Cricket A Political History Of The Global Game, 19452017 Routledge Research In Sports History

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 gameâs evolution as an international sport, analysing: social change and the Ashes, the campaigns for new cricket formats, the development of the womenâs game, the new breed of coach, the limits to the gameâs global expansion, and the rise of India as the worldâs 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.