The Making of New Zealand Cricket: 1832-1914

This book examines the emergence and growth of cricket in relation to diverse patterns of European settlement in New Zealand, such as the systematic colonization schemes of Edward Gibbon Wakefield and the gold discoveries of the 1860s. It then considers issues such as cricket and social class in the emerging cities; cricket and the elite school system; the function of the game in shaping relations between the New Zealand provinces; cricket encounters with the Australian colonies in the context of an Australasian world; and, perhaps most importantly, cricketing relations with England at a time when New Zealand society was becoming acutely conscious of both its own identity and its place within the British Empire.