resistance In Sri Lanka
S. Janaka Biyanwila
Randwick, NSW, Australia

Global Culture and Sport Series

ISBN 978-3-319-68501-4    ISBN 978-3-319-68502-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68502-1

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 Preface

I was an athlete long before I was an academic. I was a competitive spring-

board diver from 1971 to 1996, and participated in the 1982 Asian
Games, 1994 Commonwealth Games, and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. I
was also a diving coach from 1987 to 1992, mostly but not entirely, in
the United States.
When I was training for the 1996 Olympics, I was also watching the
1996 cricket World Cup, when Sri Lanka upset Australia. It was a widely
celebrated victory at home. At a time of counterinsurgent warfare against
militant Tamil nationalists, pitched as a “war against terrorism”, the cel-
ebration of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism through sports was an uncom-
fortable experience, to put it mildly. This prompted my curiosity into the
sports consumer culture, incomplete at the time, but increasingly focused
on issues of patriarchy, ethno-nationalism, and state violence.
As my competitive career slowed down, I began coaching other com-
petitive divers. I worked as a diving coach at the University of Utah for
five years, while I was also in graduate school studying heterodox eco-
nomics. Diving provided an opportunity for me, as a member of the
South Asian diaspora, to participate in elite sport culture in the US, and
to coach for a North American university. But, it also increasingly discon-
nected me from my own culture of origin. Meanwhile, aquatic sports in
general remain inaccessible to most in South Asia, while springboard div-
ing is marginalised in dominant sports cultures.
v
vi Preface

I returned to Sri Lanka in 1992, and took on multiple roles as a com-

petitive diver, coach and a coordinator. After seven years of immersion in
the local diving culture, while working for USAID (United States Agency
for International Development) and a small research NGO (Social
Scientists’ Association), I migrated to Perth, Australia, in 2001, to pursue
a PhD in labour studies.
Since completing my PhD, in 2004, I have been in the periphery of
academia with limited resources for research or opportunities to continue
in the area of labour studies. I have studied workers’ lives and their strug-
gles for justice. As a migrant sports worker to the global North, I was able
to hone my skills as an academic worker, although in employment con-
siderably more precarious than my time at the edge of a 10-metre
platform.
My research into the labour movement and trade unions in Sri Lanka
since the mid 1990s focused on the realm of work, but it also included
the workers’ living conditions. My research examined workers in tea
plantations, garment factories and in public health service. Women pre-
dominated in each of these labour markets, and though their jobs made
harsh demands on their bodies, their working lives barely included any
sports. Their leisure activities involved mostly community rituals and cel-
ebrations. In the plantations, with high rates of poverty and malnutri-
tion, sports participation was minimal. Among the nurses, the conservative
patriarchal cultural tendencies, exacerbated by heavy workloads, meant
limited opportunities for sports. In contrast, the garment workers with
whom I spent time, mainly young women and men, were more likely to
engage in some sporting activities. A few garment factories also encour-
aged sports among workers as a way to maintain “company loyalty”.
Despite taking part in sports culture as consumers and audiences, what
these case studies illustrated was a general lack of household and com-
munity capacities to participate in sports.
My life experience as an athlete and as an academic contributed to my
analysis, but a third element is equally important. I also became a father,
my partner at the time pursued her academic career, and I was my daugh-
ter’s main caregiver. We read and danced and played games and sports,
but the only time my daughter got on a diving board was in Sri Lanka.
Most public pools in Australia removed or avoided diving boards because
 Preface
   vii

of public liability insurance. Of course, in places like Sri Lanka, those

risks are internalised by participants. Nevertheless, notions of care giving
and offering support—through insurance or, more readily, through per-
sonal relationships—run throughout the book.
During my short visits to Sri Lanka, I would connect with the local
divers, mostly students between the ages of eight to seventeen. In the
mid-1990s, the sport of diving in Sri Lanka expanded with access to a
trampoline as well as other equipment (such as belt rigs, which allowed
the divers to practice different tricks while the coach pulled them on the
trampoline with ropes). But, in the last decade or so the divers in Sri
Lanka have slowly lost access to this equipment. Nevertheless, I am always
inspired by the enthusiasm of the young divers as well as the commit-
ment of the coaches and some officials who do their best in very dismal
circumstances.
Meanwhile, the sport of diving has accelerated in pace, with much
more difficult and dangerous dives being performed in mega-events.
Despite having some fond memories as well as some enduring friend-
ships, I still remember the competitive diving experience as an intensely
stressful period. I hit the board two times, receiving stitches, and one
time hit the board, neck up, miraculously surviving without any major
injuries. Springboard diving is not for the faint hearted, especially at its
current standard. Yes, springboard diving has broadened its audience, but
fewer and fewer young people actually get to participate in the sport.
A key actor making my migration to the US possible was the diving
coach at Indiana University at the time, Hobie Billingsley. After leaving
Hobie’s diving team in the early 1980s, I saw him again at the NCAA
(National Collegiate Athletic Association) championships in 1987, and
at the 1996 Olympics. At the 1996 Olympics, Hobie was honoured by
being selected to take the officials’ oath at the opening ceremonies. Hobie
also introduced me to Mark Lenzi. Mark was three years younger than
me and, like me, he relocated and enrolled at Bloomington North High
School to train with Hobie. Unlike me, he attended Indiana University
and was a star diver who, in 1996, won a bronze medal behind two
Chinese divers. (I placed 35th in that competition.) Mark was the 1992
Olympic gold medallist in the three-metre springboard competition, and
he was a friend. Following his competitive diving career, he became a
viii Preface

­ iving coach, but it was a difficult troubled life. In 2012, Mark died at
d
the age of 44, due to a “heart ailment”. To me, his death highlighted the
“waste of lives” in sports consumer markets, the causalities of a toxic
notion of work and play, as well as the crisis in the realm of care.
In this study, I relocate sports from the realm of production and the
consumer culture of entertainment into the realm of households and
communities, in terms of the care labour that sustains sports labour. I
excelled as a diver because a range of people along the way extended their
care labour that looked after me. It began when my mother took our fam-
ily, especially my younger sister and me, to swim lessons. It continued as
the women in the foster families I lived with in the US generously enabled
my progress through the sport.
By returning to the realm of care, I hope to identify an urgent need to
change the ways in which we derive pleasures from competitive sports.
Not only does sports culture’s aggressive masculinity incorporate multi-
ple forms of violence—including self-harm—but it also undermines the
emancipatory potential of sports. By framing sports from a Global South
perspective, my aim is to highlight the violence that most endure in
places like Sri Lanka because of poverty, cultural marginalisation and
political exclusion.
Despite the cessation of an ethnic war in 2009 that lasted over thirty
years, patriarchal Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist and militarist tendencies
continue to nurture structures of violence, particularly against women
and marginalised ethnic communities. While a few of my peers in
Colombo have benefited from the spread of capitalist markets in Sri
Lanka, a majority of workers, particularly young men and women, strug-
gle to make living. Nevertheless, amidst contemporary exploitation and
suffering, students, workers, women, unionists, and communities are
demanding more democratic alternatives, for opportunities to play as well
as work under their own direction. This book is dedicated to their strug-
gles as well as struggles of progressive academics in the fraught terrain of
knowledge production. The academics that nurtured me in the US and
Sri Lanka were engaged in reclaiming science as an emancipatory project,
particularly for the oppressed majority, the voiceless, in the global South.

Randwick, NSW, Australia S. Janaka Biyanwila

 Acknowledgements

This study traverses my experience as a competitive springboard diver as

well as an academic in the area of labour studies. In effect, I have to thank
a range of people in realm of sports as well as academia that have nur-
tured this project in different, knowing and unknowing ways. In terms of
sports, while all my diving coaches (in Sri Lanka and the US) were com-
mitted and generous people, I have to recognize the special contribution
made by Hobie Billingsley, at Indiana University, in the early 1980s. Not
only did he help improve my diving skills, but he also inculcated a strong
sense of dignity and self-discipline as a young South Asian teenager,
amidst mostly white American culture. Without the support of the older
university divers, in their early twenties at the time, I might not have
lasted in the sport of diving in Bloomington, Indiana.
I am also in deep gratitude to my foster family, the Morgans (Bill, Jill,
Aimee and Heather), and their extended kinship relations, in rural
Indiana, for their care and support throughout my high school and uni-
versity diving days. I also have to acknowledge the diving community at
the University of Oklahoma, University of Maryland as well as the
University of Utah. I especially want to thank the divers, the diving
coaches and officials in Sri Lanka, who at present continue to sustain the
sport despite multiple challenges.
In terms of academia, I want to thank Kumari Jayawardena, in particu-
lar for her encouragement to write about sports in the mid-1990s. I am
ix
x Acknowledgements

grateful to Dan Clawson, at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, for

his friendship and advice. I also want to thank Raewyn Connell, David
Rowe and Helen Lenskyj for their kind support. Of course, thanks also
go to my friends, Ajith Kumarasiri, Krishantha, Ethan Blue, Fausto Buta,
Matt Withers and Ezreena Yayah.
I want to thank Sharla Plant at Palgrave for accepting this project and
the series editors Stephen Wagg and David Lawrence, for extending me
the freedom to indulge in a broad integrated approach to understanding
sports in the Global South.
 Contents

1 Introduction   1

2 The Spread of Sports Markets in the Global South  25

3 Sports Workers in Workplaces and Communities  67

4 Sports Revenues from Property Rights and Cities 107

5 The Role of Media in Sports Consumption 137

6 Development and Sports in Sri Lanka 179

7 Authoritarian Sports Cultures and Sports Workers 219

8 Changing Sports Through Resistance 259

9 Conclusion: Sports as Play and the Sports Commons 299

xi
xii Contents

Appendix. Life Story of a Migrant Sports Worker 321

Bibliography 327

Index 367
 List of Abbreviations

ADB Asian Development Bank

BCCI Board of Cricket Control India
CAS Court of Arbitration for Sport
CIES International Centre for Sports Studies
COHRE Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions
CON Counter Olympics Network
CP Communist Party
CPA Centre for Policy Alternatives
CSN Carlton Sports Network
CSO Civil Society Organisations
CSR Corporate Social Responsibility
CTB Ceylon Transport Board
FFSL Football Federation of Sri Lanka
FIFA International Federation of Football Associations
FINA International Swimming Federation
FTZ Free trade Zones
GATS General Agreement on Trade in Services
GPN Global Production Network
GUF Global Union Federation
HLRN Housing and Land Rights Network
IAAF International Association of Athletics Federations
ICC International Cricket Council
IFIs International Financial Institutions

xiii
xiv List of Abbreviations

ILO International Labour Organisation

IMF International Monetary Fund
IOC International Olympic Committee
IPL Indian Professional League
IPR Intellectual Property Rights
ITGLWF International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation
JVP People’s Liberation Front (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna)
KSIA Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics
LTTE Liberation Tamil Tiger of Eelam
ManU Manchester United Football Club
MCC Marylebone Cricket Club
NBA National Basketball Association
NBL National Baseball League
NCAA National Amature Athletic Association
NCPA National College Players Association
NFL National Football League
NGO Non-governmental Organisation
NIDCL New International Division of Cultural Labor
NOC National Olympic Committee
ODI One Day International
PTA Prevention of Terrorism Act
PWC Price Waterhouse Coopers
RTI Right to Information
SAF South Asian Federation
SLBC Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation
SLC Sri Lanka Cricket
SLFP Sri Lanka Freedom Party
SLMoS Sri Lanka Ministry of Sports
SLPL Sri Lanka Premier League
SLTDA Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority
TNCs Transnational Corporations
TRIPS Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
TUC Trade Union Congress
UN United Nations
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation
UNI UNI Global Union
 List of Abbreviations
   xv

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

UNP United National Party
USAS United Students Against Sweatshops
WFSGI World Federation of Sporting Goods Industry
WTO World Trade Organisation
 List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Sports governance: consent and coercion 42

