Anyone but England: Cricket, Race and Class

340 Pages·2016·2.1 MB·English

by  Mike Marqusee

Winner of the Aberdare Literary Prize, awarded by the British Society of Sports
History, 1994
Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, 1994
‘An American socialist cricket-lover strips back the game’s history to reveal
venality and racism. The strengths of the book lie in its passion and in the
meticulous retelling of cricket’s development ... Only an outsider who has come
to the game late in life could articulate its peculiarities so well. Cricket is
refreshed through his eyes’
Sunday Times
‘If you enjoy cricket but despise the stripy tie world of the cricket establishment,
Marqusee’s book is what you’ve been waiting for. Its beauty and originality is its
insistence that it is possible to love the game while understanding that it is a
game, nothing more or less ... here is something for the supporter on the bench,
not the executive box’
Mark Steel
‘Mike Marqusee is an American, a socialist, and a cricket-lover. The alchemy of
this unique combination has contributed to the production of this remarkable
book. To call it a book on cricket would be a gross misnomer ... It weaves
together the social history of English cricket with the social history of England
in a manner which is as unique as it is brilliant. It is doing a sort of CLR James
on English cricket ... The book is laced with insightful comments about the
relationship between cricket, the nation and the market. Quite fascinating’
Prabhat Patnaik, Frontline (India) ‘The most perceptive, challenging and
irreverent book on cricket since CLR James’ magnificent classic, Beyond a
Boundary ... Mike Marqusee has studied the game and the political, commercial
and racist ramifications with the thoroughness of a social scientist. CLR James
started it all. Marqusee is a most worthy successor. Anyone But England
deserves an honoured place in your library’
Caribbean Times
‘The New Cricket Culture’s origins can be traced to 1994, and a genuinely
different cricket book – Anyone But England ... Marqusee used it as a platform
to declare his distaste for a whole range of organisations, activities, and methods
dear to the conservative English – with a focus on cricket’
The Australian Magazine
‘The book’s argument is powerful and well-sustained. The cricket bosses do not
come out of it well, nor do they deserve to. Unfortunately, it is certain that few
of them will read it. County members might just be stirred by its polemic,
because after all Marqusee actually likes the damn game! And maybe he likes
the English too’
British Society of Sports History
‘Mike Marqusee knows and loves cricket and both qualities shine through his
brilliant contribution to cricket literature. Neither blinds him to the reality that
cricket in Britain is shot through with hypocrisy and a corrupt and vicious
nationalism which perverts the supposed ideals of the game. In this, he puts most
cricket writers to shame ... His style, while gently ironic, is charged with deadly
truth’
Salim Salaam, Race and Class
‘Cricket’s iconoclast-in-chief’
‘Cricket’s iconoclast-in-chief’
Simon O’Hagan, Wisden Cricket Monthly
‘What English cricket has done to deserve him is anyone’s guess’
Marcus Berkman, Wisden Cricket Monthly
‘A damning study of the history of the game, sure to rock the very foundations
of Lord’s. Anyone But England is not only a must for cricket fans, but a must for
anyone interested in the social fabric of this country’
Irish World
‘An unusual and extremely thought provoking book. It is also a unique book
which transcends all the known genres of cricket writing ... Even those who do
not agree with all that Marqusee has to say on the politics of cricket and the
prejudices of the English will accept that he has provided a novel and a much
needed perspective on the noblest game of them all’
Rudrangshu Mukherjee, The Telegraph (Calcutta) ‘A fine representative of the
vibrant but little known tradition linking cricket and the British left ... His
perspective is unusual, and he can write’
Matthew Engel, The Guardian
‘The national game’s meandering voyage down the proverbial corridor of
uncertainty is traced with masterly effect by Marqusee, a cricket-loving
American leftie ... Better than CLR James on speed, there are thousands of us
who’ve been waiting years for this’
The Modern Review
‘Anyone But England is written with honesty and serious intentions by an author
who wants to see the game escape from its current slough of despond’
Andrew Shields, Time Out
‘Funny, disturbing and deeply provocative ... A ruthless analysis of why the
English whine’
Hindustan Times
‘A transatlantic wowser’
Michael Henderson, The Times
‘That splendid American iconoclast’
‘That splendid American iconoclast’
Robin Marlar, Sunday Times
‘For the true believer of the cricket cult, the game is built on articles of faith. The
cult has its saints, its heroes, its cathedral at Lord’s, and in the shape of Mike
Marqusee it has a heretic ... Mike Marqusee never fails to involve and inform’
Southeast London Sportscene
‘Certainly puts the ball tampering affair in its proper perspective. An excellent
critical analysis of English cricket’
Imran Khan
‘He writes well, if with a warped intelligence’
EW Swanton
‘A very intelligent book, very cleverly written, with a lot that provokes thought.
But I am uneasy about the way that he has a go at just about everything
cricketers hold sacred’
Christopher Martin-Jenkins, Test Match Special
‘Mike Marqusee could hardly have made a ruder impact on the summer if he
were Keith Chegwyn banging on Ray Illingworth’s door at seven in the morning
with a film crew in tow ... If this doesn’t make them break wind in the Test
Match Special oxygen tent, nothing will’
Kevin Mitchell, The Observer
‘This is a different kind of cricket book, a very different kind ... Marqusee is
