ABSTRACT
Within Victorian and Edwardian culture, cricket served as a metaphor for a wide range of equally significant and interrelated social objectives. The relationship between physical and mental health, the maintenance of appropriate standards of morality, the cultivation of ‘ manly’ character, British cultural and racial superiority and British martial superiority were all linked to the encouragement of cricket. If anything, these themes were more accentuated in Britain's colonies where the standard rhetoric was for a long time coloured by equally strong concerns over the quality of the new society in relation to the ideal of the ‘ mother country’. Indeed, the earliest observers of New Zealand cricket, if not always the players, were seldom content that the game should merely be played in the fledgling settlements. They were as much concerned with the ‘ form’ of the game on the field and the manners and mores this helped to shape off the field. While the nature of the New Zealand rhetoric displayed certain key differences to other parts of the Empire, it was nevertheless pursued with an equally determined conviction.
