Decolonisation and the Imperial Cricket Conference, 1947–1965: a Study in Transnational Commonwealth History?
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Decolonisation and the Imperial Cricket Conference, 1947–1965: A Study in Transnational Commonwealth History? by Usha Iyer A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy at the University of Central Lancashire September 2013 Student Declaration Concurrent registration for two or more academic awards *I declare that while registered as a candidate for the research degree, I have not been a registered candidate or enrolled student for another award of the University or other academic or professional institution Material submitted for another award *I declare that no material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award and is solely my own work Signature of Candidate: Type of Award : PhD School : School of Sport, Tourism and the Outdoors Abstract The game of cricket is often discussed as an enduring legacy of the British Empire. This dissertation examines the response of the Imperial Cricket Conference (ICC) as the official governing body of ‘international’ men’s cricket to developments related to decolonisation of the British Empire between 1947 and 1965. This was a period of intense political flux and paradigmatic shifts. This study draws on primary sources in the form of records of ICC and MCC meetings and newspaper archives, and a wide-ranging corpus of secondary sources on the history of cricket, history of the Commonwealth and transnational perspectives on history. It is the contention of this dissertation that these cricket archives have hitherto not been exploited as commentary on decolonisation or the Commonwealth. Due attention is given to familiarising the reader with the political backdrop in the Empire and Commonwealth against which the ICC is studied. Primary source materials are used extensively to reconstruct and scrutinise major ‘off-field’ developments that affected the ICC in this period. This enables the dissertation to bring together the political Commonwealth, the non-governmental Commonwealth and the ICC for a comparative study. Using this synthesis as a framework, it analyses the ICC’s response to decolonisation. The dissertation also introduces literature on transnational perspectives on history and assesses the Commonwealth of Nations—of which the ICC was an important part—from this perspective. The last chapter concludes proceedings by highlighting the contribution of this dissertation to the wider body of historical knowledge. Based on the evidence, the dissertation finds that cricket’s encounter with decolonisation was unhappy and protracted. The clash of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ Commonwealth, much-chronicled in commentary on the political Commonwealth, was echoed in the world of cricket. The ICC is portrayed as one among a plethora of individuals, institutions and interest groups that participated in the process of decolonisation of the British Empire. Against the backdrop of the demise of the British Empire, the Imperial Cricket Conference could be seen a Commonwealth interest group that, as a transnational site, continuously grappled with conflict arising from lingering (real and imagined) ‘bonds’ of empire and assertion of British soft power on the one hand, and increasing assertion of national identity and rights by member states on the other. One can read the ICC as a microcosm of important debates within the Empire and the Commonwealth in this period. The ICC is a rich repository of information on decolonisation and cricket and decolonisation in cricket. In spite of its long association with the Commonwealth, there has been little sustained engagement with cricket in Commonwealth studies. This dissertation attempts to address that gap by probing the historical role of cricket. It also offers fresh institutional and transnational perspectives in contrast to the dominant social history paradigm in the literature on cricket. Keywords: Commonwealth, Cricket, Decolonisation, Imperial Cricket Conference, Transnational History 1 Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ 4 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms ...................................................................................................... 5 Chapter One: ‘Where the British flag went, so too went cricket’ ........................................................ 7 Chapter Two: ‘We want no unwilling peoples within our empire’ .................................................... 18 2.1: ‘The age of Nehru and Nkrumah’ ............................................................................................... 18 2.2: ‘Confetti of Empire’ .................................................................................................................... 22 2.3: ‘So begins the new “Commonwealth of Nations”: British Empire, to British Commonwealth, to Commonwealth – Emperor, to King, to Head’ .................................................................................. 27 2.4: ‘A diverse international cast of actors’ ...................................................................................... 39 2.4.1: ‘A wider suite of sites and performances of the Commonwealth’ ..................................... 41 Chapter Three: ‘In consonance with the spirit of the times’? The Imperial Cricket Conference, 1947–1965 ............................................................................................................................................ 54 3.1: ‘The most venerated institution in the British Empire' .............................................................. 54 3.2: ‘A token of the unity’: The Imperial Memorial Gallery .............................................................. 60 3.3: ‘Traditional foes’ ........................................................................................................................ 64 3.4: ‘A conference of great importance . (and) a spirit of harmony . between representatives of the MCC and of the great dominions’ .......................................................................................... 74 3.5: ‘The principle of equality and brotherhood’: levelling of the playing field? ............................. 78 3.6: ‘In how many institutions does “imperial” still survive in this sense?’ ...................................... 82 Chapter Four: ‘The world family of cricket’? The Imperial Cricket Conference, 1947–1965 ............ 88 4.1: ‘More English than the English’: the case of New Zealand ........................................................ 88 4.2: Membership Rules: the cases of India, Pakistan and South Africa ............................................ 93 4.2.1: ‘Some had birthright to the membership; we have won it’: the case of Pakistan ............. 94 4.2.2: ‘This cricket game in South Africa has nothing to do with racial policies’: the case of South Africa ......................................................................................................................................... 101 4.3: However . ............................................................................................................................ 128 Chapter Five: ‘Performance of Good Commonwealth Relations’ .................................................... 132 2 5.1: ‘A positive narrative of a family of nations’ ............................................................................. 134 5.2: ‘Old imperial duchessing’ ......................................................................................................... 149 5.3: ‘The Mother Country had always held out for decent values’ ................................................ 156 5.4: ‘The essential insolubility of a hierarchical body professing a commitment to equality’ ....... 164 5.5: ‘Reforming to conserve’ ........................................................................................................... 171 Chapter Six: ‘Two institutions that inter-link and endure’ : Cricket and the transnational Commonwealth ................................................................................................................................. 175 6.1: ‘Pickled piece of the past’? ...................................................................................................... 175 6.2: Commonwealth ‘transcendence’ ............................................................................................. 182 Chapter Seven: ‘OXO is British: It Is Made in Britain By a British Company With British Capital and British Labour’ .................................................................................................................................... 196 Bibliography........................................................................................................................................ 206 (I) Primary Sources .......................................................................................................................... 206 (a) Unpublished Material ............................................................................................................ 206 (b) Published Material ................................................................................................................ 206 (II) Contemporary books and journal articles (up to 1980) ...........................................................