Keeping an eye on a record-breaking day at the Adelaide Oval and hearing names from the past consigned to history as Clarke and Ponting set new levels for a partnership, it was interesting to read this piece from Michael Jensen in which he (I think) observes how sport commentary has been (and continues to be) used as a metaphor for qualities which are considered desirable for cultivation in broader society.
Even now it’s common to hear about ‘warriors’ and ‘tests of character’.
And you just thought it was about hitting the wickets or striking a ball.
It’s Not Cricket at The Blogging Parson.
The game of cricket has been used as an embodiment of the great myths of English culture: the bat and the ball became the icons of the cult of virility and the symbols of imperial rule; the pastoral vision of an Arcadian, pre-industrial England was incarnated in the game played with willow on the village green; the qualities of the old England, the middle-class-less England, apparently remained embedded in cricket; and there is the myth of cricket as a game of principles, where the “spirit” of the game was to be obeyed as much as any written code.
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