Bi-directional Cultural Traffic and the Evolution of an Australian Cricketing Identity

Abstract

This chapter examines the development of bi-directional cultural traffic as Australia began to send their own cricket teams to tour the metropole (or ‘home’, as it was often termed by contemporaries). These tours introduced Australians (and Australia) to a metropolitan audience, showing that while there were a number of similarities there were also discernable differences. Although it was common to hear contemporaries pronounce that these Anglo-Australian cricket tours contributed to British World unity and amity, this bi-directional cultural traffic also brought to light important sources of tension—the most rancorous being the categorisation of the Australians as semi-professionals—that served to undercut this British World hyperbole. In turn, these tensions effected subtle yet significant shifts in the mediated Australian cricketing identity.