Cricket, Migration and Diasporic Communities

It is often argued that migrant and diasporic communities have developed a particular fondness for the game of cricket precisely because it allowed them to engage in anti-colonial struggle(s) against England. In so doing their experiences of playing, supporting and watching the sport help to shed light on the problematic relationships between power, colonialism and, in many cases, the experience of being colonised.
This book was published as a special issue of Identities.

Thomas Fletcher (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in the Carnegie Faculty at Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK. His research interests include: 'race'/ethnicity, social identities, families and pets, and equity and diversity in sport and leisure. Thomas has published in a range of peer review journals including Ethnic and Racial Studies, Sociological Research Online, Identities, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, and Leisure/Loisir. He is co-editor of Diversity, equity and inclusion in sport and leisure (Routledge, 2014) and Sports events, society and culture (Routledge, 2014).

1. Introduction: Cricket, migration and diasporic communities 2. Sport and the performative body in the early work of C.L.R. James 3. A narrative exploration of gender performances and gender relations in the Caribbean diaspora 4. Cricket in the 'contact zone': Australia's colonial far North frontier, 1869-1914 5. Breaking down racial barriers? The Maharaja of Patiala's 1935 Australian cricket tour of India 6. It's because we're Indian, innit?' Cricket and the South Asian diaspora in post-war Britain 7. Negotiating their right to play: Asian-specific cricket teams and leagues in the UK and Norway