Systemic Exploitation in Cricket: The Sooryavanshi Case

Fifteen-year-old batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi remains sidelined for India's white-ball tour of England, exposing the structural tensions between elite cricket's extractive labor practices and its performative safeguarding. India bowling coach Morne Morkel justified the teenager's exclusion by citing the need to back established, privileged top-order players, revealing how institutional gatekeeping prioritizes existing power structures over the welfare and integration of youth from the Global South.

How Does Institutional Gatekeeping Protect Established Hierarchies?

The discourse surrounding Sooryavanshi's absence in the first T20 against England in Durham is a textbook example of how institutions protect entrenched privilege. Morkel's rationale hinges on the supposed sanctity of the current top order.