An important contribution to the literature that exposes cricket to essential critical self-examination and reflection

Russell Holden
In the Zone Sport and Politics Consultancy | @russinthezone

Chris McMillan’s new book Cricket, Capitalism and Class follows in the slipstream of the recent important publications by Stone (2022) and Holden (2021). Both these texts critically explore the tensions and challenges that cricket has in ensuring its relevance and survival in the United Kingdom beyond its increasing status as a potential boutique sport attracting a small proportion of the population in terms of numbers participating and the class base from which they are drawn.

In contrast to the work of the aforementioned authors, this new survey of the game extends well beyond British shores and is underwritten by the belief that cricket has always been in cahoots with capitalism and that franchise cricket, the game’s latest iteration needs to be viewed in the context of the skills it has enabled players to develop and hone, whilst taking these into the other formats that the sport still offers. As a contribution to the current cricket discourse, this extensive volume provides a vital dimension to the need for critical discussion of key trends and directions in which the sport is moving as a consequence of being driven by commercial forces, be it for good or ill. In so doing McMillan has particularly valuable chapters on developments in India, notably the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Caribbean and South Africa, though surprisingly little attention is devoted to Australia considering the impact of the Big Bash competition in recent times. With the administrative power of cricket relocating to Dubai and the political and economic power now established in Ahmedabad in western India, as Berry (2009) notes, the supranational IPL represents the biggest change to the sport since the advent of the limited overs game.

Yet, in recognising that cricket is now in essence a media product, with the cricket industry part of the golden triangle comprising professional sport, media, and corporate sponsorship, his head governs his heart in recognising and accepting the way the game is now played, produced, consumed and experienced.

The analysis rightly argues that the game provides a unique lens with which to understand the history, development and contradictions of capitalist political economy. From the aristocratic capture of the artisan’s game to the commodified entertainment of private Twenty20 leagues, the story of cricket has been told against the background of capitalism in its various modes. Cricket was the gentlemanly vanguard of the English-led British Empire which forged one of the early models of international capitalism that was dependent upon a political and commercial partnership between rulers and the ruled. Today it speaks to the productive tension between the emergence of the so called Asian century and the power of American cultural imperialism which will again be on view in the 2024 Twenty20 cricket World Cup jointly hosted by the United States and a number of Caribbean nation-states. In showing capitalism as a cultural, economic and political system, McMillan explores the relationship between cricket and capitalism and illuminates many of the most important themes in contemporary sport studies, most notably class, race, gender, globalisation, nationalism, neoliberalism and migration. Consequently, it provides fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in contemporary cricket history and the sociology of global political economy and leisure.

In terms of the publication’s structure, the text comprises four sections entitled Origins, Empire, Geopolitics and Late Capitalism, all of approximately equal length. The early chapters though very readable tend to cover familiar ground and it is well into section two on Empire that the analysis firmly grips the readers attention, with powerful sections devoted to capitalism and colonial rule in India and the post-colonial experience of the game in the West Indies particularly since the end of the golden years of Caribbean cricket. These two sections are very useful in setting up the contrast concerning the impact of capitalism in a thriving and increasingly wealthy and powerful Indian economy and a failing Caribbean economy. The latter has had to contend with the strictures placed upon it by both the IMF and World Bank through the demands of structural adjustment and its subsequent impact on the state of the game, a failing cricket infrastructure due to the impact of budgetary constraints in addition to poor strategic decision-making by the governing body seeking to maintain unity between the disparate islands. Cricket had always carried a more revolutionary consciousness than had been the case in India and this has now largely dissipated, yet the impact of American neo-colonialism (covered in the Late Capitalism section) has reduced the capacity of cricket to act as an effective regional unifier and the West Indies has been deprived of some of its best players for long periods who have been lured by the wealth on offer by franchise cricket, most notably Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine.

Whenever possible, the author seeks (though rarely with convincing success) to deflect from the power of capitalism, be it in his own personal rationale for playing the game, or for cricket’s efforts to avoid totally embracing an open commercial ethos until the latter part of the twentieth century, with the emergence of a fully-fledged cricket industry grounded in the commodification of the sport. Yet, in recognising that cricket is now in essence a media product, with the cricket industry part of the golden triangle comprising professional sport, media, and corporate sponsorship, his head governs his heart in recognising and accepting the way the game is now played, produced, consumed and experienced. McMillan powerfully argues that the contemporary game is based purely on enjoyment and fluidity of expression as opposed to one marked by discipline and tradition. The latter being geared to generating increased revenue which often does not cascade through to the needs of those involved at the grassroots level of the game.

Furthermore, he asserts that this has brought about a recasting of the sport as the game from a type of play, into a form of productive labour and personal liberation and an expression of national identity (witness the recent Cricket World Cup in India) and the end of the hegemony of amateurism and the so called, but ill-defined and mythologised notion of the Spirit of Cricket. McMillan duly notes that the cricket fan and watcher remain drawn to the sport despite the fact that the connection with a team has become difficult to locate in the context of capitalist social relations. With the game increasingly about commodified experiences as the players sell their labour for capital (rather than represent regions) and media spectacles, a good many cricket supporters and enthusiasts around the globe are won over by the new atmosphere of excitement revolving around the game and appear content with seeing cricket superstars in their locality all be it for the short periods of time a franchise competition lasts. The IPL is the exception to the rule as it lasts nearly two months though its overlaps with the start of the English domestic season and blocks the involvement of players from Pakistan for geo-political reasons. Yet the danger of scandalous schedules constantly lurks, and this will eventually downgrade the quality of the spectacle.

Inevitably there are sections needing more attention, notably the one on the women’s game. However, McMillan has produced an important contribution to the still very small literature that exposes cricket to essential critical self-examination and reflection extending beyond either the analysis of great players achievements or an evaluation of tradition and glory couched in purely literary and romantic terms. He also manages to win the reader’s attention through the personal and family references that litter his writing, that help to ensure that the balance between critical writing and personal observation is sufficient to guarantee that this volume finds itself a slot on any bookshelf entitled Cricket in the 21^st century.

Copyright © Russell Holden 2024