Sports and the Global South Work, Play and Resistance in Sri Lanka S

GLOBAL CULTURE AND SPORT CULTURE GLOBAL 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 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018930499 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and trans- mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Getty/ranplett Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Preface I was an athlete long before I was an academic. I was a competitive springboard 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 competitive 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 diving is marginalised in dominant sports cultures. v vi Preface I returned to Sri Lanka in 1992, and took on multiple roles as a competitive 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 community 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 daughter’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 diving coach, but it was a difficult troubled life. In 2012, Mark died at 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.

Load more