Cricketing Cultures in Conflict

The 2003 World Cup was of vital importance to the participating countries. For India, a world cup triumph would make cricket the nation's leading industry; for the host, South Africa, a successful campaign might realize its dream of political unity. Dealing with themes of racial/political unification, commercialization, the media and globalisation, this book explores the role of cricket and sport in each of the competing nations. Looking at recent developments such as match-fixing, the abolition of the quota system and the performances of the South African national team, the collection examines the importance of the Cricket World Cup in providing a unified political, social and economic stage from which a united South African identity can finally emerge. The book also explores the role of the Cricket World Cup in relation to West Indian unity, Pakistani economic regeneration, Sri Lankan, Kenyan and Zimbabwean peace.

Boria Majumdar, a Rhodes Scholar, is currently Deputy Director of the International Research Center for Sport, Socialisation and Society, De Montfort University, Bedford. A visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago and a fellow of the International Olympic Museum, Lausanne (2004), he has completed his doctorate on the Social History of Indian Cricket at St. John's College, Oxford University. Deputy Executive Academic Editor of the International Journal of the history of Sport (Routledge) and Series Editor, Sport in the South Asian Society (Yoda Press), his publications include, Twenty Two Yards to Freedom-(Penguin Viking) Once Upon a Furore: Controversies of Indian Cricket, (forthcoming, 2004), Sport in South Asian Society- Past and Present (co-edited with J.A. Mangan), Routledge, 2004, The Oxford Companion of Indian Cricket, OUP (Forthcoming).

1. South African Cricket: Revival and Turmoil 2. England and its Cricketscape: In Decline or On the Up? 3. Trials and Tribulations: The Story of New Zealand Cricket 4. Cricket in Sri Lanka: In Need of a Messiah 5. Apocalypse? The Rise and Fall of the West Indies 6. An Ambiguous Legacy: Australia and the 2003 World Cup 7. India: An Unnatural Cricketing Nation 8. Zimbabwe Cricket: A Challenge Almost Won 9. South Africa and the 2003 World Cup: A Nationalist Perspective 10. Relaying the Pitch: Structural Changes in English Cricket 11. Money Tames Cricket 12. The Indian Spectator: A Grandstand View 13. Match-Fixing: A Dead Enemy?