Fig. 2.2 Sports in the Global North and South 54
Fig. 3.1 Sports and social reproduction 72
Fig. 3.2 Sports consumer culture and citizenship 86
Fig. 3.3 Sports as cultural production and workers 90
Fig. 3.4 Commodification of sports labour 97
Fig. 4.1 Sports mega-events, cities and collective aspirations 116
Fig. 7.1 Sri Lanka: Sports consumer culture and community sports 232
Fig. 8.1 Social spatial parameters of sports organisation 269
Fig. 8.2 Sports commons and counter movements 289
Fig. 9.1 Sports commons and politics of transformation 314

xvii
Indiana High School (Boys) Swimming & Diving State Championships, Indiana
University Natatorium, Indianapolis, February 1983. Source: Sunday Herald Times
(Bloomington, IN), 27 February 1983

xix
 1
Introduction

In June 2013, there were mass protests in Brazil, which began in São
Paolo, then spread across other urban centres, against increases in public
transport fares, which also targeted government spending on sports
mega-events, such as the 2014 World Cup Football and the 2016
Olympics. The 2016 Olympics, following the 1968 Olympics in Mexico,
was the second time this spectacle of sports consumer culture to be hosted
in the Global South. The 2013 social protests targeting the 2016
Olympics, overlapped with the global labour movement campaigns
against the plight of migrant workers in construction projects in Qatar,
in preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Most of these migrant
workers were from South Asia, including Sri Lanka.
This shift in sports mega-events, elite spectator sports with global audi-
ences (Horne and Manzenreiter 2006) into the urban centres of the
Global South, is a distinctive emergent phenomenon. The Indian Premier
League (IPL) cricket spectacle introduced in 2008 was worth $4.5 billion
in 2016 (NFL $13 billion and English Premier League $5.3 billion) with
a total TV viewership of several million people globally. Expanding mar-
kets into sports cultures catering to an affluent sports consumer culture,
in the North and the South, highlights the contradictions related to notions
of leisure or play, and desires for well-being.

© The Author(s) 2018 1

S. J. Biyanwila, Sports and The Global South, Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68502-1_1
2 S. J. Biyanwila

The relationship between sports and work is significant for the Global
South, which represents the majority of the global labour force and the
working poor. The concentration of sports markets in the Global North
as well as few emerging urban centres in the South, illustrates the uneven
and combined process of profit-making through sports. This geographi-
cal configuration of sports markets is shaped by an expanding global divi-
sion of sports labour, particularly in terms of cultural (athletic) labourers,
“players” or “athletes” as well as producers of sporting goods and mer-
chandise. The media-driven focus on athletes, mainly “superstars”, is
based on disconnecting this interdependence amongst a range of workers
engaged in the production of sports spectacle and the sports consumer
culture. Migrant workers are central to this global division of sports
labour. The migration of workers, from North to South, and from rural
to urban centres in the South, highlights not only the inequalities and
economic subordination, but also the crisis of households and communi-
ties in the Global South.
The elaboration of local sports cultures in the Global South is interde-
pendent with issues of socio-economic development. The “sports and
development” agenda promoted by the United Nations, along with the
International Sports Federations, and the international institutions of
economic governance (the World Bank, the International Monetary
Foundation and the World Trade Organisation) involve issues of both
labour as well as culture. The “sports and development” discourse,
grounded in notions of charity and humanitarian philanthropy, trans-
forms localised sports cultures and social provisioning values, towards
sports consumer culture and commercial values. At the same time, the
coupling of “sports development” with performance at sports mega-­
events is grounded in reinforcing “sportive nationalism”. This unifying
force of “sportive nationalism”, along with the “sports and development”
discourse is not without contradictions. The expansion of migrant sports
workers complicates assertions cultural “uniqueness” and “authenticity”
through “sportive nationalism”.
The articulation of sports within these dominant narratives involves a
notion of an inherent goodness of sports or an “evangelical sports” narra-
tive (Giulianotti 2004). This also relates to locating sports as a sacred,
value-free, cultural space outside of messy master–slave relations and
 Introduction 3

power struggles. A range of actors in sports markets, such as corporations,

governments, global institutions of governance, and civil society organ-
isations nurture this “evangelical sports” discourse. Thus, sport is seen as
a catalyst for development, education, health promotion, and the empow-
erment of girls and women, while facilitating social inclusion, conflict
prevention and peace building (UN 1993). What this sports internation-
alist, cosmopolitan and humanitarian tendencies hides is how “our”
(Global North) sport is sold or distributed to “them” while “they” make
“our” sports equipment (Nauright 2004). More importantly, “they” make
“our” sports equipment in a context of poverty wages and dismal working
conditions.
In terms of labour, what is unique about the Global South is that for-
mal wage work represents dispersed enclaves in a sea of informal work,
encompassing a range of livelihood strategies. Formal wage work is also
increasingly less secure, precarious or casualised, owing to the promotion
of “flexible” labour markets (Munck 2013). Lacking decent jobs and live-
able wages, means making a living (in the realm of production) in the
Global South is more intensely integrated with the realm of care, or
unpaid work, within households and communities (the realm of social
reproduction).
The realm of social reproduction, the unpaid work or care labour, is
also the realm of culture and play. It is also a realm of consumption,
involving families, neighbourhoods and communities. While the domain
of social reproduction relates to enhancing affective human capacities, it
also involves tensions and contradictions. While women are absorbed
into wage labour within global production networks, they are simultane-
ously subordinated within households and communities as the biologi-
cal and cultural producers of the “national community” (Yuval-Davis
1997). The struggles of women athletes in the Global South coincide
with the struggles of women workers in the sports apparel manufacturing
factories.
The emergence and the expansion of sports markets in the Global
South particularly, since the mid-1990s, illustrate a dramatic shift in the
relationship between media and sports. The nascent sports cultures driven
by media sports programming depicts mediated sports, or MediaSports
(Wenner 1998). The media TNCs (transnational corporations), such as
4 S. J. Biyanwila

Disney (US), News Corp (US), Vivendi (France) and Bertelsman

(Germany), are central in reframing sports entertainment and notions of
sports pleasures. For example, in 2014, a new sports market, known as
the Pro Kabaddi League, was created in India. Kabaddi, mostly a rural
community sport played across South Asian countries was popularised
with its introduction into the Asian Games in 1990. The league was
established by the Mahindra Group, an Indian transnational corpora-
tion, while Star Sports (News Corp) was awarded media rights for
10 years. The first week of the 2016 season of the Pro Kabaddi League
attracted over 77 million TV viewers. While there are franchises desig-
nated to the main Indian cities, the actual sports entertainment process
creates a placelessness beyond the arena of play (Bale and Maguire 1994;
Vertinsky and Bale 2004).
Despite the seeming placelessness of sports consumer culture, expand-
ing sports markets depend on urban development processes shaped by
an emergent sports–media–tourism complex (Nauright 2004). The bid-
ding for sports mega-events by nation-states illustrates how sports mar-
kets integrate with inter-urban competition for investment, and state
strategies of urban development. In 2011, Sri Lanka spent US$8 million
(around 880 million rupees) bidding for the 2018 Commonwealth
Games to be hosted in Hambanthota, a small town in the midst of rural
poverty and unemployment, but a key electorate of then president.
The emerging processes of urbanisation and sports markets in the
Global South are interrelated with the climate crisis and recurrent extreme
weather events (UNEP 2015). Even in the Global North, increasing
summer temperatures have meant rescheduling sports leagues and events.
More importantly, urban transport, which is central to the coordination
of cities and the expansion of travel, particularly by the car system, has
exacerbated the problem with living conditions (Urry 2004; Engler and
Mugyenyi 2011; Miller 2001). The 2013 protests in Brazil against trans-
port price increases reflect the overall pressures of making a living in cit-
ies. In the context of increasing privatisation of public transport, the
emergent sports markets in the Global South mainly cater to an expand-
ing middle-class consumer culture, which simultaneously celebrate the
car culture. Following the 2016 Olympic Games, when the star female
Indian gymnast, Dipa Karmakar, was presented with a BMW car by the
 Introduction 5

head of the Hyderabad District Badminton Association, who also owns a

car dealership, she promptly refused it, highlighting that in her region
(Tripura) there were no suitable roads or service centres for luxury cars.
The sports markets are embedded in the fossil fuel economy and
extractive industries. Car companies are major sponsors of sports events
and sports media programmes (PWC 2011). A sports car is often an
appendage to most elite male sports celebrities, projecting fantasies of
autonomy. The glamour of Formula One car racing, are co-produced by
urban middle-class sports cultures in the Global South to suit local con-
ditions. In 2010, Sri Lanka introduced car racing at night in Colombo,
mainly to a narrow affluent middle-class consumer market, symbolising
“sports and development”.
The car culture is rife with contradictions in terms of the “evangelical
sports” narrative, which overlaps the “green sports” discourse. While con-
tributing to urban pollution, congestion, fatalities and global warming,
the car system relies on global resource extraction networks (Engler and
Mugyenyi 2011). These networks are intertwined with the militarisation
of the state and “resource wars”, particularly in the Global South (Bridge
2008; Shiva 2016). The struggles of local communities to protect their
livelihoods and lands from extractive industries are often reframed as
issues of “national security”, involving “terrorists” and demanding mili-
tary responses. While the car system and automobile companies are sig-
nificant for expanding global sports revenues, the urbanisation processes
that create the conditions for the car culture also rely on authoritarian
modes of governance.
Creating “safe” regulated spaces for sports consumption (sports ven-
ues, recreation and parking places) relates to issues of urban governance.
This reconfiguration of space for middle-class consumers and tourists
includes enforcing new commercial laws as well as criminal laws. In order
to “beautify” the city, the enforcement of criminal laws by states involves
displacing the urban poor into the periphery of the city. Maintaining
these secured spaces for sports consumption depends on state and private
security forces, including new surveillance technologies.
For the 2016 Rio Olympics, the security forces included around
48,000 police officers and fire fighters combined with 38,000 military
personnel costing over a billion dollars. The new security-influenced
6 S. J. Biyanwila

urban redevelopment, under the aegis of “national security”, is based on

reinforcing the coercive apparatus of the state from policing to prisons.
Meanwhile, the military is also integrated with sports institutions in fos-
tering its legitimacy. Even in the Global North, the US Department of
Defense allocates considerable resources to self-promote through sports
leagues and teams. This “normalisation” of the military with sports con-
sumer culture is of particular significance for the Global South, where
multiple struggles for social justice endure demanding economic redistri-
bution, cultural recognition and political representation.
This book argues for an alternative culture of sports production and
consumption, which involves transforming both work and play. The
Southern standpoint highlights enduring relations of subordination,
marginalisation and exclusion in former colonies as well as complexity
and emergence (Amin 2010; Santos 2007b). It highlights how sports
intersect both the realm of production (in the field, the track, the court
and the pool, as well as the factory) and the realm of social reproduction
or households, neighbourhoods and communities. The aim is to fore-
ground how different social forces with complex entanglements also cre-
ate the conditions for a range of actors that are in perpetual ferment to
democratise sports and reframe sports as a public good or the commons.
The cultural self-realisation of “modern” sports emerged out of the
struggles of organised workers. The demands of European organised
labour in the mid-1800s, for a shorter working day and improved work-
ing conditions, or better work–life balance, was instrumental in expand-
ing collective participation in leisure and public life (Jones 1986; Kruger
and Riodan 1996; Spracklen 2011). Of course, the elimination of child
labour, along with the relegation of women into household labour, coin-
cided with this socialisation of labour markets. The eight-hour workday
campaign, which asserted demands for rest and play, was essential for
nurturing community sports cultures. While this applied only to a small
nucleus of the labour force at the time, and expressed specific Eurocentric
masculine notions of “work” as only paid work, it nevertheless trans-
formed the realm of social reproduction and collective consumption.
The struggles to transform work and play in the Global South not only
relate to worker struggles but also the broad anti-colonial movement
towards self-determination and cultural self-realisation. The influence of
 Introduction 7

