Skip to main content

Cricket, Professionalism, and Economics

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Professionalism and Commercialism in Australian Cricket
  • 24 Accesses

Abstract

Sport has long been a central feature of Australian popular culture. The colonial sporting culture that emerged in Australia in the nineteenth century was highly derivative of the games and recreational pastimes of the United Kingdom. In Australia, the adoption of these sports was both a way to preserve and develop the country’s links with Britain but also to enable the country to compete in sporting contests with the mother country.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abbott, Malcolm (2014), ‘A long-term view of Australian cricket payments’, Sport in History, 34(1): 113–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Australia, Office of Sport, Department of Health (2020), Sports Industry Economic Analysis: Exploring the Size and Growth Potential of the Sport Industry in Australia (Canberra ACT: KPMG).

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021), Census of Population and Housing (Canberra: ABS).

    Google Scholar 

  • Adair, Daryl, Nauright, John, and Phillips, Murray, (1998), ‘Playing fields through to battle fields: the development of Australian sporting manhood in its imperial context, c. 1850–1918’, Journal of Australian Studies, 22(56): 51–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altman, Harry S. and Swanton, Ernest W. (1948), A History of Cricket (London UK: George Allen and Unwin).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhattacharya, Mita and Smyth, Russell (2003), ‘The game is not the same: the demand for test match cricket in Australia’, Australian Economic Papers, 42(1): 77–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bird, Peter (1982), ‘The demand for league football’, Applied Economics, 14: 637–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birley, Derek (1999), A Social History of English Cricket (London UK: Aurum).

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackman, Julian and Chapman, Bruce (2004), ‘The value of Don Bradman: additional revenue in Australian ashes tests’, Economic Papers; A Journal of Applied Economics and Policy, 23(4): 369–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Booth, Ross (2009), ‘Sports economics’, Australian Economic Review, 42(3): 377–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowen, Rowland (1970), Cricket: A History Its Growth and Development Throughout the World (London UK: Eyre and Spottiswoode).

    Google Scholar 

  • Cain, Louis P. and Haddock, David D. (2005), ‘Similar economic histories, different industrial structures: transatlantic contrasts in the evolution of professional sports leagues’, Journal of Economic History, 65(4): 1116–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cairns, John, Jannet, Nicholas, and Sloane, Peter (1986), ‘The economics of professional team sports: a survey of theory and evidence’, Journal of Economic Studies, 13(1): 3–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Canberra Times (Canberra ACT: Canberra Times).

    Google Scholar 

  • Cashman, Richard (2010), Paradise of Sport: A History of Australian Sport (Petersham NSW: Walla Walla Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Cricket Australia (2021), Annual Report (Melbourne VIC: Cricket Australia).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dabscheck, Braham (2011), ‘Players shares of revenue in Australia and overseas professional, teams’, Labour and Industry: A Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work, 22(1–2): 57–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demmert, Henry (1973), The Economics of Professional Team Sports (Lexington: D.C. Heath and Co.).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, D.G., Stewart, K.G., Jones, J.C.H., and Le Dressay, A. (1991), ‘The pricing of sports events: do teams maximize profits’, Journal of Industrial Economics, 24(3): 297–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fort, Rodney (2000), ‘Market power in pro sports: problems and solutions’, in W.S. Kern (ed.), The Economics of Sports (Kalamazoo MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research): 7–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fort, Rodney and Quirk, John (1995), ‘Cross-subsidization, incentives and outcome in professional team sports leagues’, Journal of Economic Literature, 33(3): 1265–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gratton, Chris and Taylor, Peter (2000) Economics of Sport and Recreation (London UK and New York NY: Spon Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Haigh, Gideon (1993), The Cricket War—The Inside Story of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket (Melbourne VIC: Text Publishing).

    Google Scholar 

  • Haynes, Richard (2009) ‘The early courtship of television and sport: the case of cricket, 1938–1956’, Journal of Sport History, 36(3): 415–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Highnell, Andrew (1999) Rain Stops Play (London UK: Frank Cass).

    Google Scholar 

  • Huberman, Michael and Minns, Chris (2007), ‘The times they are not changin’: Days and hours of work in Old and New Worlds, 1870–2000’, Explorations in Economic History, 44: 538–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hynds, Michael and Smith, Ian (1994), ‘The demand for test match cricket’, Applied Economic Letters, 1(7): 103–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jannet, Nicholas (1984), ‘Attendance, uncertainty of outcome and policy in Scottish league football’, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 31: 76–198.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, Daniel, Thaler, Richard, and Knetsch, Jack L. (1986), ‘Fairness as a constraint on profit seeking: entitlement in the market’, American Economic Review, 76: 728–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • McFarlane, Peter (1977), A Game Divided (Richmond VIC: Hutchinson Australia).

