ABSTRACT
England has long been cricket’s global cultural, political and economic core, with the game’s traditions and rules diffusing out around the world, mainly on the back of British colonial expansion (Guha, 2002; James, 1963; Manley, 1990; Stoddart, 1979, 1988). One factor in the establishment of England’s world status has been the role English cricket has played as a global ‘finishing school’ for the former colonies’ best talent. Here, we highlight how English cricket has used such talent as a ‘cash crop’, but also that increasingly such labour can be viewed as symbolic of the changing relationship with the former imperial master. This labour migration has been controversial since its inception and, ironically, the developmental role that it has offered to other nation’s players has helped fuel the increasing challenges to England’s centrality in global cricket affairs.