the labour movement within post-independence nationalist “develop-

ment” projects encouraged the expansion of collective consumption and
the provisioning of sports as a public good. The state social provisioning
of sports which broadened sports participation was mostly within urban
areas and involved both authoritarian and democratic tendencies.
Nevertheless, the reintegration with global markets since the mid-1970s
reconfigured the sports cultures firmly within the realm of markets and
consumer culture. Despite the promises of the “evangelical sports” narra-
tive, the authoritarian and exploitative structures of sport cultures in the
Global South highlight the necessity and possibility of transforming
sports through collective struggles.
This book argues for the reimagining of the sporting pleasure in terms
of transforming work (the realm of production) as well as play (social
reproduction). A range of social movements, activist networks and local
groups are engaged in diverse efforts to re-embed sports markets in local
communities, not in order to expand profits, but in the interests of people
(Millward 2011; Wilson 2007). Meanwhile, a range of critical perspec-
tives on sports point towards the possibility of less harmful and more
liberating alternative sports cultures (Kidd 1995, 2008; Messner 1992,
2007; Eichberg and Loland 2011; McKay and Sabo 1994; Lenskyj 2008).
The dominant Eurocentric mainstream sports discourse around “clean
sports” or anti-corruption overlaps with the “green sports” sustainability
discourse. The encouragement towards “ethical” sports consumption
consisting of an ethical code of conduct in sports, “good governance”,
waste recycling in sports stadiums and other similar efforts are important.
However, this utilitarian and elitist sports discourse continues to mystify
the generative mechanisms of sports consumer culture, creating “testos-
terone dreams” (Hoberman 2005). When the commercial values of sports
are prioritised over the social provisioning values of sports, sports cultures
become disembedded from communities and shaped by interests of prof-
its. Promoting non-market sports cultures, enhancing household and
human capacities to participate in sports, relates to the socialisation and
democratisation of sports markets.
Reflecting on sports within the realm of production as well as social
reproduction involves emphasising how sports cultures are co-dependent
on our material transaction with nature. While the building of ­mega-­event
8 S. J. Biyanwila

stadiums, Formula One racing tracks and golf courses, along with the car
culture, transforms the external nature or the lived environment, the
enhancement of bodily performance through biotechnology, or “drugs”,
transforms human nature or embodiment (Miah 2004). Recognising
how the realm of sports (play) interacts with nature, both in terms of
embodiment and lived environment, is significant for the reimagining of
sports in terms of well-being. In arguing for public-driven sports cultures
or the sports commons, the main aim is to foreground issues of justice
and care, both in the realm of work as well as play.
This study draws from my own experience as a competitive diver and
a coach, mostly in the US (1980–92). It is an autoethnography of a
migrant sports worker from the Global South to the North. Given the
hypermasculine individualism of dominant sports cultures, my aim is not
to confuse sociological analysis and insight with masculine angst or “sub-
jectivist slippage into asocial solipsism” (Giulianotti 2005: 96). The auto-
ethnography entails narratives of “life history” linking ontology (being)
lived experience, involving social relations and institutions, with episte-
mology (knowledge). By reinterpreting my own experiences, however
incompletely through knowledge, or conceptual analysis, the aim is to
reveal the limitations of world sports, in order articulate a vision of resis-
tance and possible, more pleasurable, alternatives.
This study articulates a Southern perspective on the production and
social reproduction (consumption) of sports. The Global North–South
distinction foregrounds how the spatial configuration of capital accumu-
lation (including the spread of markets) relates to processes of regulation
and emancipation in the North, which, in turn, depends on the reappro-
priation and violence in the South (Santos 2007b; Basu and Roy 2007).
Each of these categories are differentiated and stratified, meaning there
are many differences as well as layers of disadvantage. In the South,
national sports cultures co-evolve with histories of colonialism and anti-­
colonial struggles. These struggles are replicated in different ways in the
Global North in the form of marginalised people, such as indigenous
people, the unemployed, and people with disabilities, along with ethnic,
religious and sexual minorities. The Global North also exists in the South,
among the privileged (leisure) classes in urban centres. The network of
urban centres or global cities, integrating the North and the South,
 Introduction 9

reflects core regions of global production networks and expanding sports

markets.
The knowledge production of sports, paralleling sports markets, mostly
takes place in the Global North, focusing on concerns in the North and
of market interests (mainly focused on enhancing consumer experience).
This knowledge production often contains Eurocentric and masculine,
able-bodied tendencies, projecting universalist accounts of European
modernity and the diffusion of European sports cultures through pro-
cesses of colonisation (Dimeo 2003; Mills 2005a; Magan 1998). These
dominant tendencies subordinate and marginalise knowledge production
as well as local sports traditions in non-European cultures (Connell 2007;
Santos 2007a). This moral–cultural hegemony of the North is repro-
duced and co-produced by a range of institutions and cultures, such as
sports-media and academia within the South.
This study contributes to an ongoing research programme around rei-
magining sports (Giulianotti 2004, 2005; Nauright 2004; Donnelly
2008; Eichburg 2010; Hargreaves 1999; Kidd 2008; Horne 2006; Lenskyj
1986; Levermore and Beacom 2009; Maguire 2004, 2008; McKay 1992).
In keeping with the vision of the International Sociology of Sport
Association, the objective is “to contribute to our understanding of sport
and also to inform policy that will make the sports experience less waste-
ful of lives and resources” (ISSA 2016). My aim is also to highlight how
the dominant experience of sports in the Global North is based on a more
extended waste of lives and resources in the Global South.
The Global South perspective in this study draws from a South Asian,
particularly Sri Lankan context. The South Asian context is significant for
the study of sports cultures in many dimensions (Mills 2001a). The urban
centres in the South Asian region represent expanding sports consumer
markets (professional leagues in cricket, football, basketball, badminton,
and kabaddi). Workers in the region are a significant labour force, inte-
grated within global production networks of sports cultures. Workers in
India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan make a range of sports goods
(balls, bats, shoes, shirts, shorts, etc.); provide care labour as migrant domes-
tic workers for urban middle-class sports consumers; build sports venues as
construction workers; and produce food as farmers for sports nutrition
markets. A large portion of the global poor lives in the South Asian region
10 S. J. Biyanwila

with more than 200 million living in slums, and about 500 million with-
out electricity (World Bank 2016).
The South Asian region as “a front-line region in the battle against ter-
rorism” (US State Department), illustrates how the spread of sports mar-
kets are integrated with authoritarian militarised state forms. These state
forms reproduce hypermasculine ethnonationalists (communal) politics
in the region, which draws on sports cultures to reinforce communal
identities. The conditions of violence and reappropriation (of land, liveli-
hoods and communal property) in the South is also a site of struggle. The
Southern perspective is a strategic orientation, in solidarity with struggles
in the Global North, asserting demands for alternative democratic sports
cultures based on justice and care.

1.1  nderstanding Sports in Society: Theory

U
and Practice
Central to the practice of sports is the notion of play, which links with
concepts of joy, conviviality, and cultural self-realisation (Soper 1995;
Ryle and Soper 2002). Culture is broadly defined as all things that are
intelligible, or things that have the disposition of being understood by
someone (Archer 1988). The cultural activities of sports, as other similar
social phenomena, are shaped by enduring structures and ongoing
human interaction in many domains (actual, empirical, and real) and
levels (human ecological, social–material, social–institutional and social–
cultural levels). The sports spectacle is grounded in producing rituals.
Rituals and play are mutually interacting forms of cultural expression.
Rituals are seen as an expression of beliefs and values, with predictable
outcomes, while play is seen as a display of fun and joy, with uncertain
outcomes. Play as imitative performance can be a form of transmitting
ritual knowledge, as in the case of certain religious festivals in South Asia
(Husken 2012).
The notion of play involves bodily cultures and movement, encom-
passing games, dance and aesthetics (Huizinga 1971; Caillois 1961;
Turner 1982; Sutton-Smith 1997). There is also a range of n ­ on-­Eurocentric
approaches to notions of play shaped by specific historical and cultural
 Introduction 11

contexts (Mills 2001b, 2005b). This bodily organisation of the human

movement includes the whole historical, social and inner contradictions
of human bodily existence (Eichberg 2010; Ingham and Loy 1993). The
aspect of enjoyment, or laughter, from a spectacle to a carnival can be
both harmless and harmful. In effect, the notion of play is not without
aesthetic judgement (what is beautiful?) and moral valuation (what is
right? or what is good?).
The distinctions between sports, play, leisure and recreation remain
porous and shaped by the context. Nevertheless, the separation of these
categories is significant for analytical purposes. Sports involve three inter-
acting yet different dimensions: elite sports, mass sports, and popular
festivals and games. Elite sports relate to competitive identities and oppo-
sitional patterns; mass sports contain social discipline and fitness; and
popular sports comprise a sense of community or “emotions of encoun-
ter” (Eichberg and Loland 2011). Competitive sports are characterised by
the following elements: quantifiable progress derived from competitions
and exact measurement of performance—the standardisation of perfor-
mance conditions and the sporting record ideal; specialisation; and
instrumental rationality—training methods, equipment, technical and
tactical patterns to enhance performance (Eichberg and Loland 2011;
Guttmann 1992). These characteristics of “modern” European sports
also integrated notions of hygiene and health, emerging from positivist
notions of science.
This book is framed within a cultural political economy perspective
(Sayer 2001), with a critical realist philosophical approach. The critical
realist frame suggests a transformational model of social activity which
foregrounds the possibilities and limitations of social change through
individual and collective agency (Bhaskar 1989; Bhaskar et al. 2010; Archer
2000, 2003). From this approach, social structures always pre-exist
human agency, but they are reproduced or transformed in the course of
our ongoing social activity. As opposed to seeing society as a summation
of individual decisions in an atomised social context (based on a positivist
notion of science), this approach is grounded in a relational conception
of society. More specifically, the focus is not on behaviours, either indi-
vidual or collective, but on enduring relations between individuals shaped
by structures and cultures. Rather than an amalgamation of individual
12 S. J. Biyanwila

motivations, powers and tendencies, the emphasis is on the reality of

structures, entities and powers.
Sports, from the dominant perspective, are situated as a closed system,
creating a notion of “sports exceptionalism” or “mystique of sports”,
which is then extended into society through sports metaphors. In con-
trast, sports as an open-systemic phenomenon, suggests complexity and
emergence, which requires a multidisciplinary approach, referring to a
multiplicity of mechanisms, different and emergent levels of reality. As
such, this study integrates perspectives from sociology, political economy,
gender studies, South Asian studies, urban studies and development
studies, including labour studies.
The analysis of sports involves many interdependent dimensions and
each of these dimensions also includes many levels. First, sports are
located within four key dimensions: (i) material transactions with nature,
(ii) social interactions between agents, (iii) social structure proper, and
(iv) the stratification of embodied personalities of agents. Each of these
dimensions reflects specific properties, mechanisms and tendencies,
which provides a way to look at social events and social systems as “lami-
nated”. The stratification of embodied personalities of agents refers to
seven main mechanisms: (i) physical; (ii) biological, and more specifically
physiological, medical or clinical; (iii) psychological; (iv) psychosocial;
(v) socioeconomic; (vi) cultural; and (vii) normative kinds (Bhaskar and
Danermark 2007). In avoiding reductionism to one particular mecha-
nism, the purpose is to achieve satisfactory explanations, which inform
new transformative practices.
Material transactions with nature relates to an uneven relationship
between human beings and nature, where nature could exist without
human beings, while the opposite is not possible. This dependence of
human beings on nature has two interrelated dimensions. Human beings
are natural, in the sense that they not only depend upon nature but also
are constituted by nature. In avoiding the culture–nature dualism, the
aim is to recognise the influence of both in their geo-historic elaboration
(Frank et al. 2010). The process of elaboration entails questions of struc-
ture and agency, where human beings possess and exercise instinctive
causal power, either maintaining or transforming emergent orders of
both culture and social structure (Archer 2000).
 Introduction 13

