Its not what you think. The Great Game here does not refer to the glorious English Premier League nor the Champions League nor FIFAs World Cup, nor any other activity that might generally fit under the universal sporting umbrella. No, here the term refers to that bloody game of sport between Imperial Britain and Imperial Russia in the nineteenth century for control of Afghanistan, a battle that has now spanned three centuries and shows no sign of exhaustion. The motive for such warlike activity in the 19th century was principally to secure control of India, the jewel in the British Imperial crown.

Today the motive might more accurately be described as securing strategic control of the vast mineral reserves in that area, though this has been cleverly obscured by much talk of a never-ending war on terror. Of course every war and every empire tends to have a sporting dimension, with the winning side imposing its cultural norms on the subjugated masses. In the case of the Roman Empire it was gladiatorial combat in the coliseum of which I learned recently that some one million slaves perished in those games so that the Roman masters might be entertained. In the case of the British Empire it was of course cricket and even today the former British colonies love to whip their old masters at their own game. More often than not, they succeed. A great Indian film that captures the significance of cricket in the anti-colonial consciousness is that of Lagaan, a cracking story of the locals fighting back against inhumane British taxes, using the only weapon at their disposal the British game of cricket. Needless to say, in true Bollywood style, the Indians beat the British and justice, if only for a brief moment, is restored.

In Afghanistan today sport takes on a particularly sinister complexion. The Taliban, an ugly creation of US imperialism, has turned on its masters in true Frankenstein fashion, and is attempting to re-impose its own feudal-fascistic regime on the long suffering Afghan people. The irony of such a turn-around was recently presented in graphic and dramatic form by the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, north-west London. I had the immense pleasure and privilege of sitting through not one but twelve mini- plays, each one depicting a different aspect of the colonial and imperial wars that have so blighted this land and its people, and at the end of the day I felt immeasurably more informed about that futile war that is being waged in our name.

As the war casualties pile up and become so more unpalatable for domestic consumption, inevitably the Nato forces are looking for an exit strategy and that inevitably involves talking to the Taliban, the very same Taliban that Nato were sworn to depose. If this dialogue didnt presage some extremely grim news for the peace loving peoples of Afghanistan, it would be amusing in its bitter irony.

From the very start, US imperialisms strategy was simple. Undermine the social progress that was being attempted in Afghanistan in the 1970s least it be an example to others, and then, when the socially progressive Afghan government were forced to ask for assistance from the Soviet Union, Uncle Sam conjures up the monster of the Mujahideen to bog down the Soviets in their own Vietnam style war. When the Soviets are finally forced to retreat, the Mujahideen morph into the present day Taliban, fully trained, armed and funded by the CIA and its compatriots in Pakistan, the ISI. What the Pentagon and the CIA did not foresee was that their Frankenstein creation would turn on its master.

After nearly ten years of bloody battle a stalemate is looming and the US want out, so they must now do a deal with their former creation, the deranged and bloodthirsty cut-throats that make up the present leadership of the Taliban.
If you want to get a flavour of what the Nato forces will be surrendering the Afghan people up to, one need only peruse the religious laws of the Taliban, kindly reprinted in the excellently produced Great Game theatre programme. Try living under some of these restrictions and you suddenly realise that the gains of the Enlightenment are not that secure after all.

• Ban on laughing in public.
• No stranger should hear a woman’s voice.
• No one allowed to listen to music.
• Any woman showing her ankles must be whipped.
• Ban on women appearing on the balconies of their houses. All windows to be painted so women could not be seen from outside their homes.
• Anyone carrying un-Islamic books to be executed.
• Any non-Muslim must wear a yellow cloth stitched onto their clothes to differentiate them.
• Ban on all pictures in books or houses.
• And to get a feel for the sporting dimension of a Taliban ruled Afghanistan try these for size.
• All sportsmen to have legs and arms fully covered.
• All audiences at sporting events to refrain from cheering or clapping but only to chant Allah-o-Akbar.
• No flying of kites. (formerly one of the most popular pastimes in Afghanistan)
• No women allowed to play sports or enter a sports club.
• No playing of chess.

The grim reality of life under the Taliban was also graphically portrayed in the film, The Kite Runner. In particular, the scene where a football crowd were forced to witness an execution prior to the start of the match with those looking away themselves liable for punishment was truly memorable for all the wrong reasons. It was reminiscent of the worst excesses of the rule of the Puritans in early European settlements in America.

Never forget that when it comes to barbarism, we Europeans have been there and done that many times over. And even today we can hardly claim the moral high ground when it comes to our attitude to sport and women. With respect to sport we have become resigned to the fact that our beloved professional sport is all too often riddled with financial corruption, individual cheating and drug abuse. With respect to women, our governments continue to turn a blind eye to women forced into slavery and trafficked across Europe for the purposes of prostitution while our corporate media and entertainment empires continue to objectify women in the most demeaning of ways. The defining line between mainstream entertainment and pornography becomes ever more blurred. Even many of our national newspapers have become little more than purveyors of celebrity tittle-tattle and soft porn.

So we are hardly in a position to lecture the Taliban about their moral code, hideous as it is. What we have developing are two barbaric extremes where under global capitalism, all people, but particularly women and particularly entertainers like sportsmen and women, are increasingly reduced to nothing but commodities to be bought and sold in a gigantic global market place, with corporate and individual corruption and violence becoming the norm; while in the future Islamic Caliphate that the fundamentalist Taliban dream of, women are reduced to that of feudal property with no rights and no choice and sport becomes the exclusive preserve of a cowed male population who will take their political and social impotence out on their own womenfolk by beating, whipping, stoning and generally humiliating them into feudal submission. Not a pretty picture in either scenario. But we should be under no illusion that it is the former, rapacious global capitalism that has spawned the latter Islamic feudal fascism. So as the Anglo-Pakistani writer, Tariq Ali might say, we are all now increasingly caught in the Clash of Fundamentalisms.