Cricket

Cricket is an enduring paradox. On the one hand, it symbolises much that is outmoded: imperialism; a leisured elite; a rural, aristocratic Englishness. On the other, it endures as a global game and does so by skilful adaptation, trading partly on its mythic past and partly on its capacity to repackage itself. This ambitious new history recounts the politics of cricket around the world since the Second World War, examining key cultural and political themes, including decolonisation, racism, gender, globalisation, corruption and commercialisation.
Part One looks at the transformation of cricket cultures in the ten territories of the former British Empire in the years immediately after 1945, a time when decolonisation and the search for national identity touched every cricket playing region in the world. Part Two focuses on globalisation and the game's evolution as an international sport, analysing: social change and the Ashes; the campaigns for new cricket formats; the development of the women's game; the new breed of coach; the limits to the game's global expansion; and the rise of India as the world's leading cricket power.
Cricket: A Political History of the Global Game, 1945-2017 is fascinating reading for anybody interested in the contemporary history of sport.

Stephen Wagg is a professor in the Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University, UK.

Part 1: Cricket and the End of Empire 1. Fossilised Reactionaries? English Cricket Since 1945 2. A Nation of Blow-Ins? Cricket in Australia Since 1945 3. 'The Partnership of the Horse and its Rider': Cricket in Southern Africa Since 1945 4. A Relative Lack of Interest: Cricket in New Zealand Since 1945 5. Father, King, Statesman, General, Prince, Don: West Indian Cricket Culture Since 1945 6. The Soul of a Nation, Long Suppressed? Cricket in India Since 1945 7. Cricket in a Hard Country: Pakistani Cricket Since 1947 8. 'We Rule Here, You Rule There': Cricket in East Pakistan and Bangladesh Since 1947 9. After Brewing Tea for the Empire: Cricket in Sri Lanka Since 1945 10. Straight Shooting Blokes: Social Distinction, Masculinity and Myth in The Ashes 1945 to 2015 Part 2: Cricket in the Age of Globalisation 11. 'Everyone Seemed to Be 'With It': Cricket Politics and the Coming of the One Day Game, 1940-1970 12. 'Paint a Picture, and Keep it the Right Way Up': Cricket and the Mass Media 1945-2015 13. Women's Cricket: The Feminism That Dared Not Speak Its Name 14. Remove the Gunk in the Middle: The Coming of Twenty20 and the Indian Premier League 15. Have You Made This Team Great, or Have They Made You? Cricket, Coaching, and Globalisation 16. Beyond the Boundaries: The Drive to Globalise Cricket, and its Limits 17. Afterword