Sports organisations, institutions, cultures (social systems) contain

enduring and emergent ‘micro’, ‘meso’ and ‘macro’ structures. These
structures determine access to material and cultural resources. They also
define their objective social interests relative to other agents. We, as agents
in the present, engage in a process of “internal conversation”, deliberating
internally (human reflexivity) about what to do in situations that are not
of our making (Archer 1988, 2003). In turn, agents can be active, take
stances and initiate intervention, or be passive, oppose taking stances and
allow things to happen to them. Of course, agency is also shaped by
“external conversations”, with specific situational and structural influ-
ences, with varying individual and collective spatial histories.
Approaching nature or reality from a critical realist perspective involves
recognising a multi-tiered stratification of nature. This stratification
encompasses three domains of the actual, the empirical, and the real. The
ways these three domains interact with one another reflect emergent
states and properties of sports. The actual realm of sports is the realm of
everyday practice, events or state of affairs where hegemonic and counter-­
hegemonic struggles shape sporting institutions, cultures and practices
(Bairner 2009; Morgan 1997; Rowe 2004). The empirical realm is the
less visible realm of experience. This is where social structural processes or
enduring structures interact with both the actual and the real domains.
For example, the marginalisation of women in sports cultures reflects
enduring structures of patriarchy made invisible by market ideologies of
competitive individualism. The real is a more open system of complexity
and emergence, which includes events, experiences, and mechanisms.
Here, generative mechanisms are defined as the powers and liabilities of
things. The purpose is to recognise the distinction between structures and
events, or the domains of the real, empirical and actual.
The dominant knowledge production around sports sciences asserts a
positivist notion of science, particularly in fields of biomechanics, medi-
cine, sports psychology, physiology, anatomy and biochemistry (Reinhard
and Roessler 2005). In contesting the positivist monoculture of sports,
strong hermeneutic perspectives (mostly in cultural studies) highlight
interpretive processes including normative assessments of categories.
However, the conflation of social structures into culture also reduces
social life to concepts.
14 S. J. Biyanwila

The critical realist approach resolves this contradiction between herme-

neutics and positivism, by locating social life as conceptually dependent
but not exhausted by conceptuality. This involves emphasising practice,
which I will return to later. While conceptuality provides the necessary
hermeneutic starting point for social investigation, it remains in principle
corrigible (Bhaskar et al. 2010). Critical realism avoids the hyper-­
individualism and voluntarism of positivist approaches to science and the
over-socialised cultural “dupes” stance of hermeneutics or interpretivist
(social constructivist) approaches (Archer 1988). The critical realist ten-
dency deepens both positivist and hermeneutic approaches to knowledge,
emphasising the “practical adequacy” in adjudicating between theories of
social transformation (Bhaskar 1989; Archer 2000).
Sports operate at radically different levels of reality, including four-­
planar social reality, and orders of scale. Within the human social field,
we can further differentiate human ecological (at the level of human life
support systems), social-material, social-institutional and social-cultural
forms and aspects of social practices. The socio-material level is concerned
with the production, consumption, care and settlement of groups or
communities of living human beings in their environments. The socio-­
institutional level entails social, economic, political and military institu-
tions as well as familial, educational and linguistic forms and structures.
Meanwhile, the socio-cultural level includes scientific, artistic, ethical,
religious and metaphysical, elite and popular modes of expression, learn-
ing and interaction. This allows for “laminated explanations” that can
make clear, distinct levels of agency and collectivity in order to transform
sports and bodily cultures of leisure.
The concept of the “activist athlete” (Juan Carlos, Mohammad Ali,
Serena Williams, Colin Kaepernick, etc.) suggests an exercise in human
potential as agents where athletes speak out against injustices (marginali-
sation, exploitation, oppression, and alienation) within and outside
sports (Zirin 2005). Agency represents the embodied intentional causal-
ity or process that attempts to change the state of affairs in a context that
would not have occurred otherwise (Bhaskar 1993). However, individual
and collective agency can be mobilised to reproduce as well as transform
dominant sports cultures and institutions.
While all these dimensions, levels and mechanisms may seem confus-
ing and complex, the purpose here is to recognise how the realm of sports
 Introduction 15

is embedded in a multidimensional and multilevel social reality. The

depth and breadth of the analytical frame is significant for the rethinking
of sports as a social practice reproduced and transformed through indi-
vidual and collective agency. The objective is to inform strategies for
action that can combine transformative action across the personal, social
relational and social structural spheres and scales (Bhaskar et al. 2010).
The emphasis on complexity overlaps with the Southern perspective and
lived reality of negotiating multiple power hierarchies, through varied
rhythms of time and space.
In contrast to an “objective” intransitive notion of knowledge, criti-
cal realism suggests a transitive and a transformational approach to
knowledge. While highlighting the experiential and tacit dimensions
(social character) of knowledge emphasised by critical theory and new
social movements, critical realism sustains the possibility of a real
world, independent of knowledge. Accordingly, knowledge is seen as
irreducible to being (Bhaskar 1989: 17–18), and social activity of
knowledge production is embedded in a structured, differentiated and
changing world. Thus, social practice is linked with theory in an unfold-
ing, mutually reinforcing dynamic making new forms of practices pos-
sible, leading to enhanced understanding in “an emancipatory spiral”
(ibid.: 6).
In weaving together theory with practice, this book is oriented towards
intercultural dialogue and translations (Santos Sousa) aimed at advancing
an ecology of knowledge that can reinforce concrete political action
towards transforming sports as well as society. From a social-material
level, the aim is to recover the “aesthetic, sensuous and democratic ele-
ments” of sport from its subordination to an endless accumulation of
capital (McKay 1991). This suggests reframing work and play in order to
discover alternative sports cultures, by combining sociological imagination
with ecological imagination (Salleh et al. 2015).

1.2 Structure of the Argument

The second chapter, following this introduction, provides a framework to
understand the spread of sports consumer markets in the Global South.
It explains how sports cultures in the Global South are shaped by global
16 S. J. Biyanwila

production networks and the promotion of market-driven development.

Then it examines how the restructuring of the state enables the expansion
of sports markets, and the ways in which the IOC (International Olympic
Committee) and the UN articulate “sports and development”. The domi-
nant “evangelical sports” narrative which, coupled with the notion of
“sportive nation”, not only mystifies the integration of the military with
sports cultures, but also overlooks the violence in both sports and market-­
driven development. The third chapter focuses on the workers in global
production networks that produce the sports consumer culture. It
explains how athletes as sports cultural workers are interdependent, with
a range of workers in other sectors, and how flexible production systems
and global production networks are intensifying the realm of work,
including sports labour. Recognising the significance of migrant workers
for sports markets, this chapter explains the emergent international divi-
sion of sports labour and how migrant labour complicates articulations
of citizenship rights and national sovereignty. The hyper-competitive
sports culture demanding “performance enhancement” reinforces the
self-­exploitation of workers depicting “cyborgs on steroids”.
Chapter 4 focuses on how expanding sports markets are based on
branding or intellectual property rights (IPR), as well as urbanisation
processes. It explains the mechanisms of extracting monopoly rent from
cultural goods such as sports, which overlaps with the interests of finance
capital encouraging urban entrepreneurialism and inter-urban competi-
tion. The promotion of financial risk-taking, or “financial doping”, not
only influences community sports cultures but also expands sports gam-
bling. Meanwhile, the urbanisation processes promoting urban consumer
sports cultures reinforce car cultures and fossil fuel economies that con-
tribute to the ecological crisis as well as “resource wars” in the Global
South. The focus of the fifth chapter is on the emergent sports-media-­
tourism complex, which reproduces a monoculture of sports ­consumption.
The launch of the Indian Premier League in Cricket, in 2008, illustrates
the Disneyfication of sports targeted at affluent consumer segments. The
spread of sports markets overlaps with markets in education, which
reframe school sports in terms of commercial values. Drawing on my
own experience as a student-athlete, this chapter describes structures of
class, gender and ethnicity within the university sports culture in the
US. The colonial “civilising mission” along with Muscular Christianity,
 Introduction 17

or the embodiment of religiosity with physical fitness and manliness, that

influences sports cultures in the ex-colonies, endures within militarised
masculine sports cultures, devaluing disabled and aging bodies.
Chapters 6 and 7 focuses on the case of Sri Lanka. Chapter 6 explains
how the market-driven development in Sri Lanka integrates specific seg-
ments of workers within global production networks. The spread of
sports markets asserting “sportive nationalism” reinforces patriarchal
Sinhala-Buddhist ethnonationalist tendencies, despite hybrid identities
within sports labour and labour migration. The dominance of the cricket
culture, encompassing new cricket venues amidst rural and urban pov-
erty, reflects class dynamics subordinating other popular sports, such as
football. This coincides with urban “development” projects creating safe
urban spaces for sports consumption which, coexist with under-resourced
popular mass participation sporting events. Meanwhile, the integration
of elite disabled athletes with “sportive nationalism” legitimises able-­
bodied masculine sports cultures. All this takes place in a context, where
the deregulation and privatisation of media overlap with authoritarian
“security” state strategies restraining freedom of speech while enforcing
multiple forms of censorship.
Chapter 7 examines enduring authoritarian sports cultures and how
sports workers reproduce, negotiate and accommodate as well as resist
hierarchical sports cultures. The two dominant sports governance institu-
tions, the Sports Ministry and the National Olympic Committee, illus-
trate tensions as well as cooperation in extending sports markets. They
also illustrate the reproduction of sport oligarchies or cartels governing
sports cultures at multiple levels (global, regional, national, and local).
The overlap of sports bureaucrats with party politics reinforce authoritar-
ian masculine cultures based on patronage systems subordinating sports
labour. The emergent mercantilist elite, within cricket governance, foster
authoritarian masculine sports cultures subordinating women’s cricket
while legitimising patriarchal Sinhala-Buddhist ethnonationalist politics.
By relating the life stories of two women and two men who were elite
sports workers, this chapter describes how sports labour negotiates struc-
tures of class, gender, ethnicity and disability.
Chapter 8 explains how sports resistance illustrate alternative notions of
play and living well. For the Global South, the anti-colonial struggles were
significant for the elaboration of local sports cultures. In the contemporary
18 S. J. Biyanwila

context of market-driven sports consumer culture, the socialisation and

democratisation of sports markets relates to contentious collective action
by different social movements, particularly the labour movement. The
resistance against sports mega-events in the Global South illustrates forms
of urban protests, asserting public spaces and community control.
Re-embedding sports markets within communities, concerns contesting
hegemonic heterosexual able-bodied masculine sports cultures, which
involves rethinking work and play, and notions of development in terms
of “living well”.
The concluding chapter examines transformative politics in terms of
recovering solidarity as the essence of sports, while reimagining “sports
commons” and alternative sports pleasures in a just society. The articula-
tion of “sports commons” suggests reimagining human interaction with
nature including human nature as the basis for mutual flourishing. The
democratisation and socialisation of sports markets overlaps with refram-
ing how we think about justice, in terms of interdependent politics of
recognition, redistribution and representation. Recognising the relation-
ship between justice and care, which overlaps public and private realms,
is significant for re-embedding sports markets within communities. The
articulation of sports commons suggests integrating life politics and the
realm of social mediation, articulating a sports worker/consumer move-
ment, a cultural citizenship movement, reimagining sports within an
alternative notion of work, play and resistance.
This book is about reimagining sports from a Global South perspec-
tive that foregrounds the relationship between work and play as well as
the significance of collective mobilisation and resistance. It reveals how
sports pleasures are embedded in a crisis of care labour within house-
holds and communities, diminishing their capacities to participate in
sports. Meanwhile, the intensification of sports labour coincides with
sports entertainment cultures increasingly entrenched in normalising
gratuitous violence, injuries, pain and suffering. The protests against sports
mega-­events in the Global South highlight the contradictions of sports
markets, the “sports and development” discourse and the celebration of
“sportive nationalism”.
The realm of work and play are transformed through social struggles in
multiple dimensions in a variety of spaces. Individual and collective
 Introduction 19

forms of resistance, within, against and beyond competitive sports illus-

trate “spaces of hope” towards a “sports commons” involving an alterna-
tive notion of collective flourishing. The transformation of sports also
relates to our desires for belonging and the ways we enact our roles, as
producers and consumers of sports, as audiences, sports officials, coaches,
parents, athletes and academics as well as citizens. Regaining sports as a
“carnival of the commons”, driven by the interests of local communities
with a global sense, involves democratising both work and play.

