Cricket continues to grapple with evolving spirit of modern game

Expectations of behavior on a cricket field are enshrined within the concept of the spirit of the game. This has its roots in 19th-century Victorian Britain when cricket was used as a metaphor to express honesty and fairness.

The makers of the game’s laws sought to cleanse a previous era in which corruption, gambling, and spectator unruliness had been characteristic.

Almost 100 years later, concerns began to be expressed that the game might not be living up to its expressed values. These were fueled by a rise in the number of paid, professional players, international expansion of the game into diverse cultures, and the introduction of league cricket in southern England in the 1970s.

Deep suspicion, especially among gentlemen amateurs of means, so-called Corinthians, abounded of league cricket’s win or lose mentality and attendant behaviors.

It is little surprise that two of England’s most Corinthian captains of the 1960s, Colin Cowdrey and Ted Dexter, should be instrumental in campaigning in the 1990s to integrate the spirit of cricket within the laws of the game. They wanted to re-emphasize that cricket should be played not only within its laws but in a good atmosphere where respect to captains, team-mates, match officials, teachers, coaches, and parents was central.

A preamble to the laws was introduced in 2000 and, after Cowdrey’s death later that year, an annual lecture was introduced in 2001 by the Marylebone Cricket Club, known as the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture.

Over the years, this has been delivered almost entirely by pre-eminent former cricketers, not a single woman among them. The male interpretation of the spirit of cricket concept has varied markedly, reflecting its nebulous nature. The