Making Histories, Making Memories

Making Histories, Making Memories

The Construction of Australian Sporting Identities

edited by Rob Hess www.sporthistory.org

asshSTUDIES 20 Australian Society for Sports History

table of contents Making Histories, Making Memories:

The construction of Australian SportING IDENTITIES ASSH Studies No. 20 Editors Rob Hess Victoria University Chair, Publications Committee Editor, Sporting Traditions Interim Editor, ASSH Studies email: [email protected] Tara Magdalinski University College Dublin Editor, ASSH Bulletin Editor, ASSH Website email: [email protected]

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rob Hess

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Chapter One: Remembering Johnny Mullagh: Australia’s History Bernard Whimpress Adelaide Oval Museum Reviews Editor, Sporting Traditions email: [email protected]

Wars and Shifting Memories of an Aboriginal Cricketer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Mark E. O’Neill

Chapter Two: The Kieran Legacy: The Development of

Competitive Swimming in Melbourne, 1900–1908 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rachel Winterton

Chapter Three: Turning Japanese?: The Development of Judo in

Post-War Australia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ai Kobayashi

Editorial Review Board Daryl Adair, University of Canberra • Stephen Alomes, Deakin University • Douglas Booth, University of Waikato • Richard Cashman, University of Technology, Sydney • Braham Dabscheck, University of Melbourne • John Deane, Victoria University • Tom Dunning, University of Tasmania • Lynn Embrey, Edith Cowan University • Warwick Franks, Charles Sturt University • Roy Hay, Deakin University • Ed Jaggard, Edith Cowan University • Ian Jobling, University of Queensland • Andrew Moore, University of Western Sydney • Bill Murray, La Trobe University • John Nauright, Georgia Southern University • John O’Hara, University of Western Sydney • Vicky Paraschak, University of Windsor • Murray Phillips, University of Queensland • Greg Ryan, Lincoln University • June Senyard, University of Melbourne • Clare Simpson, Lincoln University • Bob Stewart, Victoria University • Brian Stoddart, La Trobe University • Wray Vamplew, Stirling University • Patricia Vertinsky, University of British Columbia • Ian Warren, Deakin University • Dwight Zakus, Griffith University.

ASSH is online at www.sporthistory.org Back issues of ASSH Studies are available at www.aafla.org Published by the Australian Society for Sports History Incorporated Melbourne, Australia. © The Australian Society for Sports History 2006 ISBN 978-0-9757616-7-0 Front cover image: courtesy Mark E. O’Neill Back cover photograph: courtesy Mark E. O’Neill Layout and design: Level Playing Field graphic design Printing: On Demand at www.on-demand.com.au

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Chapter Four: Reading Sport in Melbourne: An Analysis of

50 Years of Sports Coverage in the Age Newspaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tim Shellcot

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Chapter Five: Playing by the Rules?: Australian Newspaper

Coverage of Annika Sorenstam's Participation in a 2003 Professional Golf Association Tour Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C. J. Litchfield

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chapter six: Cricket, Male Fast Bowlers, and Australian

Sporting Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Greg Dingle

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Chapter seven: Football Folk Devils: Changes in Newspaper

Representation of Sexual Assault Cases in the Australian Football League . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Alicia Williams

Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

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preface The Australian Society for Sports History (ASSH) has a long tradition of fostering the work of graduate students. Even though ASSH biennial conferences had already commenced in Sydney in 1977, my sports history conference experiences began in 1980 when I attended the ‘First Australian Symposium on the History and Philosophy of Physical Education and Sport’, which was held at the Preston Institute of Technology under the auspices of a Special Interest Group of the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. It was the welcome extended by notable ASSH identities such as Ray Crawford, Ian Jobling, John Deane, Bill Murray, Wray Vamplew and John O’Hara, and the inclusiveness of the other delegates, that set me on the path to my own Honours degree in sports history, which was completed at Monash University in the following year. In 1985, in line with its aspiration to encourage graduate student work, the Society instituted a Student Essay Prize, and in 1987 it created an Honours Dissertation Prize. A number of these submitted works have been published by ASSH in some shape or form, with the ASSH Studies series, first edited by Wray Vamplew, the repository for many of the prize-winning dissertations. These traditions continue in the present volume, which is a collection of articles drawn from entries submitted for the ASSH Honours Dissertation Prize in 2004 and 2005. Several of the authors have already presented their work at ASSH conferences, and the record number of entrants to the competition over the past two years is just one indicator that students continue to find the activities of the Society, and the discipline of sports history, a worthy and productive combination. The material in this volume also provides something of a snapshot of the state of sports history scholarship in Australia, as the chapters, and the theses from which they are drawn, represent current areas of interest and research practices among Honours students. In this sense, it is revealing to note that there are some common threads that run through the seven seemingly disparate works. The pointed discussion of myth-creation and memory-making in the context of Aboriginal cricket history in the chapter by Initially, the Essay Prize was for work written in the previous two years, while the Dissertation Prize was for theses completed in the previous three years. The inaugural winner of the ASSH Student Essay prize was Debra Bryant. See Debra Bryant, ‘To What Extent Did Sport in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Britain Become More of a Business and Less of a Sport?’, ASSH Bulletin, no. 3, April/May 1986, pp. 2-14. The winner of the first Dissertation Prize was Mark Connellan. His work, published as volume five of ASSH Studies, was entitled Mark Connellan, The Ideology of Athleticism, its Antipodean Impact, and its Manifestation in Two Elite Catholic Schools, Australian Society for Sports History, Adelaide, 1987.

Mark E. O’Neill, from the University of Queensland, provided the impetus for the title of this volume, but some of his central concerns are echoed in the following chapters. For example, Rachel Winterton, from Victoria University, also explores the historical dimensions of sporting identity in the nineteenth century, albeit in the area of aquatic cultures, but she grounds her discussion by examining key paradoxes in the sport of swimming. The parameters of sport and identity are stretched even further in an examination of the development of judo in Australia after the Second World War. In this chapter, Ai Kobayashi, from the University of Melbourne, demonstrates how oral history can be an important part of the contested historical record. In terms of historical records, a number of the other chapters show how sophisticated the analysis of press sources has now become, with Tim Shellcot and Chelsea Litchfield, from Victoria University, and Alicia Williams, from the University of Melbourne, applying considerable skill and theoretical awareness to their expositions of sport in Australian newspapers. Greg Dingle, from Victoria University, also explores notions of identity in his almost cathartic study of fast bowlers in Australian cricket, and, like the other contributors, he makes deft use of the theoretical literature to frame his analysis. With hindsight, it seems that, unconsciously or not, the contributors to this volume have mirrored some of the issues raised in a not-too-dissimilar collection of articles that was published in 2001. In the Prologue to a special issue of Culture, Sport, Society, which was devoted to the topic of sport and memory in North America, Stephen Wietung and Judy Polumbaum address the reasons why sport is so important for collective memory. In effect, they confirm the complexities that make sporting memories so integral to the process of 'constituting and reconstituting culture’, whether it is the invoking of sensory processes or the use of narrative and expository conventions. On reflection, it also seems that some of the authors in this book presciently grappled with a number of key ideas and concerns about sports history scholarship that have subsequently been addressed in detail in several recent publications by ASSH members, notably the award-winning book by Douglas Booth, and the anthology edited by Murray Phillips. Hopefully, this volume might contribute something of value to these on-going debates. S. G. Wietung and Judy Polumbaum, ‘Prologue’, Culture, Sport, Society, vol. 4, no. 2, Summer 2001, p. 7. See Douglas Booth, The Field: Truth and Fiction in Sports History, Routledge, London, 2005, and M. G. Phillips (ed.), Deconstructing Sports History: A Postmodern Analysis, State University of New York Press, 2006.