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 Introduction 23

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 2
The Spread of Sports Markets
in the Global South

The global sports markets, mostly dominated by the urban centres in the
Global North are expanding, despite the onset of the global recession in
2008 (PWC 2011). Global sports sponsorship spending increased from
$49 billion in 2011 to $55 billion in 2014 (IEG 2015). Total sports mar-
ket revenue in 2014—from tickets, media rights, and sponsorships—was
close to $80 billion. The main expansion of sports markets are in the
largest emerging capitalist economies in the Global South, particularly
the BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. However,
this global growth in sports markets is an uneven process with the expan-
sion of more profitable segments, such as football, cricket and US sports
(NFL, basketball and baseball).
The promotion of competitive sports is increasingly tied with state
strategies of international economic competition, where performance in
international mega-events is linked with the achievements of the “sport-
ing nation” or the cultural capital for the nation (Giulianotti 2005c;
Bairner 2011). Sports, particularly competitive spectator sports, have
become a significant mechanism for profits for a range of economic
actors; mainly transnational corporations (media, sports goods, finance)
(Allison 2005; Boykoff 2013; Collins 2013). State strategies of market-­
driven “development” are integrated with creating markets in the services

© The Author(s) 2018 25

S. J. Biyanwila, Sports and The Global South, Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68502-1_2
26 S. J. Biyanwila

sector, including developing high performance sports labour, which over-

laps with tourism as well as remittances (Rowe and Lawrence 1998;
Whitson and Macintosh 1996). The 2012 sports policy of Sri Lanka
illustrates how the promotion of sports markets integrates tourism as well
as development:

It is proposed to develop many varieties of sports in Sri Lanka to make

sports an active contributor to the economic development of the country.
Sports could also be used for the development of tourism and especially the
international fame and recognition achieved in cricket can be used for this
purpose. Similarly golf, surfing and other water sports have ideal opportu-
nities and possibilities in Sri Lanka. In addition, motor racing, hill climb-
ing, beach games and horse racing could be promoted in a big way and
developed to attract tourists. (SLMoS 2012)

This chapter examines the expansion of sports consumer markets par-

ticularly in terms of “sports and development” strategies. It focuses on
how nation-states along with global institutions of governance, including
sports institutions, engage in the governance of a complex set of relation-
ships in promoting the marketisation of sports cultures. The complexity
relates to a range of factors encompassing interdependence between dif-
ferent functional systems; increased fussiness of institutional boundaries;
relations within different spaces and scales reconfiguring nation-state
capacities to coordinate national economies; and different time frames of
interconnectedness, and the multiplication of identities or “imagined
communities” (Jessop 2015).
The complexity of sports governance concerns how the spread of sports
markets overlap with the realm of social reproduction, of households and
communities. This includes a range of state institutions engaged in social
provisioning, such as health and education as well as the welfare state. The
welfare state here refers to a combination of social services and social insur-
ance, as well as social policy. This is also the community sector, the “third
sector” as well as “civil society”, involving NGOs. The presence of interna-
tional NGOs (INGOs), including transnational activist networks, is a dis-
tinct feature of civil society in the Global South. The discussion on sports
resistance in Chap. 8 will further examine the concept of civil society.
 The Spread of Sports Markets in the Global South 27

Within the new global economy, the nation-state governance of sports

cultures is integrated with global institutions of sports governance (IOC,
FIFA, ICC), the interests of TNCs (media and sports goods manufactur-
ing) and financial institutions (Nauright and Schmill 2005; Deloitte
2015; Magee et al. 2005). Global financial institutions in coordination
with state treasuries are central to shaping state policies of “development”.
For the Global South, the World Bank and the IMF are significant actors
in shaping nation-state integration with the different trading regimes
and, in turn, access to resources, mostly tax revenues, for social provision-
ing. However, state strategies to harness resources for the provisioning of
public goods and services are in conflict with a range of concessions and
subsidies offered to attract investment.
The internationalisation of sports consumer markets is an uneven
time–space process, with emerging and submerging markets with pecu-
liar local tendencies. The peculiarity entails new hierarchies promoting
sports consumer cultures that subdivides resources around changing log-
ics. In effect, sports markets are shaped by a “variegated capitalism” where
varieties of capitalism interact in the uneven integration of incomplete
and seemingly “singular” forms of capitalism (Jessop 2016). While urban
centres are the focus of sports consumer markets, governance of complex-
ity also relates to urban governance failure and the struggles over public
spaces (Hall 2006; Lowes 2002; Belanger 2000). For the Global South,
the varieties of capitalism encompass varieties of authoritarian state
forms, which integrate the military and police forces with local sports
cultures.

2.1 Global South and Regional Articulations

Expanding sports markets in urban centres in the Global South coincide
with growing inequalities within and across regions. During the 1990s
and 2000s, more than 80% of the Asian region’s population lived in
countries with worsening inequality. Poverty in sub-Saharan Africa has
increased in the last three decades. The Asian region lags, when compared
to Latin America, in public spending on education, health services and
social protection. In the Asian region, public spending on education in
28 S. J. Biyanwila

2010 averaged around 2.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) compared

to 5.3% in the Global North, and 5.5% in Latin America. The difference
is starker for health care where Asian governments spend only 2.4% of
GDP, compared with 3.9% of GDP spent by Latin American govern-
ments and 8.1% of GDP in the Global North (ADB 2014). While the
Global North spent 20% of GDP on social protection, in Latin America
this was 12% compared with Asian governments spending only 6.2% of
GDP (ADB 2014). Public spending in South Asia is considerably less
when compared with averages for the Asian region.
The Global South highlights the uneven development of a global capi-
talist economy with enduring structures of global geopolitical alliances
and the global trading system. The Global South is also a stratified and
differentiated reality, with varieties of capitalist states with internal ten-
sions and uneven integration. While the Global North signifies regula-
tion or emancipation, the Global South represents reappropriation or
violence (Santos 2007b; Basu and Roy 2007; Spencer 2007). The reap-
propriation concerns the “incorporation, co-optation, and assimilation”
by the Global North (IMF, World Bank, human rights), and “violence
involves physical, material, cultural, and human destruction” (Santos
2009). The ways in which the dominant sports consumer culture main-
tains geopolitical relations between domination and subordination, is
elaborated in the chapters ahead.
The institutions governing sports in the Global South relates to spe-
cific histories and geopolitics of colonialism and imperialism (Magan
1992; Darby 2002; Darnell 2010b; Hoberman 1997). The British Empire
was central to shaping sports cultures in Africa, South Asia, Asia Pacific,
North America and the Caribbean. In South and Latin America,
Portuguese and Spanish colonialism shaped specific sports cultures. The
expanding American empire also influences sports cultures in Philippines,
South Korea and Japan (Brookes 2008). Meanwhile, Socialist Russia and
Eastern European countries, and Cuba as well as Communist China, also
influenced the sports cultures in varying degrees in the Global South.
The anti-colonial struggles that led to independent nation-states fol-
lowing the Second World War, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s,
formed alliances, movements, confederations, blocs and communities.
This was part of the “Third World” between the imperialist capitalist
Another random document with
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ja veltostuneet herrat olivat niin tottuneet heitä ympäröivään ja
heidän olemustaan kannattavan koneiston äänettömyyteen, että he
säpsähtivät, aivankuin tarjoilija olisi tehnyt jotain odottamatonta. He
tunsivat samaa kuin minä ja sinä tuntisimme, jos eloton maailma
näyttäytyisi tottelemattomalta — jos tuoli pakenisi meitä.

Tarjoilija seisoi tuijottaen muutaman sekunnin, joitten kuluessa

kaikkien kasvoille vähitellen levisi jonkunlainen häpeävä ilme —
kokonaan meidän aikakautemme tuotteita. Siinä ilmenee vastakohta
nykyaikaisen hyväntekeväisyyden ja sen kauhean kuilun välillä, joka
nykyään erottaa rikkaiden ja köyhien sielut. Entisajan todellinen
ylimys olisi ensiksi alkanut pommittaa tarjoilijaa tyhjillä pulloilla ja
lopuksi kai rahoilla. Todellinen demokraatti olisi toverillisella
suoruudella kysynyt tarjoilijalta, mitä hittoja hänellä oli täällä
tekemistä. Mutta nämä nykyaikaiset rahavallan kannattajat eivät
voineet kärsiä köyhän miehen läheisyyttä, oli hän sitten orja tai
ystävä. Se, että palveluskunnassa oli jotain epäkunnossa, oli vain
ikävää ja hyvin häiritsevää. Nämä herrat eivät millään muotoa
tahtoneet olla karukäytöksisiä ja heitä peloitti näyttää
hyväntahtoisilta. He tahtoivat vain, että häiriö, oli se mikä hyvänsä,
pian olisi lopussa. Se olikin jo lopussa. Kun tarjoilija oli seisonut
jonkun hetken aivan kuin jäykkäkouristuksen lamauttamana, kääntyi
hän ja syöksyi ulos.

Kun hän taas näyttäytyi huoneessa, tai oikeastaan ovella, oli

hänen seurassaan toinen tarjoilija, jolle hän etelämaisella
vilkkaudella kuiskutti jotain kiivaasti viittilöiden. Sitten poistui
ensimäinen vahtimestari, jätti toisen siihen ja palasi kolmannen
kanssa. Kun vihdoin neljäs oli liittynyt nopeasti kokoontuvaan
synoodiin, arveli mr Audley, hienojen tapojen nimessä, ajan
sopivaksi hiljaisuuden rikkomista varten. Puheenjohtajan vasaran
asemesta käytti hän kovaa rykäisyä ja sanoi:

"Nuori Moocher tekee mainiota työtä Birmassa. Ei mikään muu

kansallisuus maailmassa voisi…"

Viides tarjoilija oli tullut lentäen kuin nuoli ja kuiskasi hänelle:

"Suokaa anteeksi, mutta asia on tärkeä. Saisiko isäntä puhutella

teitä?"

Ällistyneenä kääntyi puheenjohtaja ympäri ja hänen hämmästynyt

katseensa kohtasi nyt mr Leverin, joka lähestyi heitä sopimattoman
hätäisesti. Kelpo isännän käynti oli aivan tavallista, mutta hänen
kasvonsa eivät suinkaan olleet entisen näköiset. Tavallisesti oli niillä
terve, kuparinruskea väri, nyt ne olivat sairaaloisen keltaiset.

"Suokaa anteeksi, mr Audley", sanoi hän aivan kuin olisi kärsinyt

hengenahdistusta. "Minulla on pahoja epäilyksiä. Kun teidän
kalalautasenne korjattiin pois, olivat kai veitset ja haarukat niiden
mukana?"

"Niin minun tietääkseni", vastasi puheenjohtaja hiukan tulistuen.

"Näitte kai hänet?" läähätti hätääntynyt isäntä. "Näitte kai

tarjoilijan, joka korjasi ne? Tunnetteko hänet?"

"Minäkö tuntisin tarjoilijan?" kysyi mr Audley harmistuneena.

"Varmasti en!"

Mr Lever levitti kätensä hätääntyneellä liikkeellä.

 "Minä lähetin hänet sisään. Minä en tiedä milloin ja miksi hän tuli.
Minä lähetin tarjoilijani sisään korjaamaan lautasia ja hän huomasi,
että ne jo olivat korjatut."

Mr Audley näytti nyt liian sekaantuneelta ollakseen se mies, jota

valtakunta tarvitsi. Ei yksikään seurueesta voinut saada sanaakaan
sanotuksi, paitsi tuo puuhevonen eversti Pound, jonka outo
sähkövirta oli tehnyt luonnottoman eloisaksi. Hän nousi jäykästi
istuimeltaan, vaikka toiset jäivätkin istumaan, kiersi lornetin
silmäkulmaansa ja alkoi puhua karkealla, hillityllä äänellä, aivankuin
olisi puoleksi unohtanut puhumisen taidon.

