Sticky wickets

Australian Left Review, Feb 2015

What is the future of firstclass and international cricket in Australia? It is now more than a decade since the World Series Cricket 'revolution

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Sticky wickets

Sticky Wickets - about current changes in our leisure. More and more of our free time now involves consumption, and culture industries are the major providers in this area. Culture industries employ large numbers of people and their economic significance is growing. So, too, is their cultural impact: the manufacture of experience shows how difficult it is to assume that pleasure or fun are purely spontaneous or individually based. More and more, these sorts of experiences are produced by industries organised for pleasure. This is not to say that the consumption of leisure makes us passive puppets, easily manipulated into laughing in all the right places. While the production of pleasure at Wonderland may be extremely disciplined, the consumption of it is much harder to control. Individual consumers at Wonderland use the place in different ways, and bring their own meanings to bear on the experiences and the pleasures it offers. Gay Hawkins GAY HAWKINS teaches in Leisure Studies at Kurinc-&al CAE in Sydney. hat is the future of first­ W class and international cricket in Australia? It is now more than a decade since the World Series Cricket 'revolution' and it is worth asking whether more fundamental changes are likely. My own opinion is that, other than the South African controversy the present period in Australian cricket history is one of stability and consolidation - both on and off the field. In his excellent latest book, Street Fighting Years - An Autobiography of the Sixties, Tariq Ali writes that post 1975 period in Europe can be described as one of "history's enforced pauses, designed to make UR think and reflect before the next wave". If revolutionary change is slow, fundamental shifts within cricket are even more pedestrian. The advent of World Series Cricket in 1977 shattered the international cricket establishment. It was a watershed with few comparisons. In England the 'restraint of trade' court action won by Tony Greig and other and World Series Cricket in the English High Court was one crudal factor in changing the working conditions of cricket professionals. After that landmark decision cricketers were free to se11 their labour, like any other workers, to the highest bidder. The second decisive influence has been the growing strength of the Cricketers' Association which organises all first-class professionals in England and self-organisation. The important point is that in Australia the game is becoming more professional and will continue to do so over the next few years. Lt>ading state and test cricketers increasingly view cricket as their profession. Indeed, the demands of Sheffield Shield and international cricket make that inevitable. Moreover, this also means that the players, in tum, have to find work during the winter, and in small but growing numbers they are travelling to England to play county and league cricket during the northern summer. This raises the question of whether the playing abilities of Australia's leading cricketers will be adversely affected; will the demands of full-time professionalism be too great? Ironically Tony Greig, one of the architects of World Series Cricket, has recently argued against this growing professionalism and urged that Australia should encourage its players to remain part-time. With the continued commercialisation of the game such a call is likely to be ignored. The season recently completed will undoubtedly be considered a success by the Australian Cricket Board and PBL marketing. At least Australia has produced a 'winning' side at the international level, albeit in the conventional test arena against opposition whose standard was not the highest. The acid test will come over the next year with tours to Pakistan and England and a visit from the West Indies. For the continued commercial and television success of cricket a successful one-day side was vital. The team's achievements in this regard have been widely and loudlv acclaimed. no doubt much to th~ chagrin of 'purists' such as former test player and journalist Bill O'Reilly and ex-NSW Labor minister Rodney Cavalier. Provided the side keeps in winning (is it true that Australians only love winners and battlers?), crowds pack the grounds and the Channel 9 ratings remain strong, there will be no changes to the one­ dav t<mnula. I have to confess that I enjoy international one-day nif·ket and feel that the lights, coloured clothing and fielding restrictions enhance the occasion. As C.L.R. .James wrote in his classic Heyond A Boundary, "Cricket is first and foremost a dramatic spectacle. It belongs with the theatre, ballet, opera and dance." It is also worth adding that one­ day cricket as a form of spectacle and entertainment has a long and respectable tradition going back to the All-England Eleven, the first professional touring team who travelled throughout Britain, from 1846 onwards. Those professionals wore white shirts embellished with red sports or stripes, coloured sashes or (...truncated)


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Ric Sissons. Sticky wickets, Australian Left Review, 2015, pp. 39-40, Volume 1, Issue 104,