ABSTRACT
To turn Horace metaphorically on his head: ‘mix a little prudence with your foolishness; it’s good to be careful at the right moment.’2 The adaptation is made with good reason. Among the more inadequate explanations of the imperial diffusion of cricket is the statement that it reached colonial outposts by way of the British Navy, the Army and entrepreneurs.3 Almost as inadequate is the remark from the same pen that in the spread of imperial cricket, capitalism has had pretty much its own way.4