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Finally, thanks are extended to all contributors, their supervisors and examiners, and the judges of the annual ASSH Honours Dissertation Prize, for playing significant roles in the intellectual processes that have resulted in this volume of ASSH Studies. Special congratulations to Mark E. O’Neill, and Rachel Winterton, the respective winners of the 2004 and 2005 ASSH Honours Dissertation Prize. If nothing else, their work, along with the chapters of other contributors, indicates that Australian sports history is heading in worthwhile and challenging directions.

Rob Hess, Interim ASSH Studies Editor

School of Human Movement, Recreation and Performance Centre for Ageing, Rehabilitation, Exercise and Sport Victoria University

Chapter Six

Cricket, Male Fast Bowlers, and Australian Sporting Culture Greg Dingle

Introduction

Cricket occupies a highly significant place in Australia’s sporting culture. According to recent estimates, cricket is Australia’s ‘favourite team sport’ with 56% of Australians having an interest in the game.1 In addition, around 478,000 people play cricket competitively each summer, with approximately 431,000 male and 47,000 female participants.2 Cricket is also historically important. In a seminal article, W. F. Mandle argued that the game played a role in expressing ideas about Australian national identity.3 In a

ASSH Studies 20, pp. 95–114. Published by the Australian Society for Sports History, Melbourne, 2006.

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Greg Dingle Cricket, Male Fast Bowlers, and Australian Sporting Culture

similar vein, Bob Stewart has asserted that cricket symbolises the political and cultural influence of England on Australian society,4 and Richard Cashman has claimed that cricket is part of a cultural legacy described in terms of a ‘British inheritance’.5 However, cricket’s place in Australian sporting culture cannot be explained by reference to statistics or historical developments alone. Cricket, as well as being a national sport, is also a national pastime; it is a social and recreational activity woven into the fabric of daily life. It is played in suburban backyards, in schools, and even on the beach. On the other hand, this prevalent social game has a history of providing Australia with national heroes drawn from elite-level international cricket. These valorised figures, the subject of a vast amount of newspaper analysis and the focus of an increasing number of biographical accounts, are, of course, male. Whilst cricket in this country has many male and female players and spectators, it is clearly a predominantly male activity and so may be quite reasonably described as a ‘gendered’ sport. Attempts to explain cricket’s historical and social importance in this country therefore cannot avoid considerations of gender. One of the reasons cricket can continue to demand a prominent place in contemporary Australian culture is that its male heroes assist with its promotion. Australian cricket’s male stars play their part in so-called ‘circuits of promotion’ that help to reinforce the popularity of the game.6 In Australia, Test and One-Day International cricket played by men are the sport’s primary ‘circuit of promotion’, and one of the most prominent groups of cricketers from this level of the game that are involved in this promotional process are male bowlers, especially male fast bowlers. As a consequence, male fast bowlers are thus notable figures in Australian culture and only a cursory glance at the Australian sport media in the summer months each year is required to confirm this. Cricket dominates the sport media in Australia and Australian male fast bowlers are conspicuous in this coverage. Both the electronic media and the sports pages of our newspapers devote considerable attention to this group of men, and as a result, elite Australian fast bowlers such as Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Stuart Clark are widely known. With reportage of their cricketing feats, especially on television, comes public profile and with this attention thrust upon them, elite male fast bowlers become influential role models for aspiring young cricketers in Australia, both male and female. They are central to the marketing of cricket in Australia, and indeed they become prominent public figures in other cricketing nations as well.7 However, the fundamental reasons behind their cultural significance are rarely examined in anything other than a superficial way. Grassroots followers of elite level cricket appreciate and acknowledge that Australia’s male fast bowlers are heroes, champions and role models. For a smaller number of people, they are also sons, brothers, fathers, uncles

and friends. The community of Australian cricket fans know this group of cricketers can be important and sometimes powerful male athletes, but the reasons for their status is unclear, Even if viewed only through the prism of their influence on aspiring junior cricketers, it is worth examining their place in Australian sporting history and culture. Another reason for examining Australian males and sport is that there is relatively little research into the interplay between cricket and gender. Murray Drummond, a researcher of masculinity, points out that while there is a growing range of literature examining men, masculinity and sport in a North American context, there is comparatively little research into Australian masculinities and sport.8 To the extent that the relationship between masculinities and sport in Australia has been researched, such work has tended to focus on ‘power’ sports such as Australian Rules football,9 the rugby codes,10 surf lifesaving,11 triathlon, and bodybuilding.12 In terms of cricket in Australia, Nikki Wedgwood’s excellent study of masculinity and cricket spectatorship, published in 1997, is an important but rare exception.13 This is despite the findings of contemporary gender research which suggests that sport plays a pivotal role in shaping masculinity. As R. W. Connell notes, in recent times, ‘sport has become the leading definer of masculinity in mass culture’.14 This chapter therefore aims to explore the historical and social factors underlying the significance of male fast bowlers in Australian sporting culture. In doing so, the role that gender plays in creating this significance is highlighted. The role of the relationship between masculinity and fast bowling in cricket is one that has not previously been explored, even though there is a range of literature examining men, masculinity and sport in Australian culture. The focus of the analysis will be on events and literature relevant to Australian male fast bowlers. In essence, the central conclusion is that the particular cultural significance of fast bowlers in Australia can be explained by a range of national and international factors that have evolved since European settlement. These include the legacy of a specific colonial history, cricket’s relationship with broader societal changes in economics and technology, and, overarching patterns of gender whereby the institution of sport plays an important role in males learning to enact dominant ideas of masculinity.15

A Definition of Fast Bowling Before exploring their historical and social importance, it is necessary to reflect on what precisely is meant by the phrase, ‘fast bowler’. In Australian cricket, there are two definitions of fast bowling. The first is what can be termed fixed and precise, while the second could be referred to as subjective and contextual. The definition that is used depends very much on one’s place in the cricket community.16

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The fixed and precise measurement definition was originally developed in a 1981 scientific study whose purpose, somewhat ironically, was to examine skill mechanisms of batting in cricket. Its use is limited in Australia to only the small number of specialist cricket coaches and bio-mechanists who assist fast bowlers, and by the Nine Television Network, the broadcaster of elite men’s cricket.17 This definition focuses purely on ‘ball release speed’, that is, the velocity of a cricket ball at the point at which it is released from the hand of a bowler. As Table 1 illustrates, such ball release speed is measured in terms of the distance travelled over a given unit of time, and this is normally translated into metres per second.