"Luuletteko", sanoi hän, "että joku on varastanut kalahopeamme?"

Isäntä levitti taas kätensä, tällä kertaa vielä avuttomampana, ja

silmänräpäyksessä olivat kaikki herrat seisoallaan pöydän ääressä.

"Ovatko kaikki tarjoilijanne läsnä?" kysyi eversti matalalla,

karkealla äänellään.

"Kyllä, kaikki, sen olen itse nähnyt", huudahti nuori herttua ja

työnsi innokkaasti esiin poikamaiset kasvonsa. "Minä lasken heidät
aina kun minä tulen sisään. He ovat niin hullunkurisen näköisiä
seistessään rivissä pitkin seinää."

"Mutta eihän voi muistaa niin varmasti"… alotti mr Audley

raskaasti ja epäröiden.

"Kyllä, minä vakuutan muistavani sen vallan hyvin", huusi herttua

innokkaasti. "Tässä hotellissa ei koskaan ole ollut kuin viisitoista
tarjoilijaapa tänä iltana oli heitä myöskin tasan viisitoista, ei enempää
eikä vähempää."
 Isäntä kääntyi nyt häneen päin kaikki jäsenet vapisten.

"Te sanotte, sanotte", änkytti hän, "että te laskitte minun tarjoilijani

viideksitoista?"

"Niinkuin tavallisesti", vakuutti herttua. "No, mitä siitä?"

"Ei mitään", sanoi Lever kamalalla äänenpainolla. "Mutta se on

varmasti aivan mahdotonta. Yksi noista viidestätoista makaa
kuolleena huoneessaan."

Järkyttävä hiljaisuus vallitsi hetken huoneessa. On mahdollista —

sillä sanalla "kuolema" on yliluonnollinen voima — että jokainen
näistä tyhjäntoimittajista katseli sillä hetkellä sieluaan ja huomasi sen
pieneksi kuin kuivettuneen herneen. Eräs heistä — luulen, että se oli
herttua — saattoi vielä sanoa rikkaan miehen hyväntahtoisuudella:

"Voimmeko tehdä jotakin hänen hyväkseen?"

"Hänen luonaan on ollut pappi", sanoi juutalainen osoittaen

vähäistä liikutusta.

Kuin tuomiopasuunan puhaltaessa heräsivät nyt kaikki asemansa

tuntoon. Muutamien hajauttavien sekuntien aikana olivat he todella
tulleet siihen luuloon, että tuo viidestoista oli saattanut olla kuolleen
tarjoilijan henki. Tämä ajatus oli tehnyt heidät mykiksi, sillä henget ja
kummitukset olivat heistä yhtä vastenmielisiä kuin kerjäläiset. Mutta
hopeoitten muisto mursi ihmeen taikavoiman, mursi sen aivan äkkiä
voimakkaalla taka-iskulla. Eversti kaatoi tuolinsa ja meni pitkin
askelin ovea kohti.

"Jos täällä oli viidestoista mies", sanoi hän, "niin oli se, hyvät
ystävät, varas. Kiiruhtakaamme heti pääkäytävälle ja takaportille ja
sulkekaamme ne hyvin. Puhukaamme sitten asiasta. Klubin
neljäkolmatta helmeä ovat kyllin arvokkaat takaisin saataviksi."

Mr Audley näytti ensin epäilevän, sopiko kiireellinen into

gentlemannille, mutta kun hän näki herttuan nuorekkaalla kiihkolla
syöksyvän portaita alas, seurasi hän jälessä vakavin askelin.

Samassa syöksyi kuudes tarjoilija sisään ja kertoi, että hän oli

löytänyt kaikki kalalautaset tarjoilupöydälle ladottuina, mutta
hopeasta hän ei ollut nähnyt kiiltoakaan.

Päivällisvieraat ja tarjoilijat, jotka nyt hujan hajan juoksivat

käytävän läpi, jakaantuivat kahteen joukkoon. Useimmat seurasivat
isäntää suureen halliin ja pääovelle saadakseen tietää, oliko joku
mennyt ulos. Eversti Pound, puheenjohtaja, varapuheenjohtaja ja
pari muuta syöksyivät käytävään, joka johti palvelijoiden
huoneeseen, koska he pitivät luultavimpana, että varas oli paennut
sitä tietä. He kulkivat siis vaatekomeron hämärän syvennyksen ohi ja
huomasivat pienen, mustiinpuetun olennon, kaiketi ovenvartijan, joka
seisoi varjossa.

"Halloo!" huusi herttua. "Oletteko nähnyt jonkun menevän tästä

ohi?"

Lyhytkasvuinen ei vastannut suoraan, vaan sanoi ainoastaan:

"Minulla on luullakseni hallussani se, mitä herrat etsivät."

He pysähtyivät epäröiden ja ihmetellen, samalla kun mies meni

peremmälle vaatekomeroon ja palasi molemmat kädet täynnä
kiiltävää hopeaa, jonka hän myyjän varmuudella asetti pöydälle.
Hopea näyttäytyi tusinaksi omituisen muotoisia veitsiä ja haarukoita.
 "Te — te", änkytti eversti menetettyään lopuksi tasapainonsa
täydellisesti. Sitten kurkisti hän pimeään, pieneen aitaukseen ja
huomasi kaksi seikkaa: ensiksi, että pikkuinen, tumma mies oli papin
puvussa, toiseksi, että hänen takanaan olevan huoneen ikkuna oli
rikottu, niin kuin joku olisi väkisin pyrkinyt läpi siitä.

"Liian kallisarvoisia tavaroita vaatekomerossa säilytettäviksi, vai

kuinka?" huomautti pappi iloisesti ja järkevästi.

"Oletteko te, oletteko te varastanut nämä?" sopersi mr Audley

säikähtynein silmin.

"Siinä tapauksessa", sanoi pappi, "jätän minä ne ainakin takaisin."

"Mutta sitä te ette ole tehnyt", sanoi eversti Pound yhä tuijottaen
rikottuun ikkunaan.

"Suoraan sanoen, en ole tehnyt sitä", sanoi pieni mies hieno iva
äänessään. Ja sitten istuutui hän aivan vakavana korkealle
jakkaralle.

"Mutta te tiedätte, kuka tämän on tehnyt", sanoi eversti.

"Hänen oikeaa nimeään en tunne", sanoi pappi hiljaisesti. "Mutta

tiedän jokseenkin paljon hänen ruumiin voimistaan ja kiusauksistaan.
Sain edellisestä jonkunmoisen käsityksen, kun hän koetti kuristaa
minut, ja hänen siveyskäsitteistään, kun hän katui."

"Kun hän katui. Sepä joltakin kuuluu!" huudahti nuori Chester

kimeästi nauraen.

Isä Brown nousi seisomaan kädet selän takana:

 "Niin, eikös olekin kummallista", sanoi hän, "että varas ja
seikkailija voi katua, kun niin monet, varmassa asemassa olevat
miehet pysyvät kovina ja kevytmielisinä, hyödyttöminä sekä
Jumalalle että ihmisille? Mutta, suokaa anteeksi, siinä tunkeudutte te
minun alalleni. Vaikka te epäilette miehen katumuksen todellisuutta,
niin olette kaikissa tapauksissa saaneet takaisin veitsenne ja
haarukkanne. Te olette nuo 'kaksitoista totista kalastajaa' ja tuossa
on teille kaikki hopeakalanne. Mutta Hän on tehnyt minusta ihmisten
kalastajan."

"Saitteko kiinni tuon miehen?" kysyi eversti otsa rypyssä.

Isä Brown kohtasi avoimin katsein hänen yrmeän muotonsa.

"Kyllä", sanoi hän. "Minä vangitsin hänet näkymättömällä koukulla

ja näkymättömällä siimalla, joka on niin pitkä, että se suo hänen
kulkea, vaikka maailman loppuun, mutta sentään niin vahva, että
voin temmata hänet takaisin yhdellä nykäyksellä."

Tuli pitkä hiljaisuus. Kaikki toiset hajaantuivat viedäkseen jälleen

löydetyt hopeat tovereilleen tai neuvotellakseen hotellin omistajan
kanssa asian omituisesta laadusta. Yrmeä eversti istui kuitenkin
paikoillaan pöydän reunalla heiluttaen pitkiä, ohuita jalkojaan ja
pureskellen mustia viiksiään.

Lopuksi sanoi hän aivan tyynesti papille: "Se taisi olla aika sukkela
veitikka, mutta luulenpa tuntevani vielä sukkelamman."

"Kyllähän hän oli sukkela", vastasi pappi. "Mutta en oikein tiedä,

ketä tarkoitatte vielä sukkelammalla."
 "Tarkoitan teitä", sanoi eversti naurahtaen. "Minun tarkoitukseni ei
ole saattaa miestä vankilaan, senvuoksi voitte olla aivan rauhallinen.
Mutta tahtoisinpa uhrata monta hopeahaarukkaa saadakseni aivan
pilkulleen tietää, kuinka te sotkeennuitte tähän juttuun ja saitte
miehen luovuttamaan hopeat. Te olette varmasti viekkain veitikka
koko seurassamme."

Isä Broxvnilla ei näyttänyt olevan mitään everstin karua

avomielisyyttä vastaan.

"Vai niin", sanoi hän hymyillen. "En voi tietysti virkkaa mitään siitä,
kuka mies on, tai kertoa hänen tarinaansa, mutta ei ole olemassa
mitään syytä, minkä vuoksi en voisi kertoa teille niitä ulkonaisia
seikkoja, jotka itse keksin."

Odottamattoman notkeasti hyppäsi hän aitauksen yli ja istuutui

eversti Poundin viereen, heilutellen lyhyitä jalkojaan kuin aidalle
kiivennyt pojanvekara. Hän alkoi kertoa tarinaa yhtä vapaasti kuin
olisi hän jutellut siitä vanhalle ystävälle jouluhiiloksen ääressä.

"Katsokaas, eversti", sanoi hän. "Olin sulkeutunut tuohon pieneen

huoneeseen kirjoittelemaan, kun kuulin jalkaparin täällä käytävässä
harjoittelevan tanssia, joka oli yhtä konstikas kuin kuolemankarkelo.
Ensin tuli parvi nopeita, lystikkäitä pikkuaskelia, aivan kuin siellä olisi
tallustellut mies, joka oli lyönyt vetoa osaavansa kävellä varpaillaan;
sitten tuli sarja hitaita, huolimattomia, narisevia askeleita, jotka
muistuttivat sikaria polttelevan herrasmiehen kävelyä. Mutta minä
olisin voinut vannoa, että samat jalat astuivat molemmat askellajit,
jotka vuorotellen toistuivat. Ensin kevyttä käyntiä, sitten raskasta ja
sitten taas kevyttä. Ensin ihmettelin välinpitämättömästi, sitten yhä
innokkaammin, minkä ihmeen vuoksi mies vuorotellen esitti noita
molempia osia. Toinen käyntitapa oli tuttu. Se oli samanlaista kuin
teidän, eversti. Sillä lailla kävelee hyvinvoipa herrasmies, joka
odottaa jotain ja joka kuljeksii ympäriinsä mieluummin liikkuvan
luonteensa, kuin levottomuuden tähden. Toisenkin tavan tunsin,
mutta en muistanut, minkälaiset ihmiset kävelivät sillä tavoin.
Olisinkohan matkoillani tavannut jonkun hassunkurisen olion, joka
puikahteli ympäriinsä varpaillaan noin kummallisesti? Mutta silloin
satuin kuulemaan lautasten kalinaa, en tiedä miltä suunnalta, ja
vastaus oli selvä kuin makkaraliemi. Käyntitapa oli tarjoilijan —
ruumis hiukan kumarassa, silmät alas luotuina, takinliepeet ja
ruokaliina takana liehumassa. Ajattelin vielä asiaa puolitoista
minuuttia ja luulen, että rikoksen laatu selveni minulle yhtähyvin kuin
olisin itse aikonut tehdä sen."

