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British Sport Transformed: Sport, Business, and the Media since 1960

Dilwyn Porter

in Business in Britain in the Twentieth Century: Decline and Renaissance?

Sport in Britain, especially elite sport, has been transformed over the period since 1960, increasingly taking on the appearance and attributes of big business. This chapter discusses three important ... More

Sport in Britain, especially elite sport, has been transformed over the period since 1960, increasingly taking on the appearance and attributes of big business. This chapter discusses three important aspects of this transformation. Firstly, the institutions governing British sport, most of them dating from the era of amateur hegemony, which began in the mid 19th century, were subject to a long drawn-out process of modernization, starting in the early 1960s when the distinction between ‘gentlemen’ and ‘players’ was abandoned in English cricket and ending with the arrival of ‘open’ rugby union in 1995. Secondly, as the constraints on commercialism dating from the amateur era were progressively abandoned, sport and business became more closely related as companies began to view sports sponsorship as a cost-effective way of raising consumer awareness of the goods and services that they offered. It is argued that the demands of building relationships with sponsors helped to change the way that sports businesses were run, as the stadium gradually made way for the ‘tradium’. Thirdly, it is clear that business sponsorship, the effectiveness of which was determined by the level of television exposure, helped to push sport into an ever-closer relationship with the media, especially television. The part played by the media, especially BSkyB, in bringing about structural changes in English football and rugby league since the 1990s are explored against this backdrop.Less

Rapid evolution and sexual signals

Marlene Zuk and Robin M. Tinghitella

in Sociobiology of Communication: an interdisciplinary perspective

Surprisingly few examples of rapid evolutionary change in behavioral traits have been documented in nature, yet circumstances favoring rapid evolution in other traits apply equally well to behaviour, ... More

Surprisingly few examples of rapid evolutionary change in behavioral traits have been documented in nature, yet circumstances favoring rapid evolution in other traits apply equally well to behaviour, including animal signals. This chapter considers the role of signals in rapid evolution and the way behavior influences evolutionary change. Because communication involves interactions between individuals, changes in signal structure or production must be accompanied by change in the receiver, which means that behaviour itself can constrain evolution. Alternatively, behaviour may facilitate contemporary evolution. The chapter reviews the literature as well as work presented in this chapter with a field cricket in which pre-existing behavioural plasticity apparently facilitated spread of a mutation that silences males, simultaneously eliminating their sexual signal and protecting them from a parasitoid.Less

Empire of Sport: The Early British Impact on Recreation

Ronojoy Sen

in Nation at Play: A History of Sport in India

The arrival of the British and the introduction of English sport in India.

Domestic Sports: State, Club, Office, and Regiment (1947–1970)

Ronojoy Sen

in Nation at Play: A History of Sport in India

The regional variations in the development of sport in India and the role played by clubs, corporate business and the armed forces.

1971 and After: The Religion Called Cricket

Ronojoy Sen

in Nation at Play: A History of Sport in India

How cricket swamped all other sports in India.

University and College Sport

H. S. Jones

in The History of the University of Oxford: Volume VII: Nineteenth-Century Oxford, Part 2

By 1850, the Boat Race, though not yet known by that lapidary title, had an established place in the sporting calendar of Oxford University. It was almost (though not quite) an annual fixture, and ... More

By 1850, the Boat Race, though not yet known by that lapidary title, had an established place in the sporting calendar of Oxford University. It was almost (though not quite) an annual fixture, and was regarded as ‘the great event of the aquatic year’ and ‘the greatest of all aquatic reunions’. The Oxford–Cambridge cricket match, a still more venerable fixture, had established itself as an annual contest, but excited less public interest than its counterpart on the river. These were, however, the only two inter-university contests yet established; the concept of the ‘blue’ had not yet emerged; and Lord's was not yet established as the permanent venue for the cricket match. Sport in Oxford had not taken on a recognizably modern form; netther had the word ‘sport’ assumed its modern meaning, for to the Oxford undergraduate of the 1850s it still meant hunting, whereas rowing, cricket, and boxing were ‘athletic pursuits’. The half-century that followed saw the establishment of the distinctive patterns of modern Oxford sport and, indeed, of undergraduate leisure.Less

Sport in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Alan Bairner

in Ulster Since 1600: Politics, Economy, and Society

The interplay of politics and sport is a major theme in the social and cultural history of Ulster. The origins of many of the games popular in Ulster today go deep in time. With the rise of Irish ... More

The interplay of politics and sport is a major theme in the social and cultural history of Ulster. The origins of many of the games popular in Ulster today go deep in time. With the rise of Irish nationalism certain games came to be categorised as Gaelic (Gaelic football, hurling, handball and camóige), while other games such as cricket, rugby, soccer and hockey were stigmatised as ‘foreign’. Sport became both a way to escape political and social hardship and a key factor ‘in the construction and reproduction of competing identities’. Some games had clear provincial elements in their organisation: for example the Ulster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union established in 1879 and the Ulster Council of the GAA in 1903. But representation at international, including Olympic, level has posed problems for individual sports people. The debate about sport and politics continues to this day.Less

A man’s playground

Mark Hampton

in Hong Kong and British Culture, 1945-97

Post-war Hong Kong was not merely an arena for developing capitalism, modernisation, and good governance; it was also a site for leisure. Above all, Hong Kong was described as a venue for male ... More

