You are here
Back to topAnyone but England: Cricket, Race and Class (Paperback)
Description
Anyone But England is a detailed exploration into the origins of cricket; the romance, cultural identity, hypocrisy, flaws of governance and glory of the game. Mike Marqusee, an American who fell in love with cricket when he moved to the UK in the 1970s, looks at the history of elitism and empire, and how race and class have always been issues in the game. Scrutinising the long saga of South Africa's exclusion from world cricket, Marqusee charts England's collusion with apartheid, and also details an eye-opening account of Pakistan's controversial 'ball-tampering' tour of England, which provoked intense debate amongst cricket fans about the role of both the media and racism in the modern game. Showing that supporting the game does not mean you need be blind to its flaws, Marqusee's passion and enthusiasm for cricket is threaded through every element of Anyone But England.
Winner of the Aberdare Literary Prize, awarded by the British Society of Sports History, 1994
Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, 1994
About the Author
Mike Marqusee (1953–2015) – journalist, political activist, and author – was born in New York City, and emigrated to Britain in 1971, where he developed a love of cricket.
As well as his many books, Mike published articles in (among others), the Guardian, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, the Observer, Index on Censorship, BBC History Magazine, New Left Review, Race and Class, The Nation, Colorlines, India Today, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Frontline, and Outlook. He was a columnist for the Indian newspaper, The Hindu, and for the British left-wing magazine Red Pepper.
In addition to his writing, Mike was active for several decades in numerous campaigns for social justice. In the early 1980s he was a youth worker and trade union activist. For twenty years he was an active member of the Labour Party, and a long-time editor of and contributor to Labour Briefing. In 1995, he helped set up Hit Racism for Six, a campaign against racism in cricket. After leaving the Labour party in 2000, he helped establish both the Stop the War Coalition and Iraq Occupation Focus. On 15 February 2003, he was a speaker at the half million strong anti-war demonstration in New York City. In later years, he was a dedicated campaigner in support of the National Health Service.
In 2005, Mike Marqusee was named an Honorary Faculty Fellow by the University of Brighton in recognition of his 'contribution to the development of a critically-based form of journalistic scholarship in the social, cultural and political nature of contemporary global sport.'
Praise For…
"This is a different kind of cricket book, a very different kind ... Marqusee is withering in his exposure of the racism and hypocrisy prevalent in the English cricket scene" - Indian Review of Books
"Mike Marqusee is an American, a socialist, and a cricket-lover. The alchemy of this unique combination has contributed to the production of this remarkable book. To call it a book on cricket would be a gross misnomer ... It weaves together the social history of English cricket with the social history of England in a manner which is as unique as it is brilliant. It is doing a sort of CLR James on English cricket ... The book is laced with insightful comments about the relationship between cricket, the nation and the market. Quite fascinating" - Prabhat Patnaik, Frontline (India)
"Funny, disturbing and deeply provocative ... A ruthless analysis of why the English whine’" - Hindustan Times
"Mike Marqusee knows and loves cricket and both qualities shine through his brilliant contribution to cricket literature. Neither blinds him to the reality that cricket in Britain is shot through with hypocrisy and a corrupt and vicious nationalism which perverts the supposed ideals of the game. In this, he puts most cricket writers to shame ... His style, while gently ironic, is charged with deadly truth" - Salim Salaam, Race and Class
"An unusual and extremely thought provoking book. It is also a unique book which transcends all the known genres of cricket writing ... Even those who do not agree with all that Marqusee has to say on the politics of cricket and the prejudices of the English will accept that he has provided a novel and a much needed perspective on the noblest game of them all" - Rudrangshu Mukherjee, The Telegraph (Calcutta)
"Certainly puts the ball tampering affair in its proper perspective. An excellent critical analysis of English cricket" - Imran Khan
"A devastating treatise on the various ills plaguing the game in the land of its birth" - Gulu Ezekiel, Financial Express (India)