Eversti Pound katsahti terävästi häneen, mutta papin lempeät,

harmaat silmät katselivat viattoman miettivinä kattoon.

"Joka rikoksen laita on kuin minkä taitavan tempun hyvänsä",

jatkoi hän. "Älkää näyttäkö noin ihmettelevältä. Rikokset eivät ole
ainoita taidonnäytteitä, jotka ovat kotoisin helvetillisistä työpajoista.
Joka taideteoksella, jumalallisella tai pirullisella, on oma kulumaton
tuntomerkkinsä. Tarkoitan, että sen ydin on yksinkertainen, vaikka
suoritus olisi miten monimutkainen hyvänsä. Hamletissa esimerkiksi
ovat haudankaivajan irvipuheet, hullun tytön kukkaset, Osricin
kummalliset koristeet, haamun kalpeus ja pääkallon irvistys vain
oikkuja, sidottuja monimutkaiseksi seppeleeksi tumman miehen,
murhenäytelmän varsinaisen pääkuvion ympärille."

"Täälläkin", jatkoi hän ja laskeutui hymyillen alas paikoiltaan,

"täälläkin tapaamme tumman miehen yksinkertaisen
murhenäytelmän."
 "Niin", sanoi hän nähdessään everstin kysyvän katseen. "Koko
tämä tapaus kiertelee mustan takin ympärillä. Tässäkin, niinkuin
Hamletissa, on rococotyylisiä sivukuvioita, esimerkiksi te itse. Sitten
on kuollut tarjoilija, joka näyttäytyi siellä, missä hänen ei olisi pitänyt
olla. Sitten tuo näkymätön käsi, joka korjasi hopeat pöydältä ja
muuttui kohta ilmaksi. Mutta jokainen viisaasti harkittu rikos perustuu
lähinnä johonkin hyvin yksinkertaiseen tosiseikkaan, joka itsessään
ei ole salaperäinen. Salaperäisyys on siinä, että osaa kätkeä tuon
tosiseikan ja johtaa ajatukset pois siitä. Tämä suuri, hyvin suunniteltu
ja — jos kaikki olisi käynyt säännöllisesti — paljon tuottava rikos oli
rakennettu sille yksinkertaiselle tosiseikalle, että herrasmiehen
päivällispuku on sama kuin tarjoilijan. Kaikki muu oli näyttelemistä ja
sen lisäksi sangen hyvää näyttelemistä."

"Hm", sanoi eversti nousten ja katsellen rypistynein otsin

saappaitaan.
"En kuitenkaan ole aivan varma, käsitänkö ajatuksenne."

"Eversti", sanoi isä Brown. "Sanoinhan teille, että tuo hävitön

lurjus, joka varasti teidän veitsenne ja haarukkanne, kulki ainakin
kaksikymmentä kertaa täydessä valaistuksessa edestakaisin tässä
käytävässä kaikkien näkyvissä. Hän ei piiloutunut pimeään loukkoon,
josta joku epäluuloinen olisi voinut etsiä häntä. Hän liikkui
lakkaamatta valaistussa käytävässä ja näyttäytyi hän missä
hyvänsä, oli hän aina siellä, missä hänellä oli oikeus olla. Älkää
kysykö, minkä näköinen hän oli, te olette itse nähnyt hänet kuusi,
seitsemän kertaa tänä iltana. Toisten suuruuksien joukossa olitte te
ensin salongissa lähinnä terassia, käytävän päässä. Kun hän liikkui
herrojen seurassa, kulki hän tarjoilijan voidellulla nopeudella: pää
painuksissa, ruokaliina liehuen, lentävin askelin. Hän kiisi terassille,
korjasi hiukan pöytäliinaa ja palasi samaa kyytiä konttoriin, tai
tarjoiluhuoneeseen. Kun hän oli päässyt pois kirjanpitäjän tai
tarjoilijoitten näkyvistä, oli hän, ruumiinsa viimeistä tuumaa myöten,
muuttunut toiseksi ihmiseksi ja liikkui aivan toisella tavalla.
Palvelijoitten keskuudessa kuljeksi hän tuolla hajamielisellä
ylemmyydellä, jonka he kaikki olivat huomanneet isäntiensä
käytöksessä. Heistä ei ollut ollenkaan outoa, että keikari, tultuaan
hotelliin päivälliselle, kuljeksii aivan vapaasti kaikkialla kuin eläin
zooloogisessa puutarhassa. He tiesivät, että vetelehtivien herrojen
tapana on mennä, minne päähän pälkähtää. Kun hän väsyi
kävelemään pitkin tuota pitkää käytävää, kääntyi hän ja kulki
konttorin ohi. Holvissa, sen toisella puolen, muuttui hän kuin
taikaiskusta ja kiiruhti 'kahdentoista kalastajan' joukkoon alamaisen
tarjoilijan vaatimattomalla tavalla. Mitä syytä olisi herroilla ollut
kiinnittää huomiota tavalliseen tarjoilijaan? Mitä syytä olisi
palvelijoilla ollut epäillä ensiluokkaista herraa, joka käveli huvikseen?
Pari kertaa uskalsi hän tehdä mitä rohkeimpia kujeita. Omistajan
yksityisessä huoneessa tilasi hän pullon soodaa, sanoen olevansa
janoissaan. Hän sanoi aivan ystävällisesti ottavansa itse tarjottimen
mukaansa, ja sen hän tekikin. Hän kantoi sen nopeasti ja
moitteettomasti sen huoneen läpi, jossa te olitte; vain tarjoilijana,
joka toimitti selvän tilauksen. Pitempää aikaa ei se olisi voinut käydä
päinsä, mutta hänenhän tarvitsi jatkaa vain siksi, kunnes kalaruoka
oli syöty.

"Vaikein kohta oli hänellä silloin, kun tarjoilijat olivat asettuneet

riviin. Hänen onnistui kuitenkin saada toisessa päässä sellainen
paikka, että tarjoilijat tuona tärkeänä hetkenä pitivät häntä yhtenä
herroista ja herrat taas pitivät häntä tarjoilijana. Loppu meni kuin
tanssi. Jos joku tarjoilijoista tapasi hänet, silloin kun herrat istuivat
pöydässä, oli hän tylsä ylimys. Hänen tarvitsi vain olla varuillaan pari
minuuttia, ennenkuin kala tuotiin pois, muuttua reippaaksi tarjoilijaksi
ja korjata lautaset. Nämä asetti hän tarjoilupöydälle, pisti hopeat
povitaskuunsa, joka sen johdosta paisui aikalailla ja laukkasi
tiehensä kuin jänis. — Minä kuulin hänen juoksevan — kunnes hän
tuli vaatekomerolle. Siellä muuttui hän taas rikkaaksi mieheksi, jonka
täytyi lähteä pois asioitten takia. Hänen tarvitsi vain jättää lappunsa
vahtimestarille ja poistua yhtä elegantisti kuin oli tullutkin. Mutta
sattuipa niin, että minä hoidin vaatevartijan tointa."

"Mitä te teitte hänelle?" kysyi eversti tavattoman innokkaasti. "Mitä

hän teille sanoi?"

"Suokaa anteeksi", vastasi järkkymätön pappi, "mutta tähän

loppuu kertomus".

"Ja nyt vasta alkaa sen todella mieltäkiinnittävä puoli", mutisi

Pound. "Luulen käsittäväni ammattivarkaan suunnitelman, mutta
teistä en ole onnistunut saamaan selkoa."

"Nyt täytyy minun lähteä", sanoi isä Brown.

He kulkivat yhdessä käytävän läpi halliin, jossa huomasivat

Chesterin herttuan terveet, pisamaiset kasvot. Nuori mies tuli
reippain askelin heitä vastaan.

"Kuulkaapa, Pound", huusi hän hengästyneenä. "Olen etsinyt teitä

kaikkialta. Päivällinen jatkuu loistavaan tyyliin ja ukko Audley aikoo
pitää puheen hopeain löytymisen johdosta. Katsokaas,
ikuistaaksemme tapauksen aiomme keksiä uusia menoja. Te, joka
hankitte hopeat takaisin, voinette kai esittää jotain?"

"Miksi ei?" sanoi eversti ja katsahti häneen puoleksi ivallisesti,

puoleksi hyväksyen. "Ehdotan, että tästä lähtien käyttäisimme
vihreitä pukuja mustien asemesta. Ei tiedä mitä erehdyksiä saattaa
tapahtua, kun on aivan tarjoilijan näköinen."

"Mitä hittoja", sanoi nuorukainen. "Gentlemanni ei ole koskaan

tarjoilijan näköinen."

"Eikä myöskään tarjoilija gentlemannin kaltainen, arvelen minä",

sanoi eversti Pound, sama ivallinen hymy kasvoillaan. "Teidän
ystävänne, arvoisa isä, oli kai hyvin taitava, kun osasi näytellä
gentlemannia."

Isä Brown napitti yksinkertaisen päällystakkinsa leukaan saakka,

sillä ilta oli myrskyinen, ja sitten otti hän halvan sateenvarjonsa
säiliöstä.

"Niin no", sanoi hän, "mahtaa olla hyvin vaikeaa näytellä

gentlemannia, mutta, tiedättekö, joskus luulen, että on jokseenkin
yhtä raskasta olla tarjoilijana."

Sanottuaan hyvää yötä avasi hän tämän nautintojen palatsin

raskaat ovet. Kultaiset puoliskot sulkeutuivat hänen jälkeensä ja
nopein askelin kulki hän pitkin pimeitä, kosteita katuja etsien pennyn
raitiovaunua.
LENTÄVÄT TÄHDET

"Komein rikos, mitä koskaan olen tehnyt", oli Flambeaulla tapana

sanoa viettäessään täysin moitteetonta vanhuuttaan, "oli omituista
kyllä viimeiseni. Se tapahtui joulun aikana. Taiteilijaluonteeni
mukaisesti olen aina koettanut tehdä rikoksia, jotka ovat olleet
sopusoinnussa vuodenajan, tai sen seudun luonteen kanssa, missä
milloinkin olen oleskellut, ja olen valinnut tuen tai tämän terassin tai
puutarhan jotain määrättyä kolttosta varten, aivankuin olisi ollut
valittavana paikka marmoriryhmälle. Maalaisserkut pitäisi sen
mukaan nolata pitkissä paneloiduissa huoneissaan, juutalaisten taas
pitäisi huomata tulleensa äkkiä paljastetuiksi kirkkaitten valojen
säihkyessä Café Richin varjostimien alta. Jos minulle pälkähtäisi
päähän vapauttaa Englannissa joku tuomiorovasti rikkauksistaan —
ja se ei ole niinkään helppoa kuin luulisi — niin tahtoisin, jos niin
saan sanoa, panna tapaukselle kehykseksi hiippakuntakaupungin
vihreät ruohokentät ja harmaat tornit. Kun minä taas Ranskassa olin
hankkinut itselleni rahoja joltain rikkaalta ja ilkeältä talonpojalta —
mikä on vaikea tehtävä — olin tyytyväinen nähdessäni hänen
kiukustuneitten kasvojensa pistävän esiin tasaiseksi leikatun
poppelirivin keskeltä, jollakin Gallian vakavista tasangoista, joitten
yllä lepää Millet'n mahtava henki.
 "Minun viimeinen rikokseni sattui kuitenkin joulun aikana, ja se oli
iloinen, hupaisanpuoleinen englantilainen keskiluokan rikos, rikos
Charles Dickensin tyyliin. Minä panin sen toimeen vanhassa
porvaristalossa Putneyssä talossa puolipyöreine ajoteineen, talossa,
jonka toisella puolella oli talli, talossa, jonka pihalla kasvoi
apinanleipäpuu. Kylliksi, te käsitätte minkälainen talo se oli. Minä
olen tosiaan sitä mieltä, että jäljennökseni Dickensin tyylistä oli sekä
kekseliäs että tarkka. Olipa melkein vahinko, että kaduin sitä jo
samana iltana."

