India protests highlight uncomfortable links between cricket and establishment | Jonathan Liew

Some of the country’s best-known players have been united in their condemnation of those such as Rihanna and Greta Thunberg who have questioned the treatment of farmers

As seasoned followers of the genre will doubtless be aware, the recent online feud between Rihanna and Pragyan Ojha is by no means the first example of a global pop superstar and a former Surrey left-arm spinner clashing over issues of domestic policy. There was the regrettable and very public spat between Zafar Ansari and Bruno Mars a few years back over civil service pensions. And who could forget the classic early-1990s episode of Newsnight when Keith Medlycott and Aretha Franklin angrily weighed in on opposite sides of the privatised utilities debate?

In box-office terms, however, the Rihanna/Ojha dispute could end up topping them all, largely because it’s the only one that actually happened. What actually happened was that Rihanna shared a CNN article about the protests by Indian farmers, which have mobilised hundreds of millions around the country. “Why aren’t we talking about this?!” Rihanna tweeted.

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