ABSTRACT
The timing of European exploration and subsequent colonisation of New Zealand ran parallel to the dramatic transformation of the British sporting world from the mid eighteenth century onwards. Indeed, many of the factors that contributed to sporting change—the transformation of the rural economy, industrialisation, urbanisation, the expansion of the middle class and its quest for respectability—were the same factors that shaped a growing sense of unease and triggered mass emigration from Britain amid the search for new opportunities, which—in turn—contributed to the emergence of a global economy. Therefore, the development of New Zealand cricket can only be understood in relation to the intersection between the changing sporting world and the varied colonisation patterns affecting different regions of New Zealand.
