The Club

Empire, Power and the Governance of World Cricket

The Club uncovers the fascinating history of cricket’s world governing body as it evolved from the Imperial Cricket Council, established in 1909 to bring together the cricket-playing countries of the Empire, into the International Cricket Council, a multi-billion-dollar business dominated by the Indian Board of Control and its allies.

The fascinating story of cricket’s world governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), and how it grew into a multi-billion-dollar business.

From cricket journalist, historian and academic Rod Lyall.

This meticulously researched and authoritative history reveals how:

• Privileged aristocrats and mining magnates turned cricket into a ‘civilising’ force of empire, promoting the politics and prejudices of their class
• Cricket’s world governing body evolved – from its early days in St John’s Wood, London as the Imperial Cricket Conference into the International Cricket Council, a multi-billion-dollar sporting business, based in Dubai and increasingly dominated by a financially and politically ambitious Indian elite
• The ICC failed to deal effectively with such challenges as the Bodyline controversy, apartheid in South Africa and Kerry Packer’s commercialisation of the game
• Media rights deals and global events sponsorship have created new problems: match-fixing, administrative corruption and the threat from franchise leagues

This is the first full account of the ICC’s origins and its roots in imperialist ideology, charting its rise from a talking-shop into a multi-billion-dollar global business driven by massive worldwide TV audiences.

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