Minister fails Tebbit’s test

By Will last year, at the start of December Leave a comment on this post

From AFP this afternoon.

A junior British minister admitted Wednesday that he would fail the
so-called “Tebbit test” by supporting India over England at cricket.

Parmjit Dhanda, communities and local government minister in Prime
Minister Gordon Brown’s government, noted that his parents had a Sikh
background in the Punjab although he grew up in West London.

“I’m unashamedly a supporter of Liverpool Football club and I fail
Norman Tebbit’s cricket test by supporting India against England at
cricket,” he said, during a debate on Christianophobia in London.

Tebbit, a minister under conservative premier Margaret Thatcher in
the 1980s, caused outrage when he suggested that immigrants moving
here should back the English team rather than that of their country of
origin.

Tags: england, india, norman tebbit, Parmjit Dhanda, tebbit test |

Comments to “Minister fails Tebbit’s test” Patrick Kidd wrote:
December 5th, 2007 at 9.46 pm

I’ve long felt that the Tebbit test was spot-on but just needed tweaking. As far as I’m concerned, you can ardently support England, India, Pakistan, South Africa or whoever and you will be very warmly welcomed in this country (even if you support Australia). I have no problem with Parmjit Dhanda, from a Punjab background, supporting India against England, just so long as his second team is the country where he now lives. My father is from Ireland and will support the Irish rugby team first in the Six Nations but supports England against the other nations. Likewise I support England first but Ireland second in solidarity

The Tebbit test should purely judge you on whether you like cricket, preferably Test cricket (that’s why it’s called the Tebbit test). Anyone who doesn’t like this wonderful sport, especially if they are football fans, can be sent packing to some cricketless nation like the USA.

pseudoKu wrote:
December 5th, 2007 at 11.52 pm

@Patrick
The USA is no longer cricketless! I play in the Northern California Cricket Association League and its at least as competitive as the league I used to play in Mumbai!

An interesting parallel: A Mexico v USA soccer game in the US invariably has a much louder and stronger (in numbers) Mexican contingent, (most of whom live in the states)! But what takes the cake is that the on-field commentary is in Spanish! Imagine Punjabi/Hindi announcements at an England v India ODI at Lords

Marcus wrote:
December 6th, 2007 at 3.14 am

pseudoku

Just out of curiosity, how many players in you league would you say are native-born Americans? I’d love to see cricket succeed in the States, but it won’t happen if 99% of the cricket-playing population are expats.

pseudoKu wrote:
December 6th, 2007 at 3.42 am

Marcus,

There are not many native born Americans in the league YET, but there is a youth league in place for kids under 19, under 14 and so on and all the kids are native born Americans… So ask me again in 5 years and there will probably be a lot more!

Of course, the demographic distribution is hugely Indian and Pakistani, and I don’t see that changing too soon

PS: Franklyn Rose played in this league at one point

india_fan wrote:
December 6th, 2007 at 8.33 pm

I also fail the Tebbit test, sadly I support India during the tests against England. But in response to Patrick Kidd I don’t support a second team in any sport so I don’t support either team during the Ashes.

However, I do understand irony and laugh at Monty Python so I hope I’ve done enough not to get sent to the US.

Cricket Kid wrote:
February 19th, 2008 at 1.46 pm

Crikey, I haven’t heard the phrase Tebbit test in a LONG time. Good on him for supporting Liverpool though

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Minister fails Tebbit’s test