‘Everyone seemed to be “with it”’: cricket politics and the coming of the one-day game, 1940–1970

Abstract

This article explores, historically and in some detail, the political deliberations that led to the establishment of one-day cricket in England. It traces this debate from the temporary arrangements for one-day cricket during the Second World War to the inauguration of a one-day competition, with commercial sponsorship, in 1961 and beyond. It examines the various arguments and political factors that were in play and it will suggest that a number of factors contributed to the arrival of one-day cricket, initially in England at this time. These included: changes in the political and economic standing of the British aristocracy; an ongoing financial crisis among the English county cricket clubs; the growth in influence in British political and cultural life of the elites of what the American sociologist Alvin Gouldner called ‘impression management’; the politicisation and greater bargaining power of professional county cricketers; crucial changes in the consumer market for cigarettes; and what may be seen as fresh attitudes to leisure and sport on the part of sections of the English public.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Jon Gemmell for his help in the preparation of this essay and also both Jon and Rob Steen for perceptive comments on an earlier draft.

Notes

¹ Gouldner, Coming Crisis of Western Sociology, 382.

² ‘The War and Cricket’, Wisden, February 1940, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/151855.html (accessed January 30, 2012).

³ R.C. Robertson-Glasgow, ‘Notes on the Season’, Wisden, February 1941, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/151866.html (accessed January 30, 2012).

⁴ ‘Unwanted Spectators’, Wisden, February 1941, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/151869.html (access January 31, 2012).

⁵ ‘Post-War Cricket’, Wisden, January 1943, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/151872.html (accessed February 1, 2012).

⁶ ‘Professionals and Amateurs’, January 1943, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/151872.html (accessed February 1, 2012).

⁷ ‘Scheme for Two-Day Matches’ (proposed by Sussex CCC), Wisden, 1943, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/151873.html (accessed February 1, 2012).

⁸ ‘Planning Post-War Cricket’, Wisden, 1944, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/151873.html (accessed February 1, 2012).

⁹ ‘Planning Post-War Cricket’, Wisden, 1944, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/151873.html (accessed February 1, 2012)

¹⁰ ‘Planning Post-War Cricket’, Wisden, 1944, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/151873.html (accessed February 1, 2012)

¹¹ ‘Views and Values’, Wisden, 1945, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/152858.html (accessed February 1, 2012).

¹² ‘Australian Survey’, Wisden, 1945, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/152859.html (accessed February 1, 2012).

¹³ ‘Views and Values’, Wisden, 1945, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/152858.html (accessed February 1, 2012).

¹⁴ Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 23.

¹⁵ Midwinter, Lost Seasons, 154.

¹⁶ Marqusee, Anyone But England: Cricket, Race and Class, 117.

¹⁷ Wiener, English Culture and the Decline, 5.

¹⁸ Marqusee, Anyone But England: An Outsider Looks at English Cricket, 70–1.

¹⁹ McKibbin, Classes and Cultures, 339.

²⁰ Marina Warner, ‘My Grandfather, Plum’, The Guardian, June 11, 2004, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/jun/11/sportandleisure.cricket (accessed February 5, 2012).

²¹ Warner, Lords 1787–1945, 246.

²² See, for example, Midwinter, Lost Seasons, 161; Laker, One Day Cricket, 25.

²³ Midwinter, Lost Seasons, 161–2.

²⁴ See Marqusee, Anyone But England: Cricket, Race and Class, 118.

²⁵ Midwinter, Brylcreem Summer, 9.

²⁶ Quoted in Midwinter, Lost Seasons, 153–4.

²⁷ Quoted in Midwinter, Brylcreem Summers, 7.

²⁸ Birley, Willow Wand, 149.

²⁹ Moorhouse, Lords, 135.

³⁰ For figures for 1946 and 1960, see Marqusee, Anyone But England: Cricket, Race and Class, 115; for figure for 1947, see Laker, One Day Cricket, 11; for figure for 1963, see Moorhouse, Lords, 135.

³¹ Marqusee, Anyone But England: Cricket, Race and Class, 118.

³² Duke of Bedford, Silver-Plated Spoon, 202.