Ja sitten alkoi Flambeau esittää juttunsa sisäistä puolta, ja siltäkin

katsoen oli se vallan merkillinen. Ulkopuolisesti oli se aivan
käsittämätön, ja juuri ulkopuolelta täytyy asiaa tuntemattoman
perehtyä siihen. Siten saattaa sanoa, että draama alkoi kohta kun
talossa, jossa oli talli, avattiin ovet apinanleipäpuita kasvavaan
puutarhaan ja nuori tyttö tuli ulos iltapäivällä toisena joulupäivänä
syöttämään linnuille leivänmuruja. Hänellä oli sievät kasvot,
rohkeine, ruskeine silmineen, mutta hänen vartalonsa muodosta ei
voinut sanoa mitään, sillä hän oli kiedottu paksuihin ruskeisiin
turkkeihin. Jos hänen kasvonsa eivät olisi olleet niin viehättävät, olisi
häntä voinut pitää pikku karhuna, joka käveli takajaloillaan.

Talvinen iltapäivä alkoi punastuen kallistua ehtoota kohti ja

rubiininvärinen valo hyväili jo kukattomia penkereitä täyttäen ne kuin
kuolleitten ruusujen haamuilla. Talon toisella puolen oli linna, toisella
puolen johti laakereista muodostunut lehtikuja tai holvikäytävä
suurenlaiseen rakennuksen vieressä olevaan puutarhaan. Kun nuori
neiti oli siroitellut leivänmuruja linnuille — neljättä, tai viidettä kertaa
sinä päivänä, sillä koira söi ne — meni hän hiljaa laakerikäytävää
pitkin komeaa, alati viheriöitsevästi kukista ja puista muodostettua
kukkaryhmää kohti päärakennuksen taa. Täällä päästi hän
ihastuksen huudon, oikean tai teeskennellyn, ja kun hän suuntasi
katseensa ylös puutarhan korkealle muurille, sai hän nähdä
jokseenkin kummallisen olion, joka istui hajareisin sen päällä.

"Älkää vain hypätkö alas, mr Crook", huusi hän hiukan

levottomana.
"Olette aivan liian korkealla."

Olento, joka käytti palomuuria hevosenaan, oli pitkä, laiha nuori

mies, jonka tummat hiukset törröttivät päälaella kuin harja. Hänen
piirteensä olivat älykkäät, melkeinpä hienot, ja hänen ihonsa
vaaleankeltainen väri viittasi kai ulkomaalaiseen syntyperään. Tämä
sattui silmään sitä selvemmin sen vuoksi, että hänellä oli
pistävänpunainen kaulaliina, ainoa vaatekappale, josta hän näytti
edes hiukan huolehtivan. Kaulaliina olikin ehkä vertauskuvallisesti
käsitettävä. Hän ei välittänyt mitään tytön levottomista varoituksista,
vaan hyppäsi kuin heinäsirkka maahan hänen viereensä ollen
vaarassa taittaa jalkansa.

"Minusta olisi kai pitänyt tulla murtovaras", sanoi hän aivan

tyynesti. "Ja se minusta olisi tullutkin, jollen olisi sattunut syntymään
tuossa hauskassa talossa tuolla. Minä en voi huomata siinä
ammatissa mitään pahaa."

"Kuinka voitte puhua noin?" huudahti tyttö.

"Jos on sattunut syntymään muurin väärällä puolella", vastasi

nuori mies, "en minä voi huomata mitään pahaa siinä, että kiipeää
sen yli."

"Minä en koskaan tiedä, mitä te milloinkin aiotte sanoa tai tehdä",

sanoi tyttö.
 "Useinpa en tiedä sitä itsekään", vastasi mr Crook. "Mutta nyt olen
minä muurin oikealla puolella."

"Ja mikä puoli muurista on oikea?" kysyi nuori tyttö hymyillen.

"Se, missä te olette", vastasi nuori Crook.

Kun he kävelivät yhdessä laakerikäytävää pitkin talon etusivua

kohti, kuului kolmasti automobiilin toitotus, läheten joka kerran, ja
hieno, vaaleanvihreä nopeakulkuinen auto puhaltautui linnun
nopeudella esiin ja pysähtyi eteisen edustalle, jossa se nyt seisoi ja
läähätti.

"Katsos vain", sanoi punakravattinen nuorukainen. "Siellä tulee

sellainen, joka on syntynyt muurin oikealla puolen. Minä en tiennyt,
miss Adams, että teidän joulu-ukkonne oli noin uudenaikaista
sorttia."

"Ah, sehän on minun kummini, sir Leopold Fischer. Hän tulee aina
meille toisena joulupäivänä."

Lyhyen, viattoman vaitiolon jälkeen, joka tahtomatta ilmaisi

eräänlaista mielihyvän puutetta, lisäsi Ruby Adams:

"Hän on hyvin kiltti."

Sanomalehtimies John Crook oli kuullut puhuttavan tuosta cityn

suurkauppiaasta, eikä ollut hänen vikansa, jos suurkauppias ei ollut
kuullut puhuttavan hänestä, sillä sir Leopoldia oli pidelty jokseenkin
pahoin eräissä Sotatorven ja Uuden Ajan artikkeleissa. Mutta Crook
ei sanonut mitään, katseli vain karunnäköisenä auton lastin
purkamista, jota kesti kauan, ja jossa oli paljon puuhaa. Suuri, hieno,
vihreäpukuinen kuljettaja astui alas etu-istuimelta, pikkuinen, hieno
pikentti hyppäsi pois takaa ja sitten laskivat he ukon yhdessä talon
ulkoportaille, jonka jälkeen he alkoivat purkaa hänen
päällysvaatteitaan, aivan kuin hän olisi ollut hyvin päällystetty
tavarakäärö. Vaippoja, joilla olisi voinut varustaa koko makasiinin,
turkkeja, joita varten kaikenlaatuiset metsäneläimet olivat saaneet
luopua nahastaan, pitkiä huiveja, joissa kaikki sateenkaaren värit
loistivat, purettiin vuorotellen, ja lopuksi tuli esiin jotain
ihmisolennosta muistuttavaa -— ystävällinen, vanha herra,
ulkomaalaisen näköinen harmaine pukinpartoineen ja säteilevine
hymyineen, hieroen turkisrukkasiin pistettyjä käsiään.

Jo kauan ennen kuin ilmestys oli saavuttanut lopullisen muotonsa,

olivat suuret ovet eteiseen tai halliin auenneet, ja eversti Adams,
turkkipukuisen nuoren naisen isä, oli itse tullut ulos pyytämään
kuuluisaa vierastaan sisälle. Eversti oli pitkä, päivänpolttama, hyvin
vaitelias mies ja käytti punaista, turkkilaismallista tupakkahattua,
jonka vuoksi hän muistutti meidän englantilaisia sirdarejamme tai
pashojamme Egyptissä. Mr Adamsia seurasi hänen äsken
Kanadasta palannut lankonsa, suurikasvuinen, jokseenkin
kovaääninen, keltapartainen ja -tukkainen gentlemanni-farmari,
jonka nimi oli James Blount. Heidän seurassaan oli myöskin
viattoman näköinen pappi läheisestä katolisesta kirkosta. Everstin
vaimovainaja oli nimittäin ollut katolinen, ja niin kuin tällaisissa
tapauksissa on tavallista, olivat hänen lapsensakin kasvatetut
katoolisuskoon. Papissa ei näyttänyt olevan mitään erikoista, nimikin
oli vain tavallinen Brown, mutta kuitenkin oli eversti aina viihtynyt
hyvin hänen seurassaan ja kutsunut hänet kotiinsa, kun suku oli ollut
koolla.

Talon suuressa hallissa oli kylliksi tilaa sir Leopoldille ja hänen

riisuutumispuuhilleen. Porttaali ja eteinen olivat tosiaan rakennetut
tavattoman suuriksi itse taloon verraten ja muodostivat niin
sanoaksemme suuren huoneen, pääovi toisessa, portaat toisessa
päässä. Hallin suuressa liedessä roihuavan valkean ääressä, jonka
yläpuolella everstin miekka riippui, tapahtui tutustuminen, ja koko
seurue, murjottava Crook siihen luettuna, esiteltiin sir Leopold
Fischerille. Tämä kunnianarvoisa rahamies puuhaili yhä eräitten
perin mutkikkaan pukunsa osien kimpussa ja hänen onnistui lopuksi
vetää vaikeapääsyisimmästä takataskustaan pitkulainen, musta
kotelo, joka hänen oman hymyilevän selityksensä mukaan sisälsi
joululahjan kummityttärelle. Teeskentelemättömällä
itseluottamuksella, jossa oli jotain, mikä esti kaikki vastaväitteet,
ojensi ukko hänelle kotelon kaikkien nähden. Pikkunen painahdus,
se avautui, ja kaikki tulivat puolisokeiksi. Oli kuin olisi kristallikirkkaan
lähteen pärske räiskynyt heidän silmilleen. Kuin oranssin värisessä
samettipesässä lepäsi siinä kolme valkoista, säihkyvää timanttia,
jotka näyttivät sytyttävän tuleen niitä ympäröivän ilmankin. Fischer
seisoi siinä hyväntahtoisuutta säteillen, aivan kuin imien itseensä
nuoren tytön hämmästystä ja ihastusta, everstin karua ihmettelyä ja
jäykkiä kiitoksia sekä koko seurueen suurta ihmettelyä.

"Nyt panen minä ne takaisin, suloinen ystäväiseni", sanoi Fischer

ja pisti kotelon jälleen takataskuunsa. "Sainpa varoa niitä matkallani
tänne. Nämä ovat nuo suuret afrikalaiset timantit, joita nimitetään
'lentäviksi tähdiksi', koska ne kovin usein ovat joutuneet varkaan
kynsiin. Kaikki suuret pahantekijät vaanivat niitä, mutta eivät edes
tavalliset roistot kadulla ja kapakoissa jättäisi niitä rauhaan. Olisinpa
voinut kadottaa ne matkallani tänne. Se ei suinkaan olisi ollut
mahdotonta."

"Minun mielestäni se olisi ollut hyvin luonnollista", mutisi

punakravattinen mies. "En olisi moittinut heitä, jos he olisivat
siepanneet ne. Kun he pyytävät leipää ja heille ei anneta edes
kiviäkään, on heillä kai oikeus ottaa kivet omin luvin."

"Noin ette saa puhua", sanoi neito sävähtäen. "Tuolla lailla olette
te puhunut siitä asti kun teistä tuli tuollainen kauhea — mikä se nyt
onkaan? Tiedättehän mitä minä tarkoitan. Miksi sanotaan miestä,
joka mielellään syleilisi nuohoojaa?"

"Pyhimykseksi", sanoi isä Brown.

"Minä luulen", sanoi sir Leopold ylimielisesti hymyillen, "että Ruby

tarkoittaa sosialistia."

"Sosialistilla ei tarkoiteta henkilöä, joka elää soosista", huomautti

Crook hiukan kärsimättömästi. "Eikä konservatiivilla miestä, joka
valmistaa konserveja. Eikä sanalla sosialisti, sen voin vakuuttaa,
tarkoiteta miestä, joka mielellään seurustelee nuohoojan kanssa.
Sosialisti on mies, joka tahtoo, että kaikki savupiiput tulisivat
nuohotuiksi ja että kaikki nuohoojat saisivat maksun työstään."

"Mutta joka ei salli kenenkään hallita omaa nokeaan", lisäsi pappi

hiljaa.

Crook katseli häntä uteliaasti, melkeinpä kunnioittavasti. "Kukapa

sitten tahtoisi huolehtia noesta" kysyi hän.

"Sellaistakin sattuu", arveli Brown veitikka silmäkulmassa. "Olen

kuullut, että puutarhurit käyttävät sitä. Ja kerran kun ilveilijä eräänä
jouluna jäi tulematta, onnistui minun huvittaa kuutta lasta ainoastaan
noella, ulkonaisesti käytettynä."

"Oi kuinka hauskaa", huudahti Ruby. "Jospa te tahtoisitte huvittaa

meitä samalla lailla!"