Cricket’s history from origins as a money-making enterprise to global product with the long-form game now under serious threat is recorded in a new book reviewed by Eric Brown…
BY ERIC BROWN
Test cricket can seem a brutal business, with batsmen sometimes struggling to avoid injury at the hands of enthusiastic fast bowlers aiming repeatedly at body or head.
Such individual duels as the Alan Donald v Michael Atherton classic, plus West Indies fearsome pace attack, England’s Ashes bodyline barrage and the short ball tactics of Lillee and Thompson have entered cricket folklore.
Back in cricket’s formative years, the sport could be even more dangerous. In 1624 at Horsted Keynes, Sussex, the first recorded on-field death occurred when Jasper Vinall was hit on the head with a cricket bat and died from his injuries.
It was then legal for a batsman to try preventing a catch by hitting the ball a second time. Vinall got in the way. Fielder Henry Brand became a second fatality in similar circumstances in 1647, and a century passed before hitting the ball twice was outlawed.
Cricket, from its brutal beginnings until the present, has been painstakingly set out and explored in a superb history by two former journalists from the Mail stable in their book ‘Full Circle, A History of Cricket.’
Why Full Circle? Well, Richard Heller, who worked for the Mail on Sunday and The Times, and Peter Oborne, formerly of The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph, discovered that a sport originating as a cash cow for wealthy private landowners has now returned to its money-generating roots.
They claim it is now once more a commercial enterprise through the wealth and scale of franchise cricket and argue some forms of the sport face an uncertain future through the intervention of private enterprise and climate change.
Back at the start, teams would be raised by the local squire, landlord or aristocrat with heavy gambling in mind. Often they employed pugilists as manual labourers, jockeys as stablehands and cricketers as gardeners, then challenged the neighbouring estate owner to compete with his men.
Enormous sums were wagered on outcomes and personal performances, with fortunes being won or lost. The authors compare this approach to such contemporary competitions as the Indian Premier League and The Hundred, where private equity holds the cards instead of English landowners.
Great evening on 16th June for @CricketSociety members at @CSC_LondonSW1 where Peter Oborne & Richard Heller talked about their fine new book ‘Full Circle: A History of Cricket’, prompted by @peterhardy51 & a very lively audience. pic.twitter.com/32R1162jkR
— The Cricket Society (@CricketSociety) June 20, 2026
Most Test-playing nations now have their own short forms of cricket, which, the authors argue, threatens the survival of county cricket, state cricket and the longest form of the sport, Test cricket.
They point out that the financial incentives of IPL participation already affect Tests. With The Hundred now contracted for prime summer months, England’s county championship has been marginalised to spectator-unfriendly April, September and October.
This means the first rounds of matches clash with the IPL and later affect Test selection. Players bound to the IPL are unavailable for early county matches, which establish form for Test selection. We have recently seen both Jacob Bethell and Joffra Archer miss England Tests to remain at the IPL. In effect, India, already cricket’s global rulers, are picking England’s Test team.
Another threat to long-form cricket, including Tests, has been identified by the authors. They say that warmer weather globally will plunge cricket into a survival battle.
There are already warning signs. Glenn Maxwell’s double century in the 2023 World Cup was interrupted by his collapse in 84 per cent humidity and a temperature of 34C.
During the recent England v New Zealand Test at Trent Bridge, the pitch temperature was recorded at just over 36C.
Prospective IPL recruits should beware both searing temperatures and pollution in India. In one T20 international at smog-choked Delhi, players vomited openly on the pitch. During England’s 2020-21 tour of India, both sides were compelled to play Test cricket for six hours a day in Ahmedabad when the city’s population was warned to stay indoors.
Cricket’s modern-day problems seem a world away from the early days, when a swirling bat spelt danger. But unless cricket quickly unites to solve its problems, there may be similar deadly consequences.
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