Playing the Game?- Cricket’s Tarnished Ideals from Bodyline to the Present

Of all games, cricket has long prided itself on its ethical traditions, but to modern sceptics the idea of cricket encapsulating a higher morality is actually something of a myth. Playing the Game? looks at the changing ethics of cricket, from its gentlemanly roots right up until the present day. After decades of sledging, intimidatory bowling, blatant gamesmanship and dissent, the MCC adopted ‘The Spirit of Cricket’ in 2000 in an attempt to reclaim the game’s original ethos – but was it already too late? While the concept is a noble one, its impact has so far been limited, as award-winning cricket scribe Mark Peel explains.