Introduction. At the Boundaries of Cricket

Abstract

The introduction to this volume attempts to answer the deceptively self-evident question underlying its subsequent papers: namely, ‘What is cricket?’ It is shown that the Laws of Cricket only succeed in ‘framing’ an activity whose meaning nevertheless transcends those boundaries. The Laws define a series of objective lines of discontinuity which establish the conditions of victory and thus shape the form of play on the field. It is shown, however, that the full meaning of cricketing performance cannot be reduced to a functional assessment in terms of such conditions of victory. There is an irresolvable gap between the objective goal of winning the game and the subjective quality of cricketing excellence. The resultant transcendent nature of ‘justice’ in cricket implies that existing Laws cannot ground the legitimacy of current forms of cricket or fully anticipate future ones. The most obvious consequence of this fact, it is shown, is the phenomenon of evolution in the Laws of Cricket. However, if the Laws cannot function as a criterion of what is (and what is not) cricket, by what criterion may they themselves legitimately be changed? It is concluded that the Laws can only symbolically represent that which is grounded in a community of practitioners or ‘form of life’ which is itself subject to constant change and self-evaluation.