Introduction: Cricket at the beginning of the long twenty-first century

This article provides an introduction to the Special Issue, Cricket in the Twenty-First Century. It argues that cricket’s struggle for global recognition and the shifting concerns about cricket’s perceived ‘character’ provide two of the most significant meta-narratives to shape the game’s historical and future development. However, in contrast to the degree of continuity these narratives appear to provide, the article argues that the game is currently undergoing a particularly rapid and radical phase of change. The contents of this Special Issue illustrates the processes that will dominate in the twenty-first century. These can be broadly categories as the changing political economy of the game, the national-specific manifestations of cricket’s political-economic landscape, and the intro- and retrospection within the English game. The article concludes with a state-of-the-art review of cricket scholarship, and some recommendations for future research agendas.