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The Branding of Australian : CULTURE, COMMERCE, CRICKET AND THE

Richard Cashman is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Leisure, and Tourism at the University of Technology, . He is also Director of the Australian Centre for Olympic Studies at that institution. He has previously written a number of books on Australian cricket and is currently involved in a project on the history of the baggy green cap.

Introduction The practice of 'branding' has become so commonplace in contemporary sport that followers hardly notice, let alone protest against, players covered from head to toe with commercial logos. Competitions and stadia are now named after sponsors and events frequently change names to reflect a new sponsor. Trophy presentation ceremonies usually include a word from the sponsors and effusive thanks to them for their generosity, almost as if this munificence were given gratis. Branding is a component of globalisation and features in the burgeoning literature on this subject. Hans Westerbeek and Aaron Smith assess that the most 'dominant existing brands' in the world — such as Coca Cola in the United States and BP in Britain — 'must be responsible for billions of dollars of economic activity' so the owners rightly 'covet, bolster and protect the brands'. They add that 'there are few nations that can claim to possess more than a handful of brands' that have the potential for economic exploitation.1 The authors also quote FutureBrand's 2003 top ten most valuable team brands, headed by the Dallas Cowboys, United and the Washington Redskins. Westerbeek and Smith elaborate on the nature of branding as follows: A brand is the extended story of a product, expressed in a logo and extended visual imagery. It is symbolism that is widely understood by the (to be) converted members of the product clan. Global organisations, through their branding, attempt to tell stories about their products that will capture the imagination of the global clan ... However, geographically dispersed tribes have their own rituals, their own heroes, and to a certain extent, their own symbols as well ...2

Sporting Traditions, vol. 23, no. 1 (November 2006), pp. 1-16. Published by the Australian Society for Sports History. 2 sportingTRADITIONS VOLUME 23 no 1 NOVEMBER 2006

In their view, 'The challenge of truly international brands therefore is to stand for something that appeals to "all" people, while incorporating opportunities to extend the brand for cultural niche markets'.3 Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, has argued that a brand is something strong and powerful 'that creates an emotion in a person's mind', which can be positive or negative.4 Miller, Lawrence, McKay and Rowe have noted the tensions and discontinuities between global and local brands. Manchester United has become a truly global brand with its own satellite and cable services servicing its 100 million fans around the globe. The cost of this lofty status has been the reduction of the club's regional and national ties.5 When John Hart was appointed coach of the All Blacks in the mid-, he attempted to introduce a 'corporate-based approach' and to transform the All Blacks into 'a great international sporting brand', replicating the Manchester United model. Hart aimed to broaden the appeal of the All Blacks to make them a symbol of rugby excellence, rather than the most public symbol of New Zealand. He believed that such a strategy would appeal to countless fans in global rugby, thereby transforming a small market — New Zealand having a population of approximately four million — into an international global market. Hart recognised that this could only be achieved by diminishing the regional and national associations of the All Blacks (along similar lines to Manchester United). He added that 'many people are uncomfortable when they hear the All Blacks talked about as a brand and rugby described as a product' because of the perceived threat that this posed to 'New Zealand culture'.6 The All Blacks are the most prominent sporting symbol and brand of New Zealand and legions wear the All Black jersey, with the silver fern (or some variation of this ) to proclaim their New Zealandness or an attraction to the All Black team. Sporting clubs (leagues and associations) have many options when faced with globalisation and do not necessarily have to follow the path of Manchester United. Miller et al. present case studies that show how various sports seek to accommodate, mediate or resist globalising pressures according to their specific histories and geographies, institutional frameworks and structures of culture.7 Australian cricket, like New Zealand rugby, has developed a significant brand in the baggy green cap. It is the one of the best-known sporting brands in the country, enjoying a similar pre-eminent status in to the All Black black jersey in New Zealand. Both brands draw heavily on the weight of tradition and the success of Australia in cricket and New Zealand in rugby. The branding paths pursued by sports marketers in the two countries, however, are markedly different. The baggy green cap has been treated as an exclusive symbol that includes no sponsor logos and is not available for sale. It can be worn only by an elite band of 397 players (by April 2006) who have Richard Cashman The Branding of Australian Cricket: Culture, Commerce, Cricket and the Baggy Green Cap 3

