Cricket is far from unique in having a set of values that accompanies its playing. However, it is doubtful that a code of behaviour performs such a leading role in other sports. Cricket has Laws (with a capital L) rather than rules and a set of ethics that are enshrined in its spirit and considered sacrosanct in making the sport distinctive. This spirit even appears in a preamble to the Laws citing behaviour such as respect for umpires and opponents and a reference to fair and unfair play . Like the British constitution, though, what qualifies as part of the spirit of cricket can be difficult to determine. It can be viewed as part of a cultural heritage, a way the game is played and opponents respected, or simply as part of a love of the sport. It is traditional and steeped in a longevity that stretches back for at least 200 years. Yet, its ambiguity has led to criticisms that are rooted in its relativism. In 2012, Andy Bull used an article in Wisden Cricketerās Almanack (from here on referred to as Wisden) to downgrade the spirit of cricket to a mere aspiration rather than expectation. Ex-England captain Mike Atherton then used his role as chief cricket correspondent in The Times to argue that the elusive concept be removed from the preamble to the sportās Laws.1
The study of cricket as part of an analysis of sport is important because watching and taking part in sport is important to millions of people. Sport is part of culture and so part of the ideals and values that are significant to any society. Culture is associated with a āwhole way of lifeā of a group of people. It is found in religious and moral codes, in literature and philosophy, and includes how people dress, their marriage customs and family life, their patterns of work, communities, religious ceremonies, and leisure pursuits.2 Culture is a recent phenomenon, being a response to the emerging industrial society, to new political developments, social class , and democracy . Stuart Hall refers to a cultural ideology that consists of ideas that people use to make sense of the social world and determine what is important and right.3 Groups, though, develop their own outlooks of the social world and thus perspectives are contested. By this, then, cultures are associated with sources of power and the resulting tension between dominant and marginalised norms and values mean that they are often in a state of flux and subject to pressures and change.
A sociological viewpoint sees sport as a means to stabilise the social order by reinforcing norms and values .4 It is suggested that it has replaced religion as the vehicle that best initiates people into acquiring behaviour acceptable to oneās social environment. The language of sport and its metaphors of ārule followingā, ārule-breakingā, āupholding the spirit of the gameā, āof playing the game ā, and ākeeping oneās eye on the ballā ensure that it is not merely confined to the playing field. This book is concerned with the way that a set of norms were attributed to cricket by societyās powerful and then applied on initially a local, then national, and finally, semi-global scale. These norms became enshrined in the spirit of cricket that beheld the sport with an almost mythical quality that is often mentioned and exampled, is held up as a code of ethics and testament to character, but is rarely codified and exercised consistently. This book is interested in this spirit, what it consists of, how it is disseminated and protected, and eventually subject to such amendment that those who once dictated its terms might no longer recognise it. It is concerned, moreover, with how the spirit of cricket became the sportās guiding ethos .
All sports and games have rules ; most sit alongside an ethos as well. An ethos refers to a combination of values, meanings, goals, and obligations that constitute the operating norms of a culture in relationship to a social entity such as sport. For sociologist William Sumner, ethos was āthe totality of characteristic traits by which a group is individualised and differentiated from othersā, whereas anthropologist Edward Opler spoke of it as a āthemeā of a culture as āa postulate or position declared or implied, and usually controlling behaviour or stimulating activity which is tacitly approved or openly promoted in a societyā.5 Professor Fred DāAgostino defined ethos as āthat set of unofficial, implicit conventions which determine how the rules of the game are to be applied in concrete circumstancesā.6 An ethos exists instead of a total dependence on formal rules , and distinguishes between what is permissible and what is prohibited; what is considered āpart of the gameā, and rule violations considered unacceptable: āa space not defined by lawā.7 In some cases, the ethos takes primacy and people should be expected to behave in line with its demands, rather than the established rules . Thus, a formalistic adherence to the laws may well result in an injustice to a player. Indeed, the 1940 Wisden noted that āthe old and bald truth is that any game stands or falls not by its Laws but by the spirit of their interpretation.ā8
Scholars have long been interested in why sports are created and organised in certain ways. Sociologists are concerned with the purpose of sports in connection to material conditions and dynamics of power. My main priority is with those who saw in cricket an outlet for the promotion of a certain set of norms and values ; how certain people forge relationships through sport and use influence to exert power over others. This relates to the notion of hegemony : the idea of an all-embracing dominant ideology whose scope extends throughout social, cultural and economic spheres of a society.9 It involves a system of values, attitudes, beliefs and morality that serve as a support to the established order and its class interests. It concentrates on the moral and philosophical leadership of a ruling class, and its endorsement through the consent of the mass. Cricket was patronised in part as a means through which elites could influence social discourse, that is, ideas and knowledge relevant to a society that may involve a way of seeing the social environment in everyday practices.
Norms and values are also contested and this book looks at the threat to ethos. This has its roots in differing tastes and ideas, but also in structural factors such as social class , ethnicity and notions of nationhood . In all, cricket proves to be many things to many people. It is a team sport with a strong focus on the role of the individual; it is a middle-class sport, with strong proletarian leanings; it is governed by laws that are often interceded by the spirit of the game; it has been both a force for colonial conquest and resistance to imperial rule . It is also a means by which we can explore issues such as the role of culture in the exercise of power, globalisation , superpowers , and the shift of authority from one geographical or ideological block to another. This work, therefore, is as much historical as it is sociological or political. It draws on a wide range of literature, but the focus is on cricketing texts such as specialist magazines, newspaper articles, Wisden, biographies and histories to assess how cricket was promoted, spread and challenged, and how it has changed and adapted to the contemporary social world. What follows serves as an introduction as many of the sections of chapters warrant greater investigation. I have attempted to look at all the major cricket playing countries, but appreciate that there will be gaps in the narrative simply because I cannot cover each nation in each category. Early emphasis is on the development of cricket in England, b...