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University Cricket and Emerging Adulthood pp 1–37Cite as

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Introduction: A Day in the Dirt

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Abstract

This chapter provides a methodological and theoretical backdrop to the study, locating the research in the respective fields it informs, and details the context and method of investigation. It introduces the expression a “day in the dirt” as an unfolding research problem and unpacks, in connection with theoretical and empirical literature, the experiences of a group of student-cricketers attempting to decide who they are and what they want to do during a transitional period of their lives. The introduction concludes with an outline of the monograph’s structure and a synopsis of the chapters.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Parlance for cricket bat.

  2. 2.

    The score and situation of the match expressed in runs scored (by the side batting) and wickets taken (by the side bowling).

  3. 3.

    In total, there are eighteen professional county cricket teams in England and Wales who compete against each other domestically in a two-tier, ‘first-class’ competition, The County Championship.

  4. 4.

    Data on history of the Varsity Match retrieved from: http://cricketarchive.com/.

  5. 5.

    For more information on the origins of the university centres of cricket excellence go to: https://www.ecb.co.uk/news/domestic/mcc-universities.

  6. 6.

    Founded in 1787, the MCC is the largest private members cricket club in the world who sponsor a number of cricketing initiatives aimed at developing the game both nationally and internationally. Representing part of the cricketing establishment historically , the MCC remain involved in the governance of the game as guardian of the Laws and ‘Spirit of Cricket.’

  7. 7.

    See also https://www.lords.org/mcc/youth-cricket/mcc-universities/centres-of-excellence/.

  8. 8.

    For more information on types of youth sports see European Commission DG Education and Culture’s final report on the Education of Young Sports Persons (2004).

  9. 9.

    For a journalistic account of what cricketers get up to at the end of their careers, see Felix White (May, 2017) on ‘life after cricket’ in issue 152 of All Out Cricket Magazine.

  10. 10.

    ‘Minor’ county cricket differs from ‘major’ county cricket primarily for its ‘minor’, amateur status and represents an organizationally distinct division of the game in England and Wales.

  11. 11.

    ‘Summer contracts’, otherwise known as ‘development contracts’ are a cost-effective way that county teams retain young players and bolster their professional playing squads. They are often short—one or two seasons in length—comprising of two to three months of the playing season only and are easily extended in order to monitor how young talent unfolds.

  12. 12.

    Shortest and most explosive format of the game for players and spectators alike with games lasting approximately three hours in length.

  13. 13.

    On the varying degrees of ethnographic engagement, Sugden and Tomlinson (1999, p. 387) distinguished between prolonged forms of ‘depth immersion’ that became characteristic of this research, and more fleeting forms of ‘ethnographic visiting’ which my earliest research encounters reflected.

  14. 14.

    In order to reduce social distance and enhance field relations, I adopted a similar strategy to Fleming (1995, p. 58) who decided to adopt a ‘least authoritative’ role as a ‘sort-of P.E. teacher’ in his school-based study on the leisure lifestyles of South Asian youths (see also Fleming 1997).

  15. 15.

    On the topic of the researcher’s ‘appearance’, Fetterman (1989, p. 56) emphasises the value of honesty when it comes to researchers attempting to adapt their behaviours and manage their image to fit their research surroundings. In his opinion, being ‘natural is more effective than any performance’ as even the most accomplished actor is bound to ‘slip up’ at some stage during the research. That said, the ‘ethnographic self’ is still to be managed in strategic ways to facilitate the process of researching (Hammersely and Atkinson 2007), making ‘identity work’ a pervasive feature of the ethnographic enterprise (Coffey 1999).

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    Harry C. R. Bowles

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Bowles, H.C.R. (2018). Introduction: A Day in the Dirt. In: University Cricket and Emerging Adulthood. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76282-1_1

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