earned the right to wear the baggy green cap after selection in the national side. By contrast, the All Black jersey, featuring the silver fern, has been widely marketed to the general public. The New Zealand even altered the jersey around 2000 in part because of a sponsorship deal with Adidas.8 While it is not yet worn on the global scale of the New York Yankees or the Chicago Bulls brands, it is genuinely popular both within and outside New Zealand. Issues This article will consider a number of issues. First, there will be a discussion of the longer history of the baggy green cap in order to understand how it evolved time to become such an iconic symbol. There have been relatively few studies of the pre-commercial evolution of brands, before the era of hyper-commercialism from the . Robert Barney, Stephen Wenn and Scott Martyn, for example, include a history of the most powerful international sports brand in their book, Selling the Five Rings. When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Pierre de Coubertin fashioned this symbol for his private use in 1913 he had little idea that he had conceived what would become 'a commercial gold mine'.9 The need to protect the brand was recognised by Avery Brundage in the and 1940. He had a long-running and celebrated confrontation with Los Angeles bread impresario, Paul H. Helms, whose bread was advertised as Olympic bread at the time of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Helms wished to retain the Olympic association, and the five rings, on his bread after 1932. Ironically it was not until the that the IOC achieved protection for its brand enabling it to tap into a 'commercial gold mine' with sponsors. The use of the five rings by carefully selected sponsor companies was a core element of The Olympic Program (TOP) which was an immensely lucrative venture introduced in the 1980s to attract sponsorship revenue. The word 'brand' features prominently in a recent book by IOC marketing director Michael Payne. The subtitle of his 2006 book, Olympic Turnaround, is How the Olympic Games Stepped Back from the Brink of Extinction to Become the World's Best Known Brand.10 A second objective of this article is to explore the extended story, to use the phrase of Westerbeek and Smith, of the baggy green cap. How has this cultural icon 'captured the imagination' of Australian cricketers and the cricket public? What emotions does the baggy green cap evoke? This article draws on and extends the discussion on the evolution of the baggy green cap previously published in Sport in the National Imagination.11 A third aim is to understand how and Australian cricket players have attempted to promote the brand and why there are limits to the commercial exploitation of it. Why has Cricket Australia chosen a different 4 sportingTRADITIONS VOLUME 23 no 1 NOVEMBER 2006

