The Diffusion of Cricket to America: A Figurational Sociological Examination.

This paper examines the historical development of cricket in America and seeks to explain why, despite having a significant initial impact, the game ultimately became culturally marginal. It is argued that class and cricketing relations in England in the mid-nineteenth century had a significant and hitherto unacknowledged impact on the diffusion of the game to America, and that this unplanned social process can only be understood in the light of the specific interdependencies between the British and Anglo-Americans, between upper and lower class English immigrants, and between English immigrants and “Native White Americans”. Correlatively, this analysis spreads new light on the establishment of baseball as America’s national game, illustrating a greater level of dependence on the English and English sport than is traditionally attributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]