Cricket: A Political History of the Global Game, 1945-2017 by Stephen Wagg Routledge 2017
Scyld Berry, cricket correspondent with the Daily Telegraph and one-time editor of Wisden, published his memoir, Cricket: The Game of Life in 2016 (Hodder and Stoughton). It carried, as many sporting books seem to, a subtitle which read ‘Every Reason to Celebrate’. Living up to its name, its 393 pages provided a panegyric of the game, a kaleidoscope of images that urged us, in its final lines to ‘Hail Cricket. The glorious, human, global game’.
This book is not so much engaged with celebration although Wagg, a member of Leicestershire County Cricket Club for some years and a recreational player, is a fan. His academic training as a sociologist and historian mean that this book is more about lifting up the stones of cricket to see what’s underneath rather than adorning the hard landscaping of the game with flowers. In it, he tells the modern history of the nine test playing countries and tackles issues from decolonisation and its impact on cricketing cultures, the changing nature of masculinity in modern sport, the development of women’s cricket, the rise of one-day cricket and its latest addition T20 cricket and the challenges of the new technocracy that coach the game and the global power brokers that run it.
It pulls no punches. Throughout its pages there are stories of racism, corporate greed and chauvinism of the national and the male varieties. It is a narrative that charts the move from a time when cricket was one of the signifiers of the power and influence of the British Empire. It describes the present, where the epicentre of World cricket has moved from Lords in London to the sports city in Dubai and English cricket is running to keep up with the changes. Perhaps an apt subtitle for this book would be a re-working of the Ian Dury and the Blockheads song ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’. There is much to worry about in its pages. The guardianship of the game, the future of Test cricket and the possibility of the game making a global impact are all questions raised. It contains a number of, excuse the pun, ‘reasons to be fearful’. Wagg does not provide a prescription but is thorough in his diagnosis.
Ian Dury : more positive than your average cricket fan ?
It is not a dull read. Stephen Wagg’s love of language and sharp sense of irony are a feature of his writing. With chapter headings like ‘Fossilized Reactionaries?’, ‘A nation of blow-ins?’, ‘Remove the gunk in the middle’ and ‘Have you made this team great, or have they made you?’ he pinpoints key ideas with his journalistic eye for a pertinent quote. His style is easy and his research forensic and impeccable. Like all good books, it widens your vocabulary. I had never come across the word ‘larrikin’ before. Wagg uses it primarily to describe the group of Australian players that came to prominence in the 1970’s. Bowlers Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thompson and Merv Hughes were foremost in this group but I reckon most recreational players would have a similar personality at their club. If you do not know the word, I won’t spoil your fun by giving you the definition.
If I were to have any issues with the book it would be that despite its broad canvass there is still a great reliance on the English game for illustration. It would have been interesting to hear more international perspectives on the development of the one-day game or other aspects of cricket in the age of globalisation. But this is a small criticism compared to the one we should all have with the publishers, Routledge. The book is retailed (in hardback) at £115 and is way beyond the pocket of the ordinary cricket fan who would enjoy and gain so much from reading this. I was lucky enough to get hold of a copy through personal contacts but most copies of this book will end up in academic libraries where its readership will be limited. Democratising the debate around the future of cricket must mean making books like this more accessible. Come on Routledge. Do better with the paperback!
Will the County Championship continue to exist when matched against the entertainment orgy that is T20 ?
In the afterword, Wagg quotes current Guardian journalist Andy Bull, outlining what he saw as the many bones of contention that cricket fans have. A daily glance at Twitter confirms this list of gripes that continue to be aired today and include:
Too little coverage on terrestrial TV. Too few amateur players. Too many amateur administrators. Too many flat pitches. Too much T20. Too much ODI cricket. Too many meaningless Test Matches. Too little state school cricket. Too many overworked players. Too many overpaid players. Too many countries. Too many empty stands. Too many exploited fans. Too much self-interest. Too much temptation. Too much money. Too much corruption. (Andy Bull, ‘Death of a Gentleman: call it optimistic, call it idealistic, but its right’, The Guardian 28th July 2015.)
It reminded me of a passage in Phil Bennetts autobiography where he was outlining the Welsh rugby fans response to the poor form of the National side. The same sense of ‘everything must go’ was combined with a genuine quest for answers and the familiar question for sports fans of a declining national game or a failing local club, ‘What went wrong?’:
Go into any rugby club bar in Wales and you’ll hear all the various theories over what went wrong, usually discussed in the same evening. It was the decline of the grammar schools; it was the decline of heavy industries such as coal and steel; it was the teachers strike; it was poor coaching, it was hard up players unable to resist the tempting offers from rugby league; it’s the fault of the amateur administrators, the fault of professional players, the fault of the English; it was Western Samoa – the whole of Samoa!’ (Phil Bennett, the Autobiography, Collins Willow 2003)
Sports development is a very complicated thing, just like creating sporting success on the field. But it seems to me one of the most important facets of both is an understanding of where you have come from, the culture that informs the playing of your particular sport or your particular club. Without books like this one, that challenge our perceptions and make us look differently at our sport, we will not make the best interventions in its future. I seem to recall that Ian Dury’s reasons to be cheerful were delivered in three’s and, indeed, the song was titled Part Three. I recall from my own college days a theoretical perspective that had three stages. Thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis (not sure if Hegel knew much about cricket). Stephen Wagg gives us a key to many theses. It is now the job of others, including the ordinary fan, to make something of it. Lets hope many get the opportunity to do so.
Cricket : A Political History of the Global Game, 1945-2017 :