Cricket as a vehicle for community cohesion: building bridges with British Muslims

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review practices and research within the social change and community cohesion disciplines with a view to applying them in the context of British Muslims and cricket. The paper aims to discuss the role of sport and especially cricket to help build community cohesion and bring about social change between British Muslims and the wider British society.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses an inductive and critical approach.

Findings

This paper suggests that the apolitical nature of sport and the popularity of cricket within the South‐east Asian British Muslim community can be used as an effective tool to build relationships between British Muslims and the wider British society. It calls for reflexive thought and action on the part of cricket management to engage in community projects that will enhance the image of cricket as well as genuinely benefitting the society.

Originality/value

Growth of British Muslims has created a great amount of interest from a marketing perspective. Research into Islamic marketing and British Muslim consumers is still in its infancy. This paper introduces an under‐researched area of British Muslims (to date), namely British Muslim sport spectators, and calls for cricket managers and marketers to take an active approach to embarking upon social change.

Citation

Yassim, M. (2013), "Cricket as a vehicle for community cohesion: building bridges with British Muslims", Journal of Islamic Marketing, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 218-227. https://doi.org/10.1108/17590831311329322