path from the IOC and not sought greater commercial advantage from a unique brand? Finally the article will consider the response of Cricket Australia, and cricket as a sport more generally, to globalisation. In a recent study on cricket governance and globalisation, Peter Lamb has pointed out the peculiar character of cricket as a global sport in that international cricket is based on the monopoly status of national teams. Its leading international players, unlike soccer players, are not free to pursue market opportunities and to seek to transfer to the highest bidder. Cricketers at the highest level represent their respective nation and are controlled by national cricket boards. Lamb adds that 'the particular nature of competition and interest in international cricket is closely connected to the historical, political and cultural links between the nations ... cricket is also hard-wired to conserve its historical culture, or what is often referred to as the "spirit of the game'".12 So is the elevation of the baggy green cap in recent decades linked to a campaign of cultural conservation? The Baggy Green Cap and its Elevation There are many distinctive features of the cap. It is one of the oldest brands in Australian and world sport, pre-dating the five rings and many contemporary brands, such as Nike, which became prominent from the 1970s. The baggy green cap's origin can be traced to pre-Federation days before Australia became a nation in 1901. For reasons discussed below, the retained a pre-Federation emblem (rather than the official Federation one), thereby attesting to the longstanding of cricket as a national sport. Another distinctive element of the baggy green cap was that it was designed and has been promoted as much by players as officials. This contrasts with many other brands: the IOC President himself devised the five rings and the Nike swoosh and the phrase 'just do it' was developed in-house by the Nike company. The baggy green cap evolved over three decades from the 1890s to the 1930s as its emblem, colour and shape progressively developed. The evolution of the cap can be considered under these three headings. Emblem A form of the emblem of the baggy green cap was worn from 1890, when the Australian cricket team toured England, eighteen years before an Australian official coat of arms was adopted. The 1890 cap included a coat of arms with a sheaf of wheat, a sailing ship, a sheep and a miner's pick and shovel, with the crest of a rising sun above and the phrase Advance Australia' below with the four quarters separated by the Southern Cross. The inclusion of the miner's implements associated the cricketers' coat of arms with similar images of the Richard Cashman The Branding of Australian Cricket: Culture, Commerce, Cricket and the Baggy Green Cap 5 goldfields towns of Ballarat, Bendigo and Castlemaine from the 1850s. The 1890 cricketers may not have realised that they chose a symbol that related to early colonial assertion and independence.13 Cricketers, like commercial firms and architects, contributed to the debate on Australian identity. The rising sun, for instance, was a popular symbol because it was considered to reflect the youth and vigour of a new nation and its confident nationalism. This symbol also featured in Federation architecture and on military badges. Bill Mandle contended that sport, and cricket in particular, contributed to the coming of Federation in 1901. The kit bag of the 1878 team proclaimed it to be the 'Australian XI' providing 'a symbol of what national co-operation could achieve — the best example of Federation yet'. Political nationalism, Mandle suggested, drew inspiration from a 'cricketing nationalism'. Mandle implied that sport may have contributed to nation-making after Federation because the national cricketers were considered 'living examples of the power that came from a federated nation'.14 Colour In the first decade of the Commonwealth, Australia had three potential sets of national colours. Red, white and were the colours of the Australian flag and were part of the first official coat of arms of 1908. The colours of the second and current official Australian coat of arms of 1912 were blue and gold. However, cricket teams from 1899 preferred the green and gold, regarding these colours as more distinctly Australian.15 Possibly because of a greater early involvement in international tours it was cricket players, supported by officials, who moved to adopt Australian sporting colours symbolising the green of the gum (eucalyptus) tree and the gold of the wattle (acacia) tree. Officials discussed this as early as 1895 but it was the players who acted on the idea in 1899.16 David Headon noted that 'it was surely the sportsmen who, in connecting symbol and achievement in the colonial imagination, did most to conjure a sense of Australianness in the years before Federation'.17 From this time all touring cricket teams wore green and gold, though the colours did not feature in domestic Tests until 1902. With other national teams following the lead of the Australian cricketers, green and gold became the national sporting colours and by the late 1920s had become the colours of all sporting teams representing Australia. In Australia, green was adopted because of its association with the gum tree. The artistic embrace of the gum tree dated from the mid-1860s, when Louis Buvelot migrated from Switzerland and became the leading Victorian artist. He contended that the despised gum tree was worthy of celebration. In the Federation period the Australian gum tree became the symbol of a heroic Australia. Hans Heysen painted giant, majestic and robust gum 6 sportingTRADITIONS VOLUME 23 no 1 NOVEMBER 2006

trees — 'the trunks of the trees symbolic of earthly, phallic power' — in the decade after Federation. He was the first artist to make the gum tree the object of a 'prolonged artistic embrace'.18 Gold is the colour of wattle that blooms at the beginning of spring and is considered to represent new growth. At the time of Federation, the 'wattle blossom was explored as a symbol of Australian nationality'.19 The acacia, like the eucalyptus, was indigenous and therefore a distinctive plant that became symbolically significant. A Wattle Day Club was founded in 1899 to promote an annual Wattle Day that was celebrated on 7 September in Sydney, and for some years. After it became the national flower after Federation wattle was incorporated into the 1912 coat of arms. It also featured in the paintings of artists such as Clara Southern in the decade after Federation.20 Green, however, is the dominant colour and always precedes gold in the phrase 'green and gold'. During the 1890s there were various proposals about what shade of green would be employed. An official proposed olive green in 1895 while a green and gold flag, which was raised by the 1899 Australians in , was reported to be sage green. A darker green, though, was preferred.21 However, when a cap was introduced in the 1970s, the Australian team played in a baggy gold cap. But the baggy gold, unlike the baggy green, cap, was soon replaced by a gold -style cap, indicative that limited overs version of cricket was a more postmodern game which set far less store on tradition. Although baggy gold are relatively rare, they fetch only modest prices at auction. When Craig McDermott's baggy gold cap was auctioned at Christie's auctions in the late 1990s it went for the exceedingly small sum of $700 compared to the prices paid for baggy green caps (see below).22 Shape The baggy green cap has evolved progressively over time. A more baggy green cap became popular worldwide after the First World War so that by 1930 the shape of the Australian cap was distinctively different from that of England and other cricketing nations who opted more for skull caps. While other countries moved to alternative styles of headware after the 1930s, baggy caps were retained in Australian cricket. There were numerous challenges to the status of the baggy green cap, particularly after the Second World War. It became more fashionable after 1945 for some players, such as , to play bare headed when or . During the baggy caps even went out of fashion in some states. In earlier decades each state had had its own baggy cap. , for instance, played in a dark blue baggy cap. In the 1970s and 1980s, the baggy green cap was challenged by the floppy white , and baseball-style Richard Cashman The Branding of Australian Cricket: Culture, Commerce, Cricket and the Baggy Green Cap 7

