This book examines historically how cricket was codified out of its variant folk-forms and then marketed with certain lessons sought to reinforce the values of a declining landed interest. It goes on to show how such values were then adapted as part of the imperial experiment and were eventually rejected and replaced with an ethos that better reflected the interests of new dominant elites. The work examines the impact of globalisation and marketization on cricket and analyses the shift from an English dominance, on a sport that is ever-increasingly being shaped by Asian forces. The book’s distinctiveness lies in trying to decode the spirit of the game, outlining a set of actual characteristics rather than a vague sense of values. An historical analysis shows how imperialism, nationalism, commercialism and globalisation have shaped and adapted these characteristics. As such it will be of interest to students and scholars of sport sociology, post-colonialism, globalisation as well as those with an interest in the game of cricket and sport more generally.

This book explores how cricket in South Africa was shaped by society and society by cricket. It demonstrates the centrality of cricket in the evolving relationship between culture, sport and politics starting with South Africa as the beating heart of the imperial project and ending with the country as an international pariah. The contributors explore the tensions between fragmentation and unity, on and off the pitch, in the context of the racist ideology of empire, its ‘arrested development’ and the reliance of South Africa on a racially based exploitative labour system. This edited collection uncovers the hidden history of cricket, society, and empire in defining a multiplicity of South African identities, and recognises the achievements of forgotten players and their impact.

For cricket enthusiasts there is nothing to match the meaningful contests and excitement generated by the game’s subtle shifts in play. Conversely, huge swathes of the world’s population find cricket the most obscure and bafflingly impenetrable of sports. The Changing Face of Cricket attempts to account for this paradox. The Changing Face of Cricket provides an overview of the various ways in which social scientists have analyzed the game’s cultural impact. The book’s international analysis encompasses Australia, the Caribbean, England, India, Ireland, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. Its interdisciplinary approach allies anthropology, history, literary criticism, political studies and sociology with contributions from cricket administrators and journalists. The collection addresses historical and contemporary issues such as gender equality, global sports development, the impact of cricket mega-events, and the growing influence of commercial and television interests culminating in the Twenty20 revolution. Whether one loves or hates the game, understands what turns square legs into fine legs, or how mid-offs become silly, The Changing Face of Cricket will enlighten the reader on the game’s cultural contours and social impact and prove to be the essential reader in cricket studies. This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

This book investigates the complex relationship between embodiment, identity and disability sport, based on ethnographic research with an international-level visually impaired cricket team. Alongside issues of empowerment, classification and valorisation, it conceptualises the sensuous dimension of being in disability sport and challenges the idealised notion of the sporting body. It explores the players’ lived experiences of participating and competing in an elite disabled sport culture and uses an embodied theoretical approach drawing upon sociology, phenomenology and contemporary disability theory to examine aspects of this previously unexamined research "site," both on and off the pitch. Written in a way that values and accurately represents the participants’ traditionally marginalised voices, the book analyses the role that elite disability sport plays in the construction of identity and helps us to better understand the relationships between disability, sport and wider society. Embodiment, Identity and Disability Sport is essential reading for any student, researcher, practitioner or policymaker working in disability sport, and a source of useful new perspectives for anybody with an interest in the sociology of sport or disability studies.

Looking at the inter-war period, this work explores the relationship between cricket and English social and cultural values.

This book examines the ways in which cricket has reflected and reproduced some of the social and political tensions of the twenty-first century. Cricket’s struggle for global recognition and the shifting concerns about cricket’s perceived ‘character’ provide two of the most significant meta-narratives to shape the game’s historical and future development. However, in contrast to the degree of continuity these narratives appear to support, the game is currently undergoing a particularly rapid and radical phase of change. This book illustrates some of these dominant processes, that can be broadly categorized as the changing political economy of the game, the nation-specific manifestations of cricket’s political-economic landscape, and the intro- and retrospection within the English game. Cricket is not only thriving across the world, its global spread reveals narratives of migration, national and international politics, astute governance, empowerment of people, and cultural practices of everyday life. New ethical, political, and identity-related concerns have arisen with the reworking of the objectives and methods of playing and watching cricket. The chapters in this volume employ cricket as a useful conceptual tool to analyse the dynamics underwriting interactions between races, sexes, classes, and polities. Cricket in the 21st Century will be a fascinating read for students, scholars as well as general readers with an interest in the sociology and history of sport and global political economy. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

This book examines historically how cricket was codified out of its variant folk-forms and then marketed with certain lessons sought to reinforce the values of a declining landed interest. It goes on to show how such values were then adapted as part of the imperial experiment and were eventually rejected and replaced with an ethos that better reflected the interests of new dominant elites. The work examines the impact of globalisation and marketization on cricket and analyses the shift from an English dominance, on a sport that is ever-increasingly being shaped by Asian forces. The book’s distinctiveness lies in trying to decode the spirit of the game, outlining a set of actual characteristics rather than a vague sense of values. An historical analysis shows how imperialism, nationalism, commercialism and globalisation have shaped and adapted these characteristics. As such it will be of interest to students and scholars of sport sociology, post-colonialism, globalisation as well as those with an interest in the game of cricket and sport more generally.

Covering all aspects of cricket groundsmanship, this text sets the maintenance of modern cricket grounds in historical context by a survey of the groundsman's art since the 1600s. The work details the history of groundsmanship either side of World War II, looking at the modern role of agronomists and other scientists in the study of cricket surfaces. Subsequent topics include: the assessment of an existing table; pitch preparation; mechanized maintenance operations; fertilizer and top dressing; weed, moss, worm and pest control; renovation and repair; and care of the outfield. A chapter is devoted to the planning and construction of new grounds.

In a readable, informed and absorbing discussion of cricket's defining controversies - bodyline, chucking, ball-tampering, sledging, walking and the use of technology, among many others - Fraser explores the ambiguities of law and social order in cricket.

This ambitious new study argues that not only is the story of cricket inescapably entwined with that of capitalism, but that the game provides a unique lens with which to understand the history, development, exigencies and contradictions of capitalist political economy. From the aristocratic capture of the artisan’s game to the commodified entertainment of private T20 leagues, the story of cricket has been told against the background of capitalism. Cricket was the gentlemanly vanguard of the English-led British empire which forged the first iteration of international capitalism that was reliant upon a political and commercial partnership between rulers and the ruled, and today it speaks to the productive tension between the emergence of the Asian century and the power of American cultural imperialism. Reading capitalism as a cultural, economic and political system, this book explores the relationship between cricket and capitalism, and illuminates many of the most important themes in contemporary sport studies, such as class, race, gender, globalisation, nationalism, neoliberalism, commodification and migration. This is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport history, the sociology of sport, global political economy, political theory or cultural studies.