Search results

Despite a surge of writing on sport in the islands of the Pacific, contemporary scholarship has remained tightly focused on those sports (men) most visible on the global stage today. Other games and sports, other players and other times have yet to receive the same attention. This chapter represents an initial effort to redress some of these omissions by exploring the past and present of cricket in the region. While cricket was the first successful ludic import to the Pacific, the game owes its significance there to more than mere longevity. Introduced by British ‘agents of empire’ in the long 19th century, cricket was – in the hands of Islanders – transformed into distinctive local forms such as Trobriand cricket and Samoan kirikiti. Explaining and theorising these changes to the game's method and meaning, I argue, provides a framework for understanding other indigenous and indigenised sporting practices in the region and beyond. A focus on cricket also enables us to interrogate sport's significance in the daily lives of not only elite male athletes but also a more diverse cast of Islanders – most notably women and girls. In these and other ways, the example of cricket demonstrates the value of looking back to historicise sport's significance and beyond the ‘usual sporting suspects’. By looking back and beyond, we can move towards a broader and deeper perspective of sporting cultures in the region.