Firstly, cricket has played a role in expressing ideas about Australian national identity.25 Mandle argued that the popularity of cricket in the colonies of pre-federation Australia contributed to the emergence of Australian nationalism throughout the late 1870s. The political nationalism that culminated in Australian Federation in 1901 drew upon the ‘cricketing nationalism’ of the 1870s, and was itself inspired by the successes and popularity of the first ‘Australian X1’ cricket team in contests against English teams during the tours of 1861–62 and 1863–64.26 Secondly, cricket symbolises the political and cultural influence of England on Australian society.27 Stewart has identified that cricket was simultaneously a symbol of the ‘common political and cultural traditions of England and Australia’, while also expressing ‘their rivalry’.28 Cricket’s symbolism continued into the 20th century, through the volatility of the 1932–33 ‘Bodyline tour’, and is reflected today in the popularity of current ‘Ashes’ contests between the two countries. Thirdly, cricket is significant to Australian culture because it has also acted as an indicator of economic and technological development in wider society.29 Fluctuations in crowd behaviour and attendances to cricket matches have coincided with broader changes in Australian society, such as the development of communication technology, venues, economic prosperity, and in the style and conditions of play.30 Finally, cricket is also part of a cultural legacy described as the ‘British inheritance’.31 Organised sport in Australia is a legacy of English colonisation where a number of today’s prominent sports owe their introduction to European settlement,32 and where sport was viewed as an ‘important means of maintaining British culture in the antipodes’.33 As suggested by Cashman, ‘cricket, the first team sport played in Australia, comes closest to being the national game’.34

TABLE ONE: Ball Speeds and Abernethy’s Bowler Classifications18 Ball Velocity Miles per hour

Kilometres per hour

Metres per second

Bowler Classification

90

144.84

40.23

Express

80

128.75

35.76

Fast

60

96.56

26.82

Fast-medium

40

64.37

17.88

Slow-medium

Source: Abernethy, ‘Mechanisms of Skill’, p. 6.

In contrast, the subjective and contextual definition is the most commonly used, being applied in all official games of cricket,19 from grassroots-level club games to elite-level international games.20 In an actual game of cricket however, fast bowling is essentially whatever a cricket umpire thinks it is. This definition is made possible under ‘Law 42’ of the basic Laws of Cricket21 governing ‘fair and unfair play’, whereby a cricket umpire, guided by the playing context in which a bowler is participating, makes an individual judgement as to what constitutes fast bowling in a particular game.22 The major consequence of the subjective and contextual method of determining fast bowling is that what is considered fast bowling at one level of cricket competition may not be fast at another level. Fast bowling is relative to the standard of play in which it is being performed. In the words of a senior umpire administrator, the definition of fast bowling depends on the ‘grade of cricket that you are umpiring’.23 This point was echoed by a prominent fast-bowling coach. The pace of bowlers is perceived differently when they are promoted to or relegated from a particular level of competition.24

The Historical Significance of Cricket in Australian Society The importance of male fast bowlers in Australian culture is to a large degree explained by the prominent place cricket has in this country. Cricket is historically important in a number of ways, as outlined below.

Sport and Australian Male Types Part of the English cultural legacy involves conceptions about masculinity. Cashman notes that ‘ideology is a central element of organised sport’ and that sports, including cricket, became ‘more male dominated’ in the nineteenth century as a result.35 Ideas from this period of ‘manly sports’ and ‘manliness’ drew upon ‘pre-industrial ideal types for country gentlemen, soldiers, explorers and statesmen, and these early conceptions of masculinity later fed into ideals of Australian masculinity. From these early ideas evolved definitive ‘qualities’ of Australian maleness such as roughness and physical toughness, heterosexuality, a strong concern for mateship, outdoor life and military service. From these qualities emerged ‘national types’ such as the ‘easy-going’ but anti-authoritarian ‘larrikin’, and the ‘sun bronzed’ lifesaver of the 1930s.36 These early conceptions of masculinity are significant because they influenced the administration of cricket in nineteenth century Australia.

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Most cricket administrators from the 1850s to the 1880s were Anglophiles who were both conservative and imperialist in their outlook, and, as members of the colonial ‘establishment’, they adhered to the ‘middle-class ideologies of amateurism, athleticism and muscular Christianity’.37

most prominent examples being the biographies and autobiographies of Ray Lindwall,45 Keith Miller,46 Alan Davidson,47 Dennis Lillee,48 Jeff Thomson,49 Craig McDermott,50 Merv Hughes,51 Geoff Lawson,52 Mike Whitney,53 and Glenn McGrath.54 Most tend toward description and humorous anecdotes rather than social insight, but nevertheless they give excellent portrayals of life as a fast bowler. The hostility and achievements of early Australian bowlers such as Fred ‘The Demon’ Spofforth are well described by Kieza,55 although in more detail by Frith.56 Bernard Whimpress gives the best accounts of Aboriginal fast bowlers, with separate chapters on Johnny Mullagh,57 and Eddie Gilbert.58 An interesting aspect of fast bowling biography is the thematic nature of language used to describe such men. It is filled with images and metaphors of violence, war and turmoil. Fast bowlers are linked to fear and intimidation through descriptions of their attitudes, their bowling actions, and also their impact on batsman.59 They are variously described as ‘wild’, ‘angry’, ‘fiery’, ‘demonic’, ‘evil’, and even ‘mad’. Descriptive terms such as ‘armoury’, ‘arsenal’ ‘weapon’, ‘battery’, ‘missile’, ‘artillery’, ‘explosive’, ‘contest’, ‘strike’, ‘havoc’, and ‘fire’, are very common, evoking images of the body as machine and weapon of war. Batsmen exposed to such hostility, much like soldiers in battle, are often referred to as either brave or foolish. The war theme continues with fast bowler’s threatening nicknames. Notable examples include such names as ‘Cracker’, ‘The Demon’, and ‘The Terror’.60 The overall portrayal of such men is one of wild, violent, aggressive warriors who are often undisciplined, mostly unintelligent, and generally crazy. Despite these colourful and sometimes pejorative descriptions, the quantity and nature of such description seems to reflect an underlying admiration of Australian fast bowlers by their biographers, and is nevertheless part of a general celebration of their on-field efforts. The honouring of these men in biographical literature also places special emphasis on one of their commonly perceived characteristics: courage in a situation of adversity. The act of fast bowling is widely regarded as a valourous endeavour in Australian cricket culture, and this is largely due to the physical environment of cricket matches whereby fast bowlers may be required to bowl for hours in extreme heat, an act that involves dozens of sprints to the wicket, and which inturn can result in severe fatigue and dehydration. If these men are perceived to be courageous, then this is in no small way due to their genuine capacity to endure such physical stress and consequent injury. As a result, fast bowlers are often regarded as courageous and heroic athletes, especially in the sport media. In this context, Dennis Lillee, a former holder of the world record for Test match wickets, claims a particularly prominent place in Australian sport culture, and possibly best typifies the broader perception of Australian fast bowlers as athletic, aggressive, phlegmatic, heterosexual and courageous men, able to tolerate pain and overcome physical injury.61

