The First West Indies Cricket Tour

The West Indies Cricket Team, formed in 1884, made its first overseas tour to Canada and United States. The first match was played against the Montreal Cricket Club, 16-17 August 1886. This book speaks to the Canadian and American beginning of the West Indian cricket culture that emerged a century later as a powerful performance force of the game.

This volume covers the "third rising" of West Indies cricket. As the sport becomes ever more commercialized, large amounts of money have established sponsorship & support systems to give cricketers around the world every possible advantage. Beckles assesses what impact the globalization of cricket has had on the cricketers of the Caribbean. He also describes the emergence of what he argues is a debilitating sub-nationalism in the West Indies, & the effect this has had on the game, & the prospect for integrating West Indian nationhood in the twenty-first century.

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.

This book analyses cricket’s place in Anglophone Caribbean literature. It examines works by canonical authors – Brathwaite, Lamming, Lovelace, Naipaul, Phillips and Selvon – and by understudied writers – including Agard, Fergus, John, Keens-Douglas, Khan and Markham. It tackles short stories, novels, poetry, drama and film from the Caribbean and its diaspora. Its literary readings are couched in the history of Caribbean cricket and studies by Hilary Beckles and Gordon Rohlehr. C.L.R James’ foundational Beyond a Boundary provides its theoretical grounding. Literary depictions of iconic West Indies players – including Constantine, Headley, Worrell, Walcott, Sobers, Richards, and Lara – feature throughout. The discussion focuses on masculinity, heroism, father-son dynamics, physical performativity and aesthetic style. Attention is also paid to mother-daughter relations and female engagement with cricket, with examples from Anim-Addo, Breeze, Wynter and others. Cricket holds a prominent place in the history, culture, politics and popular imaginary of the Caribbean. This book demonstrates that it also holds a significant and complicated place in Anglophone Caribbean literature.

A History of West Indies Cricket has been fully updated, telling the recent story of West Indian cricket in the nineties and at the start of the 21st century. The records sections have also been brought up to date. In 1975, the West Indies became the first winners of the cricket World Cup. Their style of cricket has always been ideal for this type of game; exhilarating, stroke-making batsmen; penetrative, wicket-taking bowlers and dynamic, athletic fielders. The epitome of the team was its captain, Clive Lloyd, a magnificent all-rounder. For 15 years between 1976 and 1991, the West Indies ruled the cricket world in imperious style, winning 62 Test matches and losing just 17. Batsmen of the calibre of Haynes, Greenidge, Richards, Lloyd and Richardson, and bowlers such as Holding, Roberts, Garner, Croft, Walsh and Ambrose, struck fear into the hearts and minds of opposing players. In 1994, Brian Lara announced himself in a way like no other. He set world records in both Test and First-class cricket in the same calendar year, taking 375 off the England attack, then flaying an injury-hit Durham county attack for 501 not out for Warwickshire.It was at this point that the old edition was published. The update will highlight the sad demise of West Indian cricket. The accessibility of cable television from the United States has shown youngsters in the Caribbean other sports, ones which offer untold wealth to even those of moderate professional standard. Football too has taken a hold, with Jamaica reaching the World Cup finals in 1998. The year 2000 was a watershed as it saw the Test careers of both Walsh and Ambrose close, thus severing the last links with the heyday of West Indian cricket. History has shown it will rise again.

This volume covers the "third rising" of West Indies cricket. As the sport becomes ever more commercialized, large amounts of money have established sponsorship & support systems to give cricketers around the world every possible advantage. Beckles assesses what impact the globalization of cricket has had on the cricketers of the Caribbean. He also describes the emergence of what he argues is a debilitating sub-nationalism in the West Indies, & the effect this has had on the game, & the prospect for integrating West Indian nationhood in the twenty-first century.

1971 was the year that changed Indian cricket forever. Accustomed to seeing a talented but erratic Indian team go from one defeat to another, a stunned cricketing world watched in astonishment as India first beat the West Indies in a Test series on their home turf, and then emerged victorious over England-in England. Suddenly, the Indian team had become a force to reckon with. Boria Majumdar and Gautam Bhattacharya's book is a thrilling account of the 1971 twin tours, that brings to life the on-field excitement and the backroom drama. Against a canvas that features legends: Pataudi and Wadekar, who captained India to the two sensational series victories abroad; Sardesai, Durani, Viswanath, Engineer, Solkar, Abid Ali; the famed spin quartet of Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar and Venkataraghavan; and a young batsman named Sunil Gavaskar who was making his debut-it is the tale of a young country ready and eager to make an impression on the world stage. Fifty years later, this is a wonderful book to relive those glory days with.

Though he was an outstanding schoolboy cricketer at Rugby, Rockley Wilson (1879-1957) was required to leave the school shortly before his final season, for ‘examination irregularities’. He moved on to Cambridge, where, brought in to make up a visiting side, he scored a century in his first innings in first-class cricket. Three years later, in 1902, he was Cambridge captain. Later, as a schoolmaster and cricket coach at Winchester College, he brought on 39 boys to play first-class cricket. After he had been out of the side for ten years, playing only club and country house cricket, Yorkshire decided to give him, on merit, a regular place in his school vacation as a spin bowler of exceptional accuracy, in its mighty elevens on either side of the Great War. One August he took over the captaincy and steered the county home to the Championship. Selected for the 1920/21 tour of Australia, he upset the Australian crowd by writing for the Daily Express about a Test match he was playing in. He was widely recognised as a leading authority on cricket and its heritage and helped to re-write the Laws of the game in 1947. He left much of his collection of cricketana to the Lord’s museum. His wit, laced with litotes and literary allusions, has been anthologised. Few players of any era have matched the diversity of his contribution to the game. Martin Howe gives us a comprehensive account of a singular man of plural talents.