caps which were popular in limited overs internationals. The floppy white hat was the preferred fielding headwear of players such as and . Despite these many challenges, the stocks of the baggy green cap were on the rise from the 1980s. It was players such as and who were instrumental in elevating the brand. Cricket Australia has supported such player initiatives and has developed policies to promote the brand. Why did players such as Steve Waugh and Mark Taylor promote the baggy green cap in recent decades? Waugh has a great respect for the history, traditions and worth of Australian cricket and cricket in general so his respect for the cap is an extension of these interests. The elevation of the cap undoubtedly reflects the players' pride in Australia's long tradition of success in cricket. Reminding current players of the worth of the cap is also a shrewd tactic to enhance team unity. Indeed, there have been similar campaigns to promote the All Black jersey. Ron Palenski published The Jersey in 2001 to commemorate the naming of the 1000th All Black. The book was subtitled The Pride & the Passion, the Guts & the Glory: What it Means to Wear the All Black Jersey'.23 The Story of the Brand In the Federation decades Australian sport developed its own symbols, emblems, colours and names, which were displayed on important symbolic occasions and became powerful representations of Australia. Because individual athletes had helped to devise these emblems, they were highly prized. The Australasian Olympic team of 1908 literally sewed green and gold emblems onto their because of a relatively late decision to march in national uniforms. A turn-of-the sprinter, Arthur Postle, attached a sprig of wattle to his singlet to express his national identity.24 Donald Bradman's role in the status of the baggy green cap may be even more significant. Bradman's elevation as an international star in the early 1930s coincided with the time when the baggy green cap had fully evolved. This link with Bradman, who is often framed by a baggy green cap in photographs, is undoubtedly a key reason for the continuing reverence for the baggy green cap. Bradman is as much a brand of Australian cricket as the baggy green cap so that the close association of these two brands enhances the status of both. It is significant that Bradman baggy green caps continue to be prized and sell for much more than Australian sporting memorabilia. The 1948 Bradman green cap sold in 2001 for a record figure of $425,000 for cricket memorabilia of any kind, which became $472,000 with an additional $47,000 GST levied when the cap was brought back to Australia. It was, of 8 sportingTRADITIONS VOLUME 23 no 1 NOVEMBER 2006

course, Bradman's last baggy green and the cap that he wore on one of the most famous cricket tours in 1948, by the team that came to be known as the 'Invincibles'. The cap was bought by Tim Serisier of Coffs Harbour, who wanted this 'national treasure' to be on public display in Australia so that as many Australians as possible would be able to see the cap 'first hand'. Serisier offered to cover the costs of designing and building a display module plus travel, security and insurance costs.25 So the 1948 cap was displayed at the four Test venues (, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney) during the Australia versus Test series in 2003/04. Exhibited in a tent at Test matches and flanked by security guards, the cap attracted large crowds. Serisier agreed that the could become the custodian of the cap, which will become a feature of the National Sports Museum to be opened in 2007. By comparison, the baggy green caps of other Australian Test cricketers rarely returned over $30,000. Two caps of , for instance, sold for $27,000 and $19,000 respectively in the 1990s. Bradman caps have also far outstripped memorabilia in other sports: for example, the saddle of the legendary Phar Lap returned $87,000 at auction. It is also significant that Bradman cricket bats sold for much less than his baggy green cap even though Bradman wielded the bat whereas his cap sat passively on his head. A Bradman , used in 1934, sold for about $50,000.26 Phil Knight of Nike noted that a brand needed an inspirational figure to enhance its status. Nike chose to elevate the name of Steve Prefontaine, a promising young athlete who was only 24 when he died in a car crash. An annual athletic carnival, organised by Nike, is named after this athlete.27 Bradman and , were the inspirational figures who added immense value to the baggy green cap. Trumper was there at the start of the baggy green's elevation, having worn a green and gold cap (a skull cap rather than a baggy one) in 1899. Peter Sharpham has wondered whether Steve Waugh was the mysterious and ultimately successful bidder for the 1899 Trumper cap that sold at Christie's auction.28 Bradman appeared at the end of three decades of baggy green design innovation. The baggy green cap thus links two of Australian cricket's most inspirational players. The baggy green cap attests to the worth, authenticity and vitality of Australian cricket. It also symbolises cricket's pre-eminent status in the pantheon of Australian sports and its role in the creation of the Australian nation. Its pre-Federation emblem is unique in Australian sports. Ironically, as will be discussed below, the marketers of Cricket Australia appear not to have fully appreciated the uniqueness of this story and the cultural power associated with the emblem. Cricket Australia created a more modernistic emblem in the 1990s, which sits along the baggy green emblem. The new emblem appears to undermine the status of the original one. Richard Cashman The Branding of Australian Cricket: Culture, Commerce, Cricket and the Baggy Green Cap 9