"An American socialist cricket-lover strips back the game’s history to reveal venality and racism. The strengths of the book lie in its passion and in the meticulous retelling of cricket’s development ... Only an outsider who has come to the game late in life could articulate its peculiarities so well. Cricket is refreshed through his eyes" - Sunday Times
"Cricket’s iconoclast-in-chief" - Simon O’Hagan, Wisden Cricket Monthly
"If you enjoy cricket but despise the stripy tie world of the cricket establishment, Marqusee’s book is what you’ve been waiting for. Its beauty and originality is its insistence that it is possible to love the game while understanding that it is a game, nothing more or less ... here is something for the supporter on the bench, not the executive box" - Mark Steel
"A fine representative of the vibrant but little known tradition linking cricket and the British left ... His perspective is unusual, and he can write" - Matthew Engel, Guardian
"The most perceptive, challenging and irreverent book on cricket since CLR James’ magnificent classic, Beyond a Boundary ... Mike Marqusee has studied the game and the political, commercial and racist ramifications with the thoroughness of a social scientist. CLR James started it all. Marqusee is a most worthy successor. Anyone But England deserves an honoured place in your library" - Caribbean Times
"The New Cricket Culture’s origins can be traced to 1994, and a genuinely different cricket book – Anyone But England ... Marqusee used it as a platform to declare his distaste for a whole range of organisations, activities, and methods dear to the conservative English – with a focus on cricket" - The Australian Magazine
"The book’s argument is powerful and well-sustained. The cricket bosses do not come out of it well, nor do they deserve to. Unfortunately, it is certain that few of them will read it. County members might just be stirred by its polemic, because after all Marqusee actually likes the damn game! And maybe he likes the English too" - British Society of Sports History
"The national game’s meandering voyage down the proverbial corridor of uncertainty is traced with masterly effect by Marqusee, a cricket-loving American leftie ... Better than CLR James on speed, there are thousands of us who’ve been waiting years for this" - The Modern Review
"Anyone But England is written with honesty and serious intentions by an author who wants to see the game escape from its current slough of despond" - Andrew Shields, Time Out
"A transatlantic wowser" - Michael Henderson, The Times
"For the true believer of the cricket cult, the game is built on articles of faith. The cult has its saints, its heroes, its cathedral at Lord’s, and in the shape of Mike Marqusee it has a heretic ... Mike Marqusee never fails to involve and inform" - Southeast London Sportscene
"He writes well, if with a warped intelligence" - E. W. Swanton
"A damning study of the history of the game, sure to rock the very foundations of Lord’s. Anyone But England is not only a must for cricket fans, but a must for anyone interested in the social fabric of this country" - Irish World
"A very intelligent book, very cleverly written, with a lot that provokes thought. But I am uneasy about the way that he has a go at just about everything cricketers hold sacred" - Christopher Martin-Jenkins, Test Match Special
"Mike Marqusee could hardly have made a ruder impact on the summer if he were Keith Chegwyn banging on Ray Illingworth’s door at seven in the morning with a film crew in tow ... If this doesn’t make them break wind in the Test Match Special oxygen tent, nothing will" - Kevin Mitchell, Observer
"Marqusee has immersed himself in cricket and this book is the result of an enormous exercise in assimilating a sporting culture without absorbing an accompanying bias and subjective national cultural value. This is what makes his book unique, the depth of his understanding of the beauty of the action of cricket ... He writes movingly about both the dancers and the dance ... Among books of the world of sport there are few which also express the sport of the world in all its representation of real life and struggle. Anyone But England is one, a commentary on our times" - Chris Searle, Morning Star
"The book that everyone’s talking about ... The elegant and concise accounts of the origin of the game, its romance with the British empire, are a must for all cricket fans ... the book is an entertaining and fascinating exploration of cricket and it will come as a revelation to many" - Eastern Eye
"As intelligent an analysis of the relationship between a country and its national sport as you are likely to find" - Hampstead and Highgate Express
"Surprisingly witty and perceptive (for an American, do we hear you add?) – a fascinating book" - The Good Book Guide
