The Cambridge Companion to Cricket

Few other team sports can equal the global reach of cricket. Rich in history and tradition, it is both quintessentially English and expansively international, a game that has evolved and changed dramatically in recent times. Demonstrating how the history of cricket and its international popularity is entwined with British imperial expansion, this book examines the social and political impact of the game in a variety of cultural sites: the West Indies, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. An international team of contributors explores the enduring influence of cricket on English identity, examines why cricket has seized the imagination of so many literary figures and provides profiles of iconic players including Bradman, Lara and Tendulkar. Presenting a global panoramic view of cricket's complicated development, its unique adaptability and its political and sporting controversies, the book provides a rich insight into a unique sporting and cultural heritage.

Anthony Bateman is a freelance writer and editor and an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University, UK. He is the author of Cricket, Literature and Culture: Symbolising the Nation, Destabilising Empire (2009) and has contributed articles and chapters on cricket and its literature to a number of journals and books, as well as to the popular press. He is also co-editor of Sporting Sounds: Relationships Between Sport and Music (with John Bale, 2008). A former professional musician, he writes on music for The Guardian and other publications.

Jeffrey Hill is Emeritus Professor of Historical and Cultural Studies at De Montfort University, Leicester, where from 2001 until 2007 he was Director of the International Centre for Sport, History and Culture. Recent work has been largely focused on literary representations of sport, with a book on sport novels (Sport and the Literary Imagination: Essays in History, Literature and Sport, 2006), an article on Joseph O'Neill's Netherland, and book chapters on the place of the comic book hero Alf Tupper in British post-war society. His Sport in History: An Introduction will appear in 2011.