Victor Trumper's 1899 cap was dark green and in the shape of a skull cap. This cap featured the pre- Federation coat of arms which continued as the emblem of the baggy green cap after 1901. COURTESY: DAVID STUDHAM, MELBOURNE CRICKET CLUB LIBRARY

The Promotion of the Brand There has been a remarkable change in the status of the baggy green cap in the last two decades. If the authority of the baggy green cap was challenged from the 1960s, its stocks have continued to rise in recent decades so that it has become more revered than it was in the times of Trumper and Bradman. During the captaincy of Steve Waugh, the baggy green cap achieved iconic status with Waugh himself contributing to its exalted status. The cap became the focus for a special ceremony held for Test debutants. , who made his Test debut in the Fourth Test against England in 2001, was presented with his cap shortly before the beginning of the Test by former Test . Katich was aware at the time that he was the 384th capped Australian player and the latest member of an exclusive sporting fraternity of Australian Test players. During the 2001/02 season the player's particular number in the chronology of Australian cricket was featured on the player's shirt, below the coat of arms. Each player, whether he played one Test or a 100, had a place in this hierarchy in that he was allocated one particular number. Waugh has continued the tradition, instituted by Mark Taylor in 1995, that all members of the Australian team wear their respective baggy green 10 sportingTRADITIONS VOLUME 23 no 1 NOVEMBER 2006

cap in the opening session of a Test. By the time he had become captain of Australia, the Australian Cricket Board had decided that each player be awarded just one cap so that they would 'place more value on it'. 'Ten to fifteen years ago', Waugh noted, players 'used to get a new cap each year'.29 Although Waugh's own cap became progressively faded and threadbare, it was obviously a much-loved and much-worn item of headware. Waugh's reverence for the baggy green is legendary. He stated that 'there's no way you will catch me wearing a white hat' and 'the cap's always on my head' [when playing for the Australian Test team]. In one diary the front cover featured Waugh touching his Australian cap with one hand and Part III featured the title, ' off to the New Millennium': this time he was depicted touching his beloved cap with two hands.30 Waugh did not invent this reverence for the baggy green cap: players of the 1980s and early 1990s gave it equal respect. stated that 'the baggy green cap is the ultimate for all of us and to me personally it is everything' and added that 'To me the baggy green is the essence of Australian cricket. It's what you play for, what you aim for.'31 recalled that he wore the baggy green with great pride on his first Australian tour: I must admit that when I was picked to go to India for my first tour in 1979 I put the Baggy Green on with a true sense of awe, it made you feel special, superhuman even. It made a statement all by itself that said 'I'm an Australian cricketer, do your bloody best to beat me ... it won't be easy!' On debut for Australia versus East Zone at Cuttack I wore the Baggy Green for the whole game, shunning the even though it was bloody hot!32 Lawson added that the cap was what distinguished Australian players from other teams, noting that Australian players 'often ridiculed the tighter fitting "Pommie" style cricket caps as being somewhat effeminate'.33 Greg Growden, in his biography of Chuck Fleetwood-Smith, made a telling comment underlining the respect for the baggy green cap in the Australian community. When the former Test cricketer of the 1930s became a drifter and an alcoholic later in his later years, he became a member of a drinking group that lived on the streets and by riverbanks. Growden related how his fellow social outcasts were surprised when Fleetwood-Smith wore his baggy green cap to a drinking session: They laughed when he once arrived for a drinking session with an old Test cap on his head. Yet they felt uncomfortable about that; one suggested it wasn't right, and Chuck never wore it again along the [river] banks.34 Clearly the respect for the baggy green cap was widespread in the Richard Cashman The Branding of Australian Cricket: Culture, Commerce, Cricket and the Baggy Green Cap 11 community so that it permeated even the men on skid row. The rise and rise of the baggy green cap is part of a nostalgia for the past which is evident in the reverence for Bradman, whose reputation continued to grow long after his playing days ended. Nostalgia has long been a prominent part of cricket ideology with eighteenth century paintings promoting the vision of a bucolic game that enhanced class harmony. The 'Englishness' of cricket was one reason why many Australian colonists were keen to play the game. Similarly, nostalgia for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games has increased in recent decades: the Australian Gallery for Sport and Olympic Museum was opened in 1986 and a re-enactment ceremony was held on the 50th anniversary of the Games in 2006.35 Cricket Australia and Branding In the past decades Australian cricket, like every other major sport in the country, has become more corporate, developing 'a more streamlined, efficient system, capable of responding to environmental change and constantly refining and improving the quality of the sport product'.36 There has been greater commodification of cricket since the 1960s when there was more recognition of the potential of the sport as a consumer product.37 The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) changed its name in 2003 to Cricket Australia in 'an attempt to modernise the public's perception of the governing body as well as the brand'.38 (The ACB had replaced the original 1905 name, a much more long-winded and less brand conscious name, the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket, in the 1970s.) Unlike some other sports that rushed headlong towards greater corporatisation and commodification in the interests of financial gain, Cricket Australia has attempted to progress the game in a balanced fashion 'respecting the game's traditions' while 'fostering an innovative [and commercial] culture' at the same time. In the process Cricket Australia has recognised that its traditions and brands represent significant assets. Baggy Green became the name of its official website in the late 1990s and the strategic plan for 2002 to 2004 was entitled 'From backyard to baggy green'.39 Cricket Australia has endorsed the player-led campaign to retain the baggy green cap as an exclusive brand and to allow no sponsor logos on the cap. Cricket Australia has also supported commemorative caps and dinners to honour the baggy green fraternity. A total of 147 of the surviving 197 Australian Test cricketers attended a celebratory dinner 'to honour the baggy green cap' on 11 July 2003.40 Steve Waugh was instrumental in the design of a special commemorative cap for the first Test in 2000, similar to the one worn by Victor Trumper in 1897. Although Cricket Australia has introduced policies to promote the baggy green cap, its marketers may have contributed to the devaluation of the 12 sportingTRADITIONS VOLUME 23 no 1 NOVEMBER 2006