"An entertaining read, full of delightful information ... it peers beneath the romance of the game to examine commercialism, racism and the role of cricket as some kind of epitome of Englishness" - Simon Rocker, Jewish Chronicle
"Marqusee’s overall project is trying to understand the relationship between cricket and society in England, especially in a period in which the game has been undergoing far-reaching transformation ... Marqusee’s book brilliantly captures the deep racism, arrogance, hypocrisy, elitism and classism which still pervades English cricket ... On England and South Africa his account is fascinating ... highly perceptive ..." - Transformation (South Africa)
"A challenging and highly individual study of the game." - The Guardian
"What English cricket has done to deserve him is anyone’s guess." - Marcus Berkman, Wisden Cricket Monthly
"That splendid American iconoclast." - Robin Marlar, Sunday Times
"Those who love a good moan will be in ecstasy as they plough through these pages ... Anyone But England is perceptive and it will instruct and entertain" - David Frith, Wisden Cricket Monthly
"A thoroughly researched, historic class analysis of cricket’s origins and recent controversies" - Socialist Outlook
"Marqusee has a keen eye for hypocrisy, the quintessential English vice ... the average reader of the Daily Telegraph will find much to agree with in this book. Marqusee has fallen in love with the English game" - Adam Sisman, The Observer
"Anyone But England is a book for anyone with an interest in cricket which goes beyond merely the runs scored and wickets taken. It shows that the game cannot be isolated from the political, economic and cultural context that it is set in. The author has done a great job in tying together the diverse themes of cricket, the nation and the market" - Business Standard India
"The slightly barking but always readable Mike Marqusee" - Tim Rice, Daily Telegraph
"Marqusee’s love of cricket shines throughout this book like the floodlights at the Melbourne Cricket Ground ... enlightening, informative, entertaining and controversial" - Labour Briefing
"His book is rich in insight and makes fascinating reading ... a wonderfully invigorating read and a very welcome corrective to an unreflective view of the charms of leather on willow" - John Gaustad, Sportspages bookshop
"The book is on a small shelf with only a handful of others that have criticised our national game. His application to join the MCC would, I am sure, end up in the waste paper basket ..." - Camden New Journal
"Marqusee is a skilled historian who knows and loves the game and knows, but does not always love, the British. His is a wide-ranging book that is arguably the most important sociological study of cricket since CLR James ... Anyone But England is an authoritative account and analysis of the tortured entanglements of English cricket with class, race and empire. It is also stunningly topical" - Ramachandra Guha, Telegraph (Calcutta)
"Best of the Year" - Mail on Sunday sports book review
"Constantly perceptive ... wise, witty and well-written" - Tribune
"The panache of his approach and obvious love of the game challenge the assumption that only those who grow up with cricket can know the game as it should be known ... His thesis is enriched by transatlantic elements ... a book that contrives to be both cerebral and entertaining" - The Times
"The fascinating aspect here is a history of cricket written by an outsider- l’étranger ... what makes his history of the game and its early development remarkable is the novel-like quality of the narrative. The case is presented with the felicity of a QC’ " - R Mohan, The Hindu
"The author’s American background enables him to see matters from an unusual perspective; the result is a book which is indeed provocative and controversial, and has proved one of the surprise successes of the summer" - Kettering Evening Telegraph
"The best sports book of the year was Anyone But England by Mike Marqusee, an unlikely study of English decline by an unlikely man" - Irish Press
"The book is well worth the read though you may find yourself at serious odds with the author and that’s no bad thing" - Cricket World
"There may have been many cricket histories (too many even) but none that I have come across that takes so much perceived wisdom about cricket, England, pastoral idylls and the role of the establishment and gives them a thoroughly good, and richly deserved, kicking ... you should read this book, whatever your politics" - Matthew Lloukes, Johnny Miller 96*
Welcome to Next Page!
Click below to read our Newsletter!
Check out our Author Resource page at the link below
Our Pre-Orders are here! Check out what we have in store!