The Significance of Male Fast Bowlers to Australian Culture Given cricket’s place in Australian culture, fast bowlers specifically are meaningful figures to many Australians. While former Australian batsman Sir Donald Bradman occupies a iconic position above all other male cricketers,38 male fast bowlers such as Fred Spofforth, Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller, Alan Davidson, Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Merv Hughes and Glenn McGrath have all become popular national figures by virtue of their cricket successes that have been widely reported in the mass media. Evidence of this cultural significance lies in the abundance of published or broadcast material that focuses specifically on male fast bowlers, as well as the number of journalists, cricketers, and historians who have devoted themselves to producing such material. The literature of Australian fast bowling comprises dozens of books, especially biographies and autobiographies. Furthermore, for at least 130 years, Australian newspapers have reported Australian cricket, and highlighted the efforts of fast bowlers.39 This considerable mass media attention has, however, long since expanded beyond print to television, radio and internet technologies, as each has become available. Thus, since the 1870s, the lives of Australian male fast bowlers have been comprehensively documented in dozens of biographies, autobiographies and chapters in cricket histories. This large body of material illustrates the degree to which the careers and private life of fast bowlers are of interest to Australians. Interest in documenting the detail of fast bowlers’ careers and lives is, though, an exclusively male domain as none of this material is written by women. It is also likely that such material is written for a mainly male audience making it essentially written by, and for, men. This suggests that the historiography of Australian fast bowling reflects the general situation in Australian sport — that is, it is dominated by men.40 While such biographies are rarely critical and tend to be prosaic in nature,41 these texts do provide an extraordinary volume of detail of the public and private lives of the individual concerned. The history of elite fast bowling generally is well documented by two authors in particular; David Frith in his comprehensive The Fast Men,42 and Grantlee Kieza’s Fast and Furious.43 Both report on over 200 years of the discipline; devoting separate chapters to the bowlers of each era, and providing vivid portrayals of how the discipline has evolved.44 In terms of specific Australian material, the careers and lives of many past and present fast bowlers have been chronicled in detail with the

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Characteristics of Australian Male Fast Bowling: Aggression and Intimidation

constant pressure by sheer pace on some very quick wickets. And many of us were hit.

Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, two famous Australian Test cricketers from the 1970s, together exemplify the nature of elite-level fast bowling in Australia. Lillee was a dramatic figure on the cricket field. Tall with long curly hair, bearing a dark ‘Zapata’ moustache with chest hair protruding from his shirt, Lillee was an energetic performer for Australia who personified effort, determination and hostility to batsmen. Thomson was equally athletic yet, in contrast to Lillee, his on-field personality, much like his run-up to the wicket, represented a slightly more phlegmatic way of being male.62 While being the ‘world’s fastest bowler’ in the mid-1970s, Thomson bore qualities of the larrikin ‘bloke’,63 and appeared to enact a common and thus very recognisable form of Australian maleness. At the elite level of cricket, however, the role of the fast bowler in cricket is essentially one of aggression and intimidation. Former English fast bowler, Bob Willis, claimed that the fast bowler’s job was to ‘blast the batsman out with sheer aggression or tactical ingenuity,64 while Dennis Lillee felt the task was simply to get the batsman ‘back in the pavillion’.65 Hitting batsmen with a cricket ball at high speed and thus intimidation have been regular features of the discipline at the elite-level. As another former English fast bowler, John Snow once famously explained, ‘a fast bowler loves to slice open a batting team and watch it bleed …’66 For an insight into the intimidating and injurious impact that fast bowlers can inflict on batsman, it is worth considering this description from former Australian fast bowler, Jeff Thomson. In his biography from the 1970s, Thomson vividly recalls a moment when he hit a batsman with the ball in a club cricket match:

I had a double dose. I got hit on the jaw by Lillee in Perth and by Thomson in Sydney. Julien’s thumb was broken … Kallicharran’s nose was cracked by Lillee in Perth and everyone at some stage during the tour felt the discomfort and pain of a cricket ball being sent down at more than 90 miles an hour. But that’s the game. It’s tough. There’s no rule against bowling fast. Batsmen must cope to survive.69

It wasn’t actually a bouncer, but it was bloody fast and it smashed him straight in the eye. It was frightening to see this bloke just screaming and shaking and the pitch splattered with blood as it poured through his fingers. He was in the intensive-care unit of the hospital for a week. Like so many blokes, he just hadn’t had time to move out of the way of the ball …67

In the Australian summers of 1974–75 and 1975–76, Lillee and Thomson used their pace and hostility to intimidate batsman for England and the West Indies respectively. They repeatedly hit English,68 and West Indian, batsman on the body, breaking fingers, ribs and toes. The West Indies captain at the time, Clive Lloyd, neatly summed up the situation: We had a whole lot of problems, but the main one was that our batsmen were frequently exposed to Lillee and Thomson, still fresh and raring to go with a relatively new ball. Our players all round were put under

These injuries however were not always inflicted accidentally. Lillee once controversially explained that while a batsman’s head was not a specific target, hitting the batsman with the ball elsewhere on the body was part of a deliberate strategy of intimidation: I try to hit a batsman in the rib-cage when I bowl a purposeful bouncer, and I want it to hurt so much that the batsman doesn’t want to face me any more. I want to be in complete control of the situation and that’s one way of keeping hold of the reins. I don’t want to hit a batsman on the head because I appreciate what damage that can do.70

Hitting batsmen in the head, especially the face, is not uncommon and three notorious examples of severe injury at the elite-level of cricket illustrate this point. On the first day of the Centenary Test in 1977, and prior to the widespread introduction of batting helmets, English fast bowler Bob Willis hit Australian batsman Rick McCosker in the face, breaking his jaw in two places.71 During the second ‘Supertest’ of ‘World Series Cricket’ in December 1977, and coinciding with the initial phase of wearing batting helmets, West Indian fast bowler Andy Roberts hit Australian batsman David Hookes in the face, breaking his jaw.72 Even a decade after the wearing of batting helmets became commonplace in elite cricket, Victorian fast bowler Merv Hughes hit South Australian Jamie Siddons in the face, fracturing his jaw in two places.73 Such bowling tactics, and injuries for batsman, however, began long before Lillee and Thomson.74

The Global Context for Masculinities and Sport In examining the historical and social significance of Australian male fast bowlers, it is necessary to consider the contemporary global context of masculinity and sport. This may be characterised in a number of ways. Firstly, sport in western societies is a mainly heterosexual male domain where values such as competitiveness, domination, aggression, power and speed are rewarded. Sports that prioritise these qualities include football codes, basketball and cricket, making them prominent locations for ‘masculinising practices’.75

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Secondly, such sport competition takes place within a context of a world dominated by forces of postmodernism and globalised capitalism, where sport is increasingly perceived as a commodity that crosses language barriers and national borders.76 International competitions in the aforementioned sports,77 dominate media attention, and are prime sites for celebrating and demonstrating national prowess. Widespread media coverage of these events, such as the Cricket World Cup, generate significant cultural capital through the vast number of spectators and viewers around the world, which in turn create vast advertising and sponsorship revenues. This ‘media-sport complex’ is global in nature, corporatised and homogenised.78 While sport is just one of a number of major social spheres for shaping the formation and practice of masculinity in a society, the literature suggests that at least in the industrialised western world, it is one of the most significant. Finally, cricket is also a global game. It is played in 82 countries around the world and on every continent.79 The game has become corporatised and homogenised in recent years and so as part of the global media-sport complex it is well placed to exert a strong influence on ideas of masculinity in the countries where the game is played.

Connell extends Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony to gender and contends that at any one time, one form of masculinity is always ‘culturally exalted’.86 Such exalted or ‘hegemonic masculinity’ is defined as ‘… the configuration of gender practice which embodies … [and] guarantees the dominant position of men and the subordination of women’.87 Connell links hegemonic masculinity to prominent institutions such as business and sport, and highlights its extensive promotion by the mass media.88 Earlier definitions had also been taken to mean the marginalisation of gay men, and connected masculinity to toughness and competitiveness.89 McKay links it to heterosexuality, arguing that it is idealised, naturalised and legitimised through heterosexual behaviour.90 Connell maintains that it is a structure that is nevertheless always contested in gender relations.91 Interwoven into this contestation of dominant and subordinant masculinities in a society, is the place of women in relation to men. Gender theorists such as, but not limited to, Connell, argue that modern western gender relations are structured in terms of a gender order,92 where hegemonic masculinity occupies a privileged position at the top of a gender hierarchy, while subordinated groups such as women and gay and bisexual men, are relegated to the lower rungs of this hierarchy. In turn, a society’s gender order exists within a broader pattern of gender referred to as the global gender order,93 whereby the gender orders of different societies are linked together through global institutions with their own particular gender regimes and, through global relationships of trade and communication. The concept of a gender order thus helps to explain the privileged place that some males occupy in Australian society. In western societies therefore, male athletes such as fast bowlers tend to hold a culturally significant place because of overarching national and global gender structures or patterns. Sport, with its rules and rituals, is a very important social institution for actively learning dominant ideas about maleness, and is very powerful in signifying or promoting such ideas.94

Masculinity In exploring the significance of male fast bowlers in Australian culture, it is worth pondering what it actually means to be male. For Connell, masculinity, otherwise known as ‘maleness’, is not an object, a character type, behavioural average, or a ‘norm’. Rather, it is three things simultaneously. That is, it is a place in gender relations; the practices through which men and women engage that place in gender; and the effects of those practices in bodily experience, personality and culture.80 That is, life lived in a gendered or patterned way – who males are relative to females, what males do, and the consequences of what they do. Furthermore, masculinity and femininity are dynamic patterns of relationships through which men and women live ‘gendered lives’.81 Masculinity can refer to individual or, collective, patterns of men’s lives. Connell asserts that there is no single masculinity for all men. Rather, there are multiple and diverse masculinities, shaped by social class, ethnicity, labour and sexuality,82 all interconnected yet occupying unequal positions of power in a society. They do not divide into fixed character types.83 Connell instead describes masculinities as ‘configurations’ of gender practice created in ‘particular situations in changing relationships’.84 In Australia, the situation is arguably one of multiple masculinities where one can never again speak of a single ‘Australian masculinity’.85 Connell asserts that in contemporary western societies, such as Australia, males typically ‘perform’, that is, live out, one of four major ‘patterns of masculinity’. These are, ‘hegemonic’, ‘subordinated’, ‘complicit’ and ‘marginalised’.

Learning Masculinity and the Role of Sport in this Process Connell asserts that there are no standard rules for learning gender. Rather, people actively learn or construct themselves as masculine or feminine.95 Males and females grow up in gendered societies and ‘unavoidably’ participate in gender relations whereby we learn ways of being male or female that best suit our individual circumstances. For males who are learning a particular form of maleness, gender theorists such as Lois Bryson suggest that in western societies at least, dominant ideas about what it means to be male play a significant role, and that the ‘ideological processes’ that underpin contemporary sport are pivotal to defining how men perceive themselves and

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relate to each other. The physical nature of sport assists in signifying dominant masculinity to males because of the ‘fundamental link between social power and physical force’. Bryson makes the observation that:

such as cricket, which includes the sub-discipline of fast bowling, could be an ideal environment for young males to absorb dominant ideas of masculinity which include the importance of being physically powerful and aggressive.

… sport is an ideal medium for conveying messages of gender domination. Not only is sport associated with physical power and an important, admired social activity, but it is something to which we are exposed daily and from very young ages. Sport is an immediate mass reality, and with increasing commercialization and media exposure, the ever-present nature of this reality is likely to be magnified.96

Sport can therefore be a conducive environment for reinforcing physical force and aggression as necessary elements of dominant masculinity.97 Certain key sports are ‘central to the processes of reproduction of male dominance’, and are its ‘flag carriers’ because they are the ones to which most people are regularly exposed,98 and in Australia, this means the football codes and men’s cricket.99

Sport as a Masculinising Practice and the Role of the Media Jim McKay and David Rowe assert that since the late nineteenth century, sport has been one of the most important sites for ‘defining and elaborating ideologies of male supremacy in western societies’.100 Connell supports this contention claiming that it is the central experience of many boys’ schooling, encouraged by a significant amount of time, effort and institutional support for this process.101 As a result, sports such as cricket are a ‘male preserve’.102 Bryson asserts that parents and schools who teach little boys to ‘kick, throw, and bat’ at an early age are demonstrating that sport is a ‘significant part of manliness’.103 By introducing boys to cricket and the football codes, parents and schools are also introducing them to the dominant values associated with these sports.104 By teaching boys sport skills, parents and schools are not just teaching a game but also encouraging boys to enter the ‘gendered institution’ of organised sport105 where rules, hierarchical relationships and competitive behaviour are highly valued, and where dominant conceptions of masculinity and femininity are embraced by most participants.106 McKay asserts that media representations of men and women in Australia, shaped according to hegemonic cultural ideals about masculinity and femininity, assist in the reproduction of hegemonic masculinity. Media coverage contributes to this in two main ways. Firstly, by rendering women invisible in symbolic terms through significantly less media coverage of sportswomen, relative to men. Secondly, to the extent that sportswomen are reported in the media, such coverage is often sexist in nature,107 as is evident in the regular denigration and trivialisation of sportswomen by male media figures. In overall terms, this literature tends to suggest that a popular sport

Conclusion Earlier in this chapter, it was suggested that Australian male fast bowling traditionally has two defining characteristics, namely aggression and intimidation, and Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson were cited as exemplars of these characteristics. Given that the literature of masculinity suggests that sport is an important social environment for learning ideas about masculinity that covet characteristics such as aggression and physical strength and power, is it possible that cricket and its sub-discipline of fast bowling is an arena for learning dominant gender patterns? Without data gained from methodologically sound research, it is impossible to say whether Lillee, Thomson and/or any other Australian fast bowlers have had such an experience. However, the conclusions drawn in the literature about sport’s potential for encouraging the learning of dominant conceptions of masculinity does suggest that Australian male fast bowlers are worthy of further analysis. In conclusion, the particular cultural significance of Australian fast bowlers can be explained by a range of factors that have evolved since European settlement. These include the legacy of our specific colonial history, cricket’s relationship with broader societal changes in economics and technology, and, overarching patterns of gender whereby the institution of sport plays an important role in encouraging male athletes to learn to adopt dominant ideas of masculinity. This chapter has highlighted evidence that the social and historical significance of Australian male fast bowlers in Australian culture is in large part due to the importance of the game of cricket in Australia. Fast bowlers are important to many Australians because the game of cricket is important, and cricket’s importance can be traced to Australia’s colonial settlement by England, the nation where cricket originated. However, this chapter argues that the discipline of fast bowling in cricket, as historically practiced by males in Australia, reflects dominate conceptions of masculinity held in society, and that this helps to explain the exalted place of these athletes in wider Australian culture, and in Australian sporting culture specifically. In the realm of western culture generally, overarching national and global gender patterns, where dominant ideas about being male are signified and reinforced through sport, provides some explanation for the generally exalted place of male athletes. The scope of this chapter has been limited, however, to just Australian male fast bowlers, and so areas of the relationship between cricket and gender remain relatively unexplored. For example, if cricket plays a role in learning

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masculinities, it is worth asking if a similar interrelationship exists between the game and female fast bowlers. Similarly, the interplay between cricket and the development of gender identity among both male and female batters, wicketkeepers, coaches, umpires and administrators, is worthy of scholarly examination. In terms of Australian masculinities and sport generally, as Drummond suggests, there is relatively little research in the area. Given cricket’s significance to Australian society, it is time for further inquiry into cricket’s relationship with gender on a wider scale.

15 This chapter is based on the author’s unpublished study of masculinity and male fast bowlers in Australia. See Greg Dingle, ‘From Boys To Blokes: The Social Construction of Masculinities among Fast Bowlers in Melbourne Club Cricket’, Unpublished Honours Thesis, School of Human Movement, Recreation and Performance, Victoria University, 2004. 16 See Bruce Abernethy, ‘Mechanisms of Skill in Cricket Batting’, Australian Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 13, no. 1, 1981, pp. 3–10. Abernethy’s study developed four ‘bowler classifications’, one for each ball release speed of 40, 60, 80 and 90 miles per hour (MPH). 17 The Nine Television Network’s classifications of bowler type are expressed in kilometres per hour, rather than the miles per hour used in Abernethy’s study. The speed of each delivery is calculated by radar cameras positioned over the fence at either side of the cricket pitch. In addition to this information, the Nine Network introduces each bowler who begins a new ‘spell’ (that is, period of bowling) with a bowler classification at the bottom of the screen based on the speed at which he bowls. Pace bowlers are classified as either ‘fast’, ‘fast medium’, ‘medium’ or ‘slow medium’. How the Nine Network determines these classifications of bowler type is not known by the researcher but they appear to accord with the following ball release speeds:

Notes 1 Cricket Australia, Annual Report 2003/04, available at http://wic042cx.server-web. com/Static%20Files/Publications%20and%20Reports/CA_Annual_ Report_0304. pdf, accessed 23 November 2004. According to the 2003–04 Sweeney Sports Report, cricket is ‘Australia’s most popular sport to watch on television, listen to on radio, and read about in newspapers’. 2 Cricket Australia, Annual Report 2004/05, available at http://cricket.com.au/_ content/document/00000071-src.pdf, accessed 31 October 2006. 3 W. F. Mandle, ‘Cricket and Australian Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century’, Journal of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 59, no. 4, December 1973, pp. 225–246. 4 R. K. Stewart, “‘I Heard it on the Radio, I Saw it on the Television”: The Commercial and Cultural Development of Australian First Class Cricket, 1946–1985’, Unpublished doctoral thesis, Department of History, La Trobe University, 1995, p. XVI 5 Richard Cashman, Paradise of Sport: The Rise of Organised Sport in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 1–14. 6 For more on the ‘circuits of promotion’ concept, see David Whitson, ‘Circuits of Promotion: Media, Marketing and the Globalization of Sport’, in Lawrence Wenner (ed.), Mediasport, Routledge, London, pp. 57–72. 7 For an insight into the profile of Australian fast bowlers around the cricket-playing world, see Alex Brown’s article about Brett Lee’s public profile in India. Alex Brown, ‘Australians go Loopy for the Rupee’, Age, ‘Sport’, 28 July 2004, p. 21. 8 Murray Drummond, ‘Masculinity and Self-Identity in Elite Triathlon, Body-Building and Surf Lifesaving’, in Dennis Hemphill and Caroline Symons (eds), Gender, Sexuality and Sport: A Dangerous Mix, Walla Walla Press, Petersham, 2002, p. 39. 9 See the study by Nikki Wedgwood, ‘Aussie Rules! Schoolboy Football and Masculine Embodiment’, in S. Tomsen and M. Donaldson (eds), Male Trouble. Looking at Australian Masculinities, Pluto Press, North Melbourne, 2003, chapter 8. 10 See Ian Burgess, Allan Edwards, and James Skinner, ‘Football Culture in an Australian School Setting: The Construction of Masculine Identity’, in Sport, Education and Society, vol. 8, issue 2, October 2003, pp. 199–212 11 See R. W. Connell, The Men and the Boys, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2000. 12 See Drummond, ‘Masculinity and Self-Identity’, p. 41. 13 Nikki Wedgwood, ‘“Spewin’, Mate!” A Day at the Cricket’, Social Alternatives, vol. 16, no. 3, July 1997, pp. 26–30. 14 R. W. Connell, Masculinities, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1995, p. 54.

Bowler Classification

Ball Velocity

Express

145 km/hour plus

Fast

135–145 km/hour

Fast-medium

125–135 km/hour

Slow-medium

Up to 125 km/hour

By comparison, spin bowlers (that is, bowlers who seek to spin the cricket ball around its own vertical axis rather than rely on speed or swing) in elite-level cricket bowl in an approximate range of 70 km/h to 110 km/h. 18 Note to Table One: Abernethy’s original data, referred to ‘Ball Velocity’ in terms of MPH. See Abernethy, ‘Mechanisms of Skill’, p. 6. To provide a more contemporary interpretation of this data, Abernethy’s original figures have been converted into ‘Kilometres Per Hour’ and ‘Metres Per Second’, and are shown in Table One. In Abernethy’s study, bowlers who released a cricket ball at 80 MPH (that is, 128 km/h) were classified as ‘fast’, although those bowlers who released at the higher speed of 90 MPH (that is, 145 km/h) or above were classified as having ‘express’ pace. The term ‘express’, commonly used in cricket parlance, describes bowlers who bowl very, or more specifically, extremely fast. 19 ‘Official’ cricket means any game of cricket that is umpired and regulated under the auspices of a governing body recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the global governing organisation for cricket. All other cricket games, such as those played socially between friends, are considered by the ICC to be ‘unofficial’ cricket. The ICC inherited its role as the current international governing body for the sport from the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1989. A brief history of the ICC may be found at http://www.icc-cricket.com/icc/about/history.html. 20 It should be noted however that while the Nine Television Network uses the fixed and precise measurement method of defining fast bowling for its coverage of elite-level men’s cricket in Australia, they use different bowler classifications to Abernethy.

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assh STUDIES 20 21 The basic rules of cricket, known as the Laws of Cricket, are owned and published by the MCC in London. The Laws of Cricket, in their arcane entirety, can be viewed at www.lords.org/cricket/laws.asp. The MCC is a historically significant organisation for cricket as it was the original English governing body for the game. 22 ‘Law 42.2’ of the Laws of Cricket (2000 Code, Second Edition, 2003) governing ‘Fair and unfair play’ outlines an umpire’s authority to decide legitimate bowling, stating that: ‘The umpires shall be the sole judges of fair and unfair play’. Fast bowling is drawn into the category of ‘fair and unfair play’ by ‘Law 42.6’ of the Laws of Cricket governing ‘Dangerous and unfair bowling’, which states: ‘The bowling of fast short pitched balls is dangerous and unfair if the umpire at the bowler’s end considers that by their repetition and taking into account their length, height and direction they are likely to inflict physical injury on the striker, irrespective of the protective equipment he may be wearing. The relative skill of the striker shall be taken into consideration’. Law 42.6, rather ironically, outlaws dangerous bowling, which includes ‘fast short-pitched balls’, without actually stating what ‘fast’ means. The consequence of this is that the umpires decide for themselves when fast bowling is occurring in a game, and in what circumstances it is dangerous to a batsman. 23 Stated by Bob Stratford, Umpires’ Manager at Cricket Victoria, in a telephone interview about the definition of fast bowling, 10 June 2004. 24 Stated by Tim McCaskill, Youth Programs Co-ordinator (Pathway) at Cricket Victoria, in a telephone interview about the definition of fast bowling, held on 9 June 2004. McCaskill argues essentially that the definition of fast bowling changes with the playing context. For example, consider a fast bowler who bowls successfully at ‘Premier Cricket Club’ level (that is, a bowler who consistently dismisses opposition batsman), and who is promoted to the next level of cricket (that is, the Victorian Squad from which the Victorian First X1 and Second X1 teams are chosen). At the Premier Cricket Club level, such a bowler may be regarded by other players, coaches and umpires, as being of ‘fast’ pace. Yet, when that same bowler is promoted to either the Victorian First X1 or Second X1 team, he may be regarded as of only ‘fast-medium’ pace because the other pace bowlers at these higher levels of competition may be bowling faster than he is. McCaskill agreed with the researcher that, in other words, this meant that this definition of fast bowling was therefore heavily dependent upon the context in which it was being performed. 25 Stewart, ‘“I Heard it on the Radio’”, pp. xiv–xv, and Cashman, Paradise of Sport, pp. 105–106. Both authors cite from Mandle’s original article ‘Cricket and Australian Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century’, pp. 225–246. 26 Cashman, Paradise of Sport, p. 48 and p. 105. 27 Stewart, ‘“I Heard it on the Radio’”, p. xvi. 28 Stewart, ‘“I Heard it on the Radio’”, p. xvi. 29 Stewart, ‘“I Heard it on the Radio’”, p. xvi. 30 The major changes in the conditions of play are limited over cricket, and games being played at night. See Richard Cashman, ’Ave a Go, Yer Mug!: Australian Cricket Crowds from Larrikin to Ocker, Collins, Sydney, 1984, and Richard Cashman, Australian Cricket Crowds. The Attendance Cycle. Daily Figures 1877–1984, History Project Incorporated, Sydney, 1985. 31 Cashman, Paradise of Sport, pp. 1–14. 32 Wray Vamplew and Brian Stoddart (eds), Sport in Australia. A Social History, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1994. This ‘British legacy’ includes the


33 34 35

36 37

38 39

40 41 42 43 44

45

46 47

sports of rugby, Australian Rules football, soccer, netball, rowing and sculling, golf, horse racing, lawn tennis, lawn bowls and boxing. Cashman, Paradise of Sport, p. 20. Richard Cashman, ‘Cricket’, in Wray Vamplew and Brian Stoddart (eds), Sport in Australia: A Social History, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1994, p. 58. Cashman, Paradise of Sport, p. 10. It should be noted however that the earliest forms of cricket were not male dominated. Brasch notes that one of cricket’s antecedent forms, the village sport of ‘Stool Ball’, was played by English men and women at Easter as a form of courtship. Rudolph Brasch, How Did Sports Begin? A Look at the Origins of Man at Play, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1995, p. 83. Cashman and Weaver also point out that women also played village cricket in England before the game’s first laws were drafted in 1744. Such women played in matches from the 1740s to the 1770s. These games were ‘robust, colourful, boisterous, sometimes rowdy’ with ‘spectators of both sexes drinking, shouting, swearing, and gambling’. See Richard Cashman and Amanda Weaver, Wicket Women. Cricket and Women in Australia, New South Wales University Press, Sydney, 1991, p. 11. Cashman, Paradise of Sport, pp. 76–78. See Cashman, ‘Cricket’, p. 72. These administrators attempted to make cricket a ‘moral’ game in the 1870s by successfully campaigning for the prohibition of gambling at cricket matches, and suspended cricket competition during the First and Second World Wars believing that Australian male cricketers should support the war effort. Brett Hutchins, Don Bradman: Challenging the Myth, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, 2002, pp. 1–11. An early example of newspaper coverage is the 1876–77 tour of Australia by ‘W.G. Grace’s All-England X1’, a series that marked the beginning of over 100 years of ‘Ashes’ Test Matches between the two countries. No less than five newspapers around the colonies reported the tour that was notable for Australia’s first victory against England, and the debut of Australian fast bowler Fred ‘The Demon’ Spofforth. See Chris Harte and Bernard Whimpress, A Penguin History of Australian Cricket, Penguin, Camberwell, 2003, pp. 90–96. Jim McKay, ‘Sport and the Social Construction of Gender’ in G. Lupton, P. Short, and R. Whip (eds), Society and Gender: An Introduction to Sociology, MacMillan, Melbourne, 1992, pp. 247–248. Stewart, ‘“I Heard it on the Radio’”, p. xx. David Frith, The Fast Men: A 200 Year Cavalcade of Speed Bowlers, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. Ltd., London, 1975. Grantlee Kieza, Fast and Furious: A Celebration of Cricket’s Pace Bowlers, LesterTownsend Publishing, Sydney, 1990. Interestingly, they differ over who and when the skill was first demonstrated. Frith begins with Lumpy Stevens from the ‘Hambledon era’ in England of 1756 to 1791. Kieza, on the other hand, begins with ‘George Brown of Brighton’ in the 1890s. See Cashman, Paradise of Sport, p. 8, and Kieza, Fast and Furious, p. 10. Gideon Haigh and Ray Robinson, On Top Down Under. Australia’s Cricket Captains, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, 1996, pp. 248–257, and Brian Crowley, A History of Australian Bowling and Wicket-Keeping 1850–1986, Macmillan Australia, South Melbourne, 1986, pp. 71–75. Mihir Bose, Keith Miller. A Cricketing Biography, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1980, and, Crowley, A History of Australian Bowling, pp. 75–80. Alan Davidson, Fifteen Paces, Souvenir, London, 1963.

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assh STUDIES 20 48 Dennis Lillee, Back to the Mark, Hutchinson, Sydney, 1974, Dennis Lillee, The Art of Fast Bowling, Collins, Sydney, 1977, Dennis Lillee, Lillee. Over and Out, Methuen, North Ryde, 1984, Dennis Lillee, Lillee. An Autobiography, Hodder Headline, London, 2003. 49 David Frith, Jeff Thomson: The World’s Fastest Bowler Tells His Own Story to David Frith, Angus and Roberston, Sydney, 1980; John Byrell, Thommo Declares. The Life and Times of Cricket’s Most Colourful Larrikin, Horwitz Grahame Books, Cammeray, 1986. 50 Craig McDermott, McDermott. Strike Bowler, ABC Books, Sydney, 1992. 51 Merv Hughes, Dear Merv, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2001. 52 Geoff Lawson, Henry: The Geoff Lawson Story, Ironbark Press, Chippendale, 1993. 53 Mike Whitney, Quick Whit: The Mike Whitney Story, Ironbark Press, Chippendale, 1993. 54 Daniel Lane and Glenn McGrath, Pacemaker: The Inner Thoughts of Glenn McGrath, Pan MacMillan, Sydney, 1998. 55 Kieza, Fast and Furious, pp. 15–17. 56 Frith, The Fast Men, pp. 65–75. 57 Bernard Whimpress, A Passport to Nowhere. Aborigines in Australian Cricket, 1850–1939, Walla Walla Press, Sydney, 1999, pp. 98–114. 58 Whimpress, A Passport to Nowhere, pp. 222–254. Eddie Gilbert once bowled Don Bradman for no score. Bradman later said that Gilbert could ‘bowl faster than any contemporary except, perhaps Harold Larwood’, the controversial English fast bowler of Bodyline fame. See Whimpress, A Passport to Nowhere, p. 227. 59 One famous Australian fast bowler has even been compared to the devil. According to English cricket commentator, Neville Cardus, Ted Gregory was a man whose ‘whole being tells of the destructive forces of nature. He is a satanic bowler’. See Keiza, The Fast Men, p. 49. 60 See Warwick Franks, ‘Pace Prince of the People’, in C. Ryan (ed.), Inside Edge. The Fast Men: A Celebration of Speed, 1877–2004, Collector’s Edition, ACP Publishing, Sydney, p. 58. 61 Dennis Lillee’s career is widely considered in cricket literature to be the zenith of fast bowling. He is regularly included by many cricket commentators in their ‘World X1’ and ‘Test Teams of the Century’, and is widely regarded to be Australia’s best ever male fast bowler. His reputation for on-field aggression, endurance, tolerance of pain, and ability to recover from injury, are widely referred to in cricket literature. 62 See Frith, Jeff Thomson, The World’s Fastest Bowler, pp. 33–34. It is also cited by Kieza, Fast and Furious, pp. 149–150. 63 See John Byrell, Thommo Declares. The Life and Times of Cricket’s Most Colourful Larrikin, Horwitz Grahame, Cammeray, 1986. 64 R. Willis, Fast Bowling with Bob Willis, Willow Books, London, 1984, p. 18. 65 Lillee, The Art of Fast Bowling, p. 85. 66 Lane and McGrath, Pacemaker, p. 55. 67 See Frith, Jeff Thomson: The World’s Fastest Bowler. 68 Mike Coward, The Chappell Years: Cricket in the 70s, ABC Books, Sydney, 2002, p. 92. 69 Alastair McLellan and Michele Savidge, Real Quick. A Celebration of the West Indies Pace Quartets, Blandford, London, 1995, p. 46. 70 See Frith, The Fast Men, p. 199. Lillee’s comment was much criticised at the time, especially by