brand. Presumably because they preferred a more contemporary brand, they developed a new logo in 1994, which is now the logo of Cricket Australia. It features five shooting stars of the Southern Cross on a green background on a lopsided right-leaning heraldic emblem. It is a simpler design than the baggy green emblem though it contravenes all heraldic design principles. Players now wear two emblems, the original baggy green emblem on the cap and a more contemporary one on the shirt. Apart from looking odd, the contemporary design may be read as an implicit criticism of the baggy green emblem as old-fashioned. There is also the question of who do the cricketers now play for: the word 'Australia' features under the baggy green emblem, whereas 'Cricket Australia' appears below the new emblem. The contemporary website of Cricket Australia includes only the 1994 design. The baggy green emblem is nowhere to be seen on the front page of this website. Cricket traditionalists were also not pleased when the century-long competition between states, the Sheffield Shield became the Pura Cup in 1999. A one-off donation of £150 by Lord Sheffield provided the funding for a trophy for Sheffield Shield competition, initially between three senior cricketing colonies (, South Australia and Victoria) from 1892/93. The French-owned dairy manufacturing company, Pura, signed a four-year contract with the Australian Cricket Board in 1999 to secure the naming rights for this competition. The contract has since been renewed. Cricket, Culture and Globalisation What does the continuing elevation of the baggy green cap reveal about cricket's response to globalisation? Does this provide evidence for the view of Peter Lamb that Australian cricket is hard-wired to its culture and has resisted attempts to commercialise the brand? Does this represent a differing response to the globalisation of sport? It should be noted, first of all, that the hand of Cricket Australia may have been forced by the players who promoted the baggy green cap as an exclusive (restricted to a chosen group of players) brand rather than an inclusive one (available to the Australian and global cricket public). Cricketers such as Steve Waugh played a leading role in this campaign. Other countries have recognised the worth of this approach. New Zealand cricketers became known as the Black Caps in the 1990s and most countries now feature prominently the player's historical number in terms of their national debut. There may be another reason why Cricket Australia has opted not to commercialise its brand. Cricket Australia, does not own the emblem and the phrases 'baggy green' or 'green and gold'. (A representative from Cricket Australia visited the Melbourne Cricket Club Library in the 1990s, on a quest to advance the ACB's claims for ownership of these brands. He went away Richard Cashman The Branding of Australian Cricket: Culture, Commerce, Cricket and the Baggy Green Cap 13 disappointed.)41 The pre-Federation emblem of the baggy green cap was in common use from the mid-nineteenth century so Cricket Australia cannot gain exclusive ownership of its brand so as to market it. So there is nothing to stop an entrepreneur from marketing baggy green cricket caps other than the fact that the public too reveres the baggy green and would be unlikely to support such a venture. The cricket journal Baggy Green, which was produced independently of Cricket Australia, has been published since the 1990s. The branding policy of Australian cricket reflects the peculiar character of cricket globalisation. Whether they like it or not, cricketers continue to represent their country and are therefore more tied to the respective country's culture. They are therefore quite different from golfers, and soccer players, who may choose to represent their country when it suits them but can also opt instead to pursue market opportunities at other times. Given that Australians have dominated international cricket in the past decade and Australia is one of the leading cricket countries, it is ironic that Cricket Australia has not attempted to market the Australian cricket team in a similar fashion to the Vodafone Wallabies or the New Zealand All Blacks. Perhaps this is because the Australian cricket team have never had a brand name like the Wallabies, the Kangaroos, the Socceroos and just about every other national team. This was because Australian cricket teams toured overseas (mainly to England) on a regular basis since 1878, well before other national sporting teams and were simply known as the Australians or the Australian cricket team. The absence of a brand name underlines the Australian cricket team's status as the pre-eminent national team, which does not need a brand name. Conclusions The Australian cricket team is the most badged of world cricket teams. Australian cricketers and sportspeople in general feel a greater sense of ownership, and even reverence, for national symbols and emblems. The baggy green cap includes the pre-Federation coat of arms and the word Australia' (Advance Australia' before 1930). English players, by contrast, have been far less respectful of their caps and cricketing traditions. wore a harlequin cap when he captained England in Australia in 1932/33 partly because he knew such a practice would irritate Australians.42 On the previous tour of 1928/29, however, no one showed any concern when Englishman wore the cap of the Quidnuncs Cricket Club. For many years England had a home cap of the three lions below a and an away cap of St George and the Dragon. The South African cricket cap features a protea and 'S.A. Cricket' underneath. Why did officials cricketers fail to adopt the official Australian coat of arms unlike other national teams, including the Australian women's 14 sportingTRADITIONS VOLUME 23 no 1 NOVEMBER 2006