³³ Giles Worsley, ‘Country Houses: The Lost Legacy’, The Telegraph, June 15, 2002, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3578853/Country-houses-the-lost-legacy.html (accessed February 6, 2012).

³⁴ Scott, Upper Classes, 155.

³⁵ Wilson, Pressure Group, see in particular, 81–3.

³⁶ Briggs, Sound and Vision, 424; quoted in Seymour-Ure, ‘Prime Minister and the Public’, 189.

³⁷ http://www.lordprice.co.uk/SPCT1017.html (accessed February 7, 2012). The Grace Colmans poster is now available as a fridge magnet.

³⁸ See http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/14225.html (accessed February 7, 2012). The remark is usually attributed to Sir Neville Cardus, doyen of Establishment cricket writers.

³⁹ Howat, Len Hutton, 88.

⁴⁰ Simon Briggs, ‘A Hundred Years of Sport and Advertising’, The Telegraph, February 26, 2008, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/2292796/A-hundred-years-of-sport-and-advertising.html (accessed February 7, 2012).

⁴¹ Giller, Denis Compton, 91–9.

⁴² Giller, Denis Compton, 154–7; see also Heald, Denis Compton, 142–4.

⁴³ Wagg, Football World, 117–18.

⁴⁴ Simon Hughes, ‘From La Scala to Lord's’, The Telegraph, May 18, 2005, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/columnists/simonhughes/2359793/From-La-Scala-to-Lords-a-life-lived-to-the-full.html (accessed February 7, 2012).

⁴⁵ Lee, Lord Ted, 71.

⁴⁶ Lee, Lord Ted, 75.

⁴⁷ Hughes, ‘From La Scala to Lord's’.

⁴⁸ I have discussed Turner's stewardship of Leicestershire in more detail: see Wagg, ‘Four-Day Game Doesn't Pay the Bills’, 1407–20.

⁴⁹ Tim Murray, ‘Turner Fears for the Future of “Saturated” Twenty20’, Leicester Mercury, May 29, 2009, 45.

⁵⁰ Lambert, History of Leicestershire County Cricket Club, 5.

⁵¹ In The Cricketer Annual of 1944, Holmes suggested that one way to accommodate professional Sunday cricket might be to make it inclusive of an open-air service; see Midwinter, Lost Seasons, 164.

⁵² Swanton, As I Said at the Time, 286.

⁵³ Norman Preston, ‘Disappearance of the Amateur’, Wisden, 1963, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/152769.html (accessed February 7, 2012).

⁵⁴ Ross, Gillette Cup, 11.

⁵⁵ Ross, Gillette Cup, 12–13.

⁵⁶ Chapman, Great Expectorations, 12.

⁵⁷ Taylor, Smoke Ring, 31.

⁵⁸ Witschi, ‘Short History of Lung Cancer’, 4–6.

⁵⁹ Taylor, Smoke Ring, 35.

⁶⁰ Laker, One Day Cricket, 36.

⁶¹ Bailey, Conflicts in Cricket, 26.

⁶² John Arlott, ‘Stupid, Damaging, Unnecessary’, The Guardian, March 25, 1969, 20 (reproduced in David Rayvern Allen (ed.), Arlott on Cricket. London: Fontana/Collins, 1985).

⁶³ Laker, One Day Cricket, 43.

⁶⁴ Laker, One Day Cricket, 53; West, Flannelled Fool and Muddied Oaf, 86.

⁶⁵ Wisden, 1970, http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/155957.html?years = 1970 (accessed February 8, 2012).

⁶⁶ Williams, Way to Lords, 123.

⁶⁷ Bailey, Conflicts in Cricket, 34.

⁶⁸ Bailey, Conflicts in Cricket, 35.

⁶⁹ Bailey, Conflicts in Cricket

⁷⁰ Bailey, Conflicts in Cricket, 35–6.

⁷¹ See Peter Guttridge, ‘Those Choice Words that Say “I Hate You”’, The Independent, January 26, 1996, http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/those-choice-words-that-say-i-hate-you-1325795.html (accessed February 11, 2012).

⁷² Bailey, Conflicts in Cricket, 44.