Eric Midwinter’s latest work in the Cricket Witness series, Cricket’s Four Epochs: How cricket reflects civil society, argues that mainstream English cricket has, over the last 300 years, undergone three incarnations – and is maybe heading for a fourth – each, in approach and tone, a manifestation of the prevailing political economy and culture.
Andrew Hignell’s Cricketscapes looks at the rural roots of the game and the variety of cricketscapes which emerged – urban, suburban, rural, coastal and scholastic – during the late 19th century. The advent of commercial interests has eroded these cricketscapes, but the advent of The Hundred provides an opportunity for county clubs to take the game back to its roots.
