Cricket, Capitalism and Class: From the Village Green to the Cricket Industry

The history and meaning of cricket have long fascinated thinkers on the Left. Writers such as Hilary Beckles, Stephen Wagg, Ashwin Desai, and Mike Marqusee are just a few of the established lights on the political analysis of the sport. We can add to this a substantial literature on the Marxist theorist C. L. R. James and on culture's relationship with imperialism. Chris McMillan draws from this canon, though he does so by ambitiously charting the development of capitalism first before then looking at how it shaped cricket. His book is divided into four sections: origins, empire, geopolitics, and late capitalism. The focus is as much on capitalism as it is on cricket. McMillan produces lengthy passages defining and examining…