ABSTRACT
In many respects and at first sight, cricket could be regarded as the sport that has been least affected by what might be termed broadly as the ‘revolutionary’ dimension. The game began in its pre-organised form in Britain (and more specifically England) as a bucolic activity then, as it took more organised and regulated form during and after the industrial revolution, became a replica of a classed and stratified society. That was best demonstrated in the Gentlemen versus Players matches (professional vs amateur, upper classes vs lower orders) that survived until 1962, after which the game transformed into a more professionalised and commercialised shape. It was that socially stratified form of the game that went around the British Empire to be taken up in a largely mirrored way, so that colonial outposts frequently saw contests with England as more than just cricket matches.