cricket team? The most likely reason was that by 1908 cricketers had already appeared in a cap for eighteen years that included a pre-Federation coat of arms. This was after all the cap that was worn by Victor Trumper. Maybe they had no have wish to change. Perhaps the issue was never discussed, although this seems unlikely. Players and officials, however, can take great pride in the cap and its design which reflects deep historical associations dating from the 1850s and is a continuing reminder that cricket perhaps more than any other sport contributed to the realisation of Federation. It is interesting to speculate whether officials, players and fans are aware of the rich history and meanings of the baggy green cap. The preference of marketers for a more contemporary emblem suggests a failure to appreciate the unique character and cultural worth of the original brand. It seems that Cricket Australia wants to have it both ways, to pursue both cultural and commercial opportunities. This article provides support for the view presented by Grant Jarvie that 'global sport, like globalisation, operates unevenly'.43 The global path of cricket is quite different from soccer or . Is cricket an exception to the global rule followed by other sports? While cricket's globalisation is indeed peculiar, as Lamb has argued, some of the commerce versus culture debate affects other sports, such as international rugby, where players have the option to represent their region and country (if they want to play at the highest level of international rugby) or follow a more mercenary path. It is also true that there are relatively few truly global sports (and for that matter global clubs) with many sports stronger in some regions of the world than others. Some sports, such as American , carry a large amount of national cultural baggage that limits its potential for global spread. It is certainly true nonetheless that cricket is more 'hard-wired' to the conservation of its culture, more so than many other sports.

Notes

My thanks to Warwick Franks, Charles Little, Greg Ryan, Peter Sharpham, David Studham and Ray Webster who have read and provided helpful comments on drafts of this article.

1 H. Westerbeek and A. Smith, Sport Business in the Global Marketplace, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2003, p. 25. 2 Westerbeek and Smith, Sport Business in the Global Marketplace, p. 189. 3 Westerbeek and Smith, Sport Business in the Global Marketplace, p. 189. 4 BBC video, Branded, 1998. 5 T. Miller, J. McKay, G. Lawrence and D. Rowe, Globalization and Sport: Playing the World, Sage, London, 2001. Richard Cashman The Branding of Australian Cricket: Culture, Commerce, Cricket and the Baggy Green Cap 15

6 Miller et al., Globalization and Sport, pp. 27-28. 7 Miller et al., Globalization and Sport, p. 61. 8 Communication from Greg Ryan, 1 June 2006. 9 Robert K. Barney, Stephen R. Wenn and Scott G. Martyn, Selling the Five Rings: The International Olympic Committee and the Rise of Olympic Commercialism, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 2002, p. 25. 10 Michael Payne, Olympic Turnaround: How the Olympic Games Stepped Back from the Brink of Extinction to Become the World's Best Known Brand, Praeger, Westport, 2006. 11 Richard Cashman, Sport in the National Imagination, Walla Walla Press, Sydney 2002, pp. 58-94. 12 Peter Lamb, 'Globalisation, Governance and International Cricket', unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sydney, 2005, p. 176. 13 Cashman, Sport in the National Imagination, pp. 68-72. 14 W. F. Mandle, 'Cricket and Australian Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. 59, pt. 4, December 1973, pp. 225-46. 15 Peter Sharpham, 'The Origin of the Green and Gold', Sporting Traditions, vol. 10, no. 2, May 1994, pp. 123-30. 16 Sharpham, 'The Origin of the Green and Gold', pp. 124-28. 17 David Headon, 'Sport', in Helen Irving (ed.), The Centenary Companion to Australian Federation, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1999, p. 426. 18 Ron Radford, Our Country: Australian Federation Landscapes 1900- 1914, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2001, pp. 60, 70, 76; Julie Copeland, 'Federation Landscapes', The Sports Factor, ABC Radio National, 2001. 19 Radford, Our Country, p. 90. 20 Radford, Our Country, p. 92; Julie Copeland, 'Federation Landscapes', ABC Radio National. 21 Sharpham, The Origin of the Green and Gold1, pp. 124-28. 22 Cashman, Sport in the National Imagination, p. 62. 23 Ron Palenski, The Jersey, Hodder Moa, Beckett, 2001. 24 Sharpham, 'The Origin of the Green and Gold', p. 126. 25 Cricinfo, August 2003. 26 Communication with David Studham. 27 BBC, Branded, 28 Cashman, Sport in the National Imagination, p. 65. 29 Interview, Channel 9, 18 December 2001. 30 Cashman, Sport in the National Imagination, p. 63. 31 Philip Derriman, 'The Green and Gold: 100 Years Young', Wisden Cricketers Almanac Australia, 1999, pp. 16-20. 32 Communication with Geoff Lawson, 11 April 2002. 16 sportingTRADITIONS VOLUME 23 no 1 NOVEMBER 2006

33 Communication with Geoff Lawson, 11 April 2002. 34 Greg Growden, The Wayward Genius: The Fleetwood-Smith Story, ABC Books, Sydney, 1991, p. 191. 35 Richard Cashman, The Bitter-Sweet Awakening: The Legacy of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Walla Walla Press, Sydney, 2006, pp. 22-24, 27-29. 36 David Shilbury and John Deane, Sport Management in Australia: An Organisational Overview, Strategic Sport Management, Bentleigh East, 2001, p. 148. 37 R. K. Stewart, '"I Heard it on the Radio, I saw it on the Television": The Commercial and Cultural Development of Australian First Class Cricket, 1946-1985', unpublished PhD thesis, LaTrobe University, 1995. 38 Robert Jurcevich, 'Has Become Corporatised as a Result of the Influence of the Big Three?', unpublished Bachelor of Management in Leisure Honours thesis, University of Technology, Sydney, 2004, p. 105. 39 Jurcevich, 'Has Cricket in Australia Become Corporatised', p. 101. 40 Daily Times, 12 July 2003. 41 Communication with David Studham. 42 Christopher Douglas, Jardine: Spartan Cricketer, Methuen, London, 2003. 43 Grant Jarvie, 'Internationalism and Sport in the Making of Nations', Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, vol. 10, 2003, p. 537.