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Abstract
The introduction of the Twenty/20 format has often been taken as representing a corruption of cricket. By contrast, this article explores the way in which the limited overs format and especially Twenty/20 may have accentuated professionalism within the game. Limited overs cricket has forced teams to become more systematic and proficient in their fielding, batting and bowling encouraging a more scientific and rigorous approach to training. In order to explore this process of professionalisation, this article examines the development of the reverse sweep from a disparaged novelty to standard and much used part of the batting repertoire. The article compares Mike Gatting's infamous reverse sweep in the 1987 World Cup Final with Kevin Pietersen's successful execution of the shot against Muttiah Muralitharan in a test match at Edgbaston in 2006.
Acknowledgement
I am indebted to Bruce Coleman for his help and advice on this article.
Notes
4 CitationRumford, ‘More than a Game: globalization and postwesternisation of world cricket’.
5 CitationRumford, ‘Cricketing Controversies’, 275–6.
6 CitationRumford, ‘Cricketing Controversies’, 275–6.
7 CitationRumford, ‘Cricketing Controversies’, 279.
8 CitationHughes, A Lot of Hard Yakka, 15, 16.
9 The common joke directed at Gatting was that his favourite instrument was the dinner gong: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/theashes/8149907/The-Ashes-2010-Mike-Gatting-looks-back-at-the-time-he-led-England-to-triumph-in-Australia.html
10 Hughes, A Lot of Hard Yakka, 15.
11 Hughes, A Lot of Hard Yakka, 16.
12 Hughes, A Lot of Hard Yakka, 22.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid., 124.
15 CitationChambliss, ‘The Mundanity of Excellence’.
16 Ibid., 22.Ibid.Ibid., 124.CitationChambliss, ‘The Mundanity of Excellence’, 73.
17 Ibid., 22.Ibid.Ibid., 124.CitationChambliss, ‘The Mundanity of Excellence’, 83.
18 Ibid., 22.Ibid.Ibid., 124.CitationChambliss, ‘The Mundanity of Excellence’
19 CitationWacquant, Body and Soul, 67.
20 CitationStead, Kevin Pietersen, 19.
21 CitationPietersen, Crossing the Boundary, 83.
22 CitationPietersen, Crossing the Boundary, 83
23 Stead, Kevin Pietersen, 28.
24 Pietersen, Crossing the Boundary, 87.
25 CitationPietersen, Crossing the Boundary, 83, 94.
26 Ibid., 97.
27 Ibid., 98.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid., 172.
30 Ibid., 173.
31 Simon Jones in ibid., 100.
32 CitationPietersen, Crossing the Boundary, 83, 133.
33 Ian Botham, in CitationPietersen, Crossing the Boundary, 83, 188.
34 Ibid., 294.
35 Ibid.
36 CitationPietersen, Crossing the Boundary, 83
37 CitationPietersen, Crossing the Boundary, 83
38 Ibid., 289.
39 Of course, while new institutional conditions have facilitated the playing of the reverse sweep, it does not, of course, eliminate the possibility of poor individual executions of the shot. Indeed, on 2 March 2011, during a World Cup game against Ireland, Kevin Pietersen was dismissed in a very similar fashion to Gatting in 1987. He top-edged the ball to the keeper in a very surprising English defeat.
40 CitationRoche, Mega-events and Modernity.
41 Rumford ‘Cricketing Controversies’, 270.