    Google Scholar 

  • Maddison Historical Statistics (2022), Maddison Project. https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/?lang=en.

  • Mandle, William F. (1973), ‘Games people played: cricket and football in England and Victoria in the late nineteenth century’, Historical Studies, 15(60): 511–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morley, Bruce and Thomas, Dennis (2007), ‘Attendance demand and core support: evidence from limited overs cricket’, Applied Economics, 39(16): 2085–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neale, Walter (1964), ‘The peculiar economics of professional sports’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 78: 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noll, Roger (1974), ‘Attendance and price setting’, in R. Noll (ed.), Government and the Sports Business (Washington DC: Brookings Institution).

    Google Scholar 

  • Okun, Arthur, (1981), Prices and Quantities: A Macroeconomic Analysis (Washington DC: Brookings).

    Google Scholar 

  • Paton, David and Cooke, Andrew (2016), ‘Attendance at county cricket: an economic analysis’, Journal of Sports Economics, 6(1): 24–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pollard, Jack (1987), The Turbulent Years: 1893–1917 (North Ryde, NSW: Angus and Robertson).

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard, Jack (1989), Bradman to Border: Australian Cricket 1948–1989 (North Ryde, NSW: Angus and Robertson).

    Google Scholar 

  • Quirk, James and El Hodiri, Mohamed (1974), ‘The economic theory of a professional sports league’, in Government and Posrts Business: Papers Prepared for a Conference of Experts, with an Introduction and Summary, 33–80 (Washington DC: Brookings Institution).

    Google Scholar 

  • Rottenberg, Simon (1956), ‘The baseball players’ labor market’, Journal of Political Economy, 64(242): 242–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russell, Dave (1996), ‘Sport and identity: the case of the Yorkshire Cricket Club 1890–1939’, Twentieth Century British History, 7(2): 206–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sachetti, Abhinav, Gregory-Smith, Ian, and Paton, David (2014), ‘Uncertainty of outcome or strengths of teams: an economic analysis of attendance demand for international cricket’, Applied Economics, 46(17): 2034–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sachetti, Abhinav, Paton, David, and Gregory-Smith, Ian (2016), ‘An economic analysis of attendance demand for one day international cricket’, Economic Records, 92(296): 121–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandiford, Keith A.P. (1982a), ‘English cricket crowds during the Victorian Age’, Journal of Sport History, 9: 5–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandiford, Keith A.P. (1982b), ‘Cricket and the Victorians; a historiological essay’, Historical Reflections, 9: 421–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandiford, Keith A.P. and Vamplew, Wray (2007), ‘The peculiar economics of English cricket before 1914’, The International Journal of the History of Sport, 3(3): 311–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schofield, John A. (1982), ‘The development of first-class cricket in England: an economic analysis’, The Journal of Industrial Economics, 30(4): 337–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scully, Gerald W. (1989), The Business of Major League Baseball (Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Siegfried, John and Eisenberg, Jeff (1980), ‘The demand for minor league baseball’, Atlantic Economic Journal, 8: 59–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simmons, Robert (1996), ‘The demand for English league football, a club-level analysis’, Applied Economics, 28: 139–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sissons, Ric (1988), The Players: A Social History of the Professional Cricketer (Sydney NSW: Pluto Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Sloane, Peter (1971), ‘The economics of professional football: the football club as a utility maximiser’, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 18(2): 121–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sports Australia (2018), AusPlay Results, website: https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/research/ausplay/results.

  • Szymanski, Stefan and Wigmore, Tim (2022), Criconomics: The Anatomy of Modern Cricket (London UK: Bloomsbury).

    Google Scholar 

  • Szymanski, Stefan and Zimbalist, Andrew (2005), National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer (Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Vamplew, Wray (1988), Pay Up and Play the Game: Professional Sport in Britain 1875–1914 (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, Jack (1999), Cricket and England: A Cultural and Social History of the Inter-War Years (London: F. Cass).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, John K. and Pomfret, Richard (2014), Public Policy and Professional Sports: International and Australian Experiences (Cheltenham UK: Edward Elgar).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wright, April L. and Zammuto, Raymond F. (2013), ‘Creating opportunities for institutional entrepreneurship: the colonel and the cup in English County Cricket’, Journal of Business Venturing, 28(1): 51–68.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Malcolm Abbott .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Abbott, M. (2023). Cricket, Professionalism, and Economics. In: Professionalism and Commercialism in Australian Cricket. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7669-0_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7669-0_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-99-7668-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-99-7669-0

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics