Cricket and National Identity in the Postcolonial Age

Bringing together leading international writers on cricket and society, this important new book places cricket in the postcolonial life of the major Test-playing countries. Exploring the culture, politics, governance and economics of cricket in the twenty-first century, this book dispels the age-old idea of a gentle game played on England's village greens. This is an original political and historical study of the game's development in a range of countries and covers: * cricket in the new Commonwealth: Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the Caribbean and India* the cricket cultures of Australia, New Zealand and post-apartheid South Africa * cricket in England since the 1950s. This new book is ideal for students of sport, politics, history and postcolonialism as it provides stimulating and comprehensive discussions of the major issues including race, migration, gobalization, neoliberal economics, the media, religion and sectarianism.

Stephen Wagg is Reader in Sport and Society at Roehampton University, UK. He has written widely on the politics of sport, of the media, of comedy and of childhood.

Introduction Stephen Wagg Part 1. Cricket and the Former Dominions 1. Unity, Difference and the 'National Game': Cricket and Australian national identity Brett Hutchins 2. Kiwi or English?: Cricket on the margins of New Zealand national identity Greg Ryan 3. 'No-one in Dolly's Class at Present?': Cricket and national identity in post-apartheid South Africa Jon Gemmell and James Hamill Part 2.Cricket in the New Commonwealth 4. Play Together, Live Apart: Religion, politics and markets in Indian cricket since 1947 Sharda Ugra 5. History Without a Past: Memory and forgetting in Indian cricket Satadru Sen 6. Cricket in 'a Nation Imperfectly Imagined': Identity and tradition in postcolonial Pakistan Chris Valiotis 7. Sri Lanka: The power of cricket and the power in cricket Michael Roberts 8. One Eye on the Ball, One Eye on the World: Cricket, West Indian nationalism and the spirit of C. L. R. James Tim Hector Part 3. Cricket in the Old Country 9. Calypso Kings, Dark Destroyers: England-West Indies Test cricket and the English press 1950 to 1984 Stephen Wagg 10. 'A Carnival of Cricket?': The Cricket World Cup, 'race' and the politics of carnival Tim Crabbe and Stephen Wagg 11. Sheffield Caribbean: The story of a Yorkshire cricket club Chris Searle 12. Clean Bowl Racism?: Inner-city London and the politics of cricket development Nick Miller 13. The Ambush Clause: Globalisation, corporate power and the governance of world cricket Mike Marqusee