Post-war Hong Kong was not merely an arena for developing capitalism, modernisation, and good governance; it was also a site for leisure. Above all, Hong Kong was described as a venue for male leisure. This included recreating institutions familiar from home, such as sport and clubs, and allowing a wider range of sexual opportunity than the UK did, even in an era of “permissiveness”. Commentators, including for example Ian Fleming, described Hong Kong as a place in which European and American men could enjoy easy access to Asian women’s bodies, thanks to the conjunction of poverty and a traditional desire of Asian women to please men. The archetype of such a woman was Richard Mason’s character Suzie Wong. Whereas the enjoyment of heterosexual opportunity required a moderate amount of discretion, homosexual liaisons—criminal offenses for most of the Colonial period—required virtual secrecy. The latter point is illustrated by the death of police inspector John MacLennan.Less

Cricket as an Indian Game

Ramin Jahanbegloo

in India Revisited: Conversations on Continuity and Change

In this interview, cricket is discussed as a game with elements that are close to the Indian psyche. Although cricket was initially believed to be an Indian game that was accidentally discovered by ... More

In this interview, cricket is discussed as a game with elements that are close to the Indian psyche. Although cricket was initially believed to be an Indian game that was accidentally discovered by the British, in reality it is the other way around. In his interview, Prabhash Joshi looks at the different facets of cricket, such as the first great Indian cricketer, the first Indians who played cricket, the issues of Indian cricket that Indians are obsessed with, and women cricketers. He also discusses the possibility of cricket becoming an element of cultural globalization in India.Less

‘A common language of the spirit’: cultural awakenings and national belongings

Mary Chamberlain

in Empire and Nation-Building in the Caribbean: Barbados, 1937-66

This chapter focuses on the various cultural activities in colonial Barbados and the role played by them in forging a West Indian identity. Various societies such as Dan Blackett's Social Physical ... More

This chapter focuses on the various cultural activities in colonial Barbados and the role played by them in forging a West Indian identity. Various societies such as Dan Blackett's Social Physical Cultural Club, the Bank Hall Cultural Club, Arlington Newton's Universal Ulotrichian Society and the Forum Club were established with the direct objectives of debate, education and raising cultural consciousness among the Barbadians. Magazines such as Forum and Weymouth Magazine published a range of chapters on political and cultural developments, short stories and poems and advocated a common, West Indian literature and a Federated West Indies. Societies such as the Barbados Memorial Association or the Clennell Wickham Service Club aimed to offer adult education and publish cheap biographies of prominent Barbadians whereas sports Clubs such as the Empire also provided avenues for robust co-operation and the indigenisation of cricket.Less

The Audible Silence

Helmut Satz

in The Rules of the Flock: Self-Organization and Swarm Structure in Animal Societies

Specific American crickets (snowy tree cricket) synchronize their chirps with the others in the swarm, with great precision. The chirp frequency is moreover a measure of the temperature of the ... More

Specific American crickets (snowy tree cricket) synchronize their chirps with the others in the swarm, with great precision. The chirp frequency is moreover a measure of the temperature of the environment, allowing a temperature measurement through chirp counting. Again the synchronization becomes possible only through intrinsic timing devices for each animal.Less

Overwintering in Northern Cricket Frogs (Acris crepitans)

Jason T. Irwin

in Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species

Although winter weather in north-temperate regions may dominate 6–9 months of the year, this season has received relatively little attention in studies of amphibian life history. While some aspects ... More

Although winter weather in north-temperate regions may dominate 6–9 months of the year, this season has received relatively little attention in studies of amphibian life history. While some aspects of behavioral and physiological responses to cold have been elucidated, this understanding has not been generally applied to the management and conservation of amphibian populations. This chapter addresses this issue by providing a basic description of the various overwintering methods used by amphibians and of the physiological responses that accompany these methods. It also describes the unique overwintering method of northern cricket frogs (Acris crepitans) and considers how their physiology and winter habitat use may be contributing to the recent severe cricket frog population declines, especially in the northern portions of their range. First, it examines the relationship between hibernation behavior/physiology and species decline. It then proposes a scenario that best explains long-term extinction of populations, rather than reduced population size.Less

Currency

Deirdre Coleman

in Henry Smeathman, the Flycatcher: Natural History, Slavery, and Empire in the Late Eighteenth Century

Since slaves are the chief currency on the coast, and the Banana islands were an important holding place prior to shipping, Smeathman starts trading in them, revealing in his letters the intertwining ... More

Since slaves are the chief currency on the coast, and the Banana islands were an important holding place prior to shipping, Smeathman starts trading in them, revealing in his letters the intertwining of natural history with the slave trade and the rise of racial science, the latter bolstered by Linnean classification. Most of this chapter is set on the slave factories of Bunce Island and the Isles de Los, where the Linnaean botanist Anders Berlin dies and where Smeathman further observes the ships’ captains, sailors and surgeons as they load their human cargoes. He also comments on the vicious guns-for-slaves cycle, composing a gothic set-piece on the horror of slavery, but including in this picture the trade’s orderly economy.Less

Post-Sports

Steve Redhead

in We Have Never Been Postmodern: Theory at the Speed of Light

This chapter investigates some aspects of the speeding-up of sport and sports media in contemporary accelerated culture alongside a generalised rethinking of the sociology of modernity. In a 1990s ... More

This chapter investigates some aspects of the speeding-up of sport and sports media in contemporary accelerated culture alongside a generalised rethinking of the sociology of modernity. In a 1990s book of essays entitled Sport and Postmodern Times Brian Pronger coined the term ‘post-sport’ when reviewing the transgression of the body in sport within queer theory. But the term ‘post-sport’ also connotes a more apocalyptic place for sport and sport media: the world, for instance, of ubiquitous illegal betting dominated scandals in international cricket and the corrupt practices of financial incentives for sport media event bids like the World Cup within FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, from the 1990s onwards, and the ‘live’ global sport media coverage of such events.Less