Globalizing Cricket

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Globalizing Cricket examines the global role of the sport - how it developed and spread around the world. The book explores the origins of cricket in the eighteenth century, its establishment as England's national game in the nineteenth, the successful (Caribbean) and unsuccessful (American) diffusion of cricket as part of the development of the British Empire and its role in structuring contemporary identities amongst and between the English, the British and postcolonial communities. Whilst empirically focused on the sport itself, the book addresses broader issues such as social development, imperialism, race, diaspora and national identities. Tracing the beginnings of cricket as a 'folk game' through to the present, it draws together these different strands to examine the meaning and social significance of the modern game. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the role of sport in both colonial and post-colonial periods; the history and peculiarities of English national identity; or simply intrigued by the game and its history.

Dominic Malcolm is Senior Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at Loughborough University. He has published on a wide range of subjects within the sociology of sport, but current research focuses on two themes: the development, diffusion and globalization of cricket; and medical aspects of sport and the body. He is the author of the Sage Dictionary of Sports Studies and has published four edited books - The Future of Football (2000), Sport: Critical Concepts in Sociology (2003), Sport Histories (2006), and Matters of Sport: Essays in Honour of Eric Dunning (2007).

Introduction: Globalizing Cricket Chapter 1. The Emergence of Cricket Chapter 2. The 'National Game': Cricket in Nineteenth Century England Chapter 3. The Imperial Game: Cricket and Colonization Chapter 4. Cricket in America Chapter 5. Cricket in the Caribbean Chapter 6. Cricket and the Celtic Nations Chapter 7. Cricket and Diasporic Identities in Post-Imperial Britain Chapter 8. Cricket and Changing Conceptions of Englishness Chapter 9. Cricket, the English and the Process of 'Othering' Conclusion References