‘Everyone seemed to be “with it”’: cricket politics and the coming of the one-day game, 1940–1970

Abstract

This article explores, historically and in some detail, the political deliberations that led to the establishment of one-day cricket in England. It traces this debate from the temporary arrangements for one-day cricket during the Second World War to the inauguration of a one-day competition, with commercial sponsorship, in 1961 and beyond. It examines the various arguments and political factors that were in play and it will suggest that a number of factors contributed to the arrival of one-day cricket, initially in England at this time. These included: changes in the political and economic standing of the British aristocracy; an ongoing financial crisis among the English county cricket clubs; the growth in influence in British political and cultural life of the elites of what the American sociologist Alvin Gouldner called ‘impression management’; the politicisation and greater bargaining power of professional county cricketers; crucial changes in the consumer market for cigarettes; and what may be seen as fresh attitudes to leisure and sport on the part of sections of the English public.