withering in his exposure of the racism and hypocrisy prevalent in the English
cricket scene’
Indian Review of Books
‘Marqusee has immersed himself in cricket and this book is the result of an
enormous exercise in assimilating a sporting culture without absorbing an
accompanying bias and subjective national cultural value. This is what makes his
book unique, the depth of his understanding of the beauty of the action of cricket
... He writes movingly about both the dancers and the dance ... Among books of
the world of sport there are few which also express the sport of the world in all
its representation of real life and struggle. Anyone But England is one, a
commentary on our times’
Chris Searle, Morning Star
‘The book that everyone’s talking about ... The elegant and concise accounts of
the origin of the game, its romance with the British empire, are a must for all
cricket fans ... the book is an entertaining and fascinating exploration of cricket
and it will come as a revelation to many’
Eastern Eye
‘Those who love a good moan will be in ecstasy as they plough through these
pages ... Anyone But England is perceptive and it will instruct and entertain, but
it is unlikely to change anything’
David Frith, Wisden Cricket Monthly
‘A thoroughly researched, historic class analysis of cricket’s origins and recent
controversies’
Socialist Outlook
‘Marqusee has a keen eye for hypocrisy, the quintessential English vice ... the
average reader of the Daily Telegraph will find much to agree with in this book.
Marqusee has fallen in love with the English game’
Adam Sisman, The Observer
‘Anyone But England is a book for anyone with an interest in cricket which goes
beyond merely the runs scored and wickets taken. It shows that the game cannot
be isolated from the political, economic and cultural context that it is set in. The
author has done a great job in tying together the diverse themes of cricket, the
nation and the market’
Business Standard, India
‘The slightly barking but always readable Mike Marqusee’
Tim Rice, Daily Telegraph
‘Marqusee’s love of cricket shines throughout this book like the floodlights at
the Melbourne Cricket Ground ... enlightening, informative, entertaining and
controversial’
Labour Briefing
‘His book is rich in insight and makes fascinating reading ... a wonderfully
invigorating read and a very welcome corrective to an unreflective view of the
charms of leather on willow’
John Gaustad, Sportspages bookshop
‘The book is on a small shelf with only a handful of others that have criticised
our national game. His application to join the MCC would, I am sure, end up in
the waste paper basket ...’
Camden New Journal
‘A mildly irritating but otherwise challenging book ...’
Martin Johnson, The Independent
‘Marqusee is a skilled historian who knows and loves the game and knows, but
does not always love, the British. His is a wide-ranging book that is arguably the
most important sociological study of cricket since CLR James ... Anyone But
England is an authoritative account and analysis of the tortured entanglements of
English cricket with class, race and empire. It is also stunningly topical’
Ramachandra Guha, Telegraph (Calcutta) ‘Best of the Year’
Mail on Sunday sports book review
‘Constantly perceptive ... wise, witty and well-written’
Tribune
‘The panache of his approach and obvious love of the game challenge the
assumption that only those who grow up with cricket can know the game as it
should be known ... His thesis is enriched by transatlantic elements ... a book that
contrives to be both cerebral and entertaining’
The Times
‘The fascinating aspect here is a history of cricket written by an outsider-
l’étranger ... what makes his history of the game and its early development
remarkable is the novel-like quality of the narrative. The case is presented with
the felicity of a QC’
R Mohan, The Hindu
‘Challenging and highly individual study of the game’
David Hopps, Guardian
‘The author’s American background enables him to see matters from an unusual
perspective; the result is a book which is indeed provocative and controversial,
and has proved one of the surprise successes of the summer’
Kettering Evening Telegraph
‘The best sports book of the year was Anyone But England by Mike Marqusee,
an unlikely study of English decline by an unlikely man’
Irish Press
‘The book is well worth the read though you may find yourself at serious odds
with the author and that’s no bad thing’
Cricket World
‘As intelligent an analysis of the relationship between a country and its national
sport as you are likely to find’
Hampstead and Highgate Express
‘A devastating treatise on the various ills plaguing the game in the land of its
birth’
Gulu Ezekiel, Financial Express (India) ‘There may have been many cricket
histories (too many even) but none that I have come across that takes so much
perceived wisdom about cricket, England, pastoral idylls and the role of the
establishment and gives them a thoroughly good, and richly deserved, kicking ...
you should read this book, whatever your politics’
Matthew Lloukes, Johnny Miller 96*
‘Surprisingly witty and perceptive (for an American, do we hear you add?) – a
fascinating book’
The Good Book Guide
‘An entertaining read, full of delightful information ... it peers beneath the
romance of the game to examine commercialism, racism and the role of cricket
as some kind of epitome of Englishness’
Simon Rocker, Jewish Chronicle
‘Marqusee’s overall project is trying to understand the relationship between
cricket and society in England, especially in a period in which the game has been
undergoing far-reaching transformation ... Marqusee’s book brilliantly captures
the deep racism, arrogance, hypocrisy, elitism and classism which still pervades
English cricket ... On England and South Africa his account is fascinating ...
highly perceptive ...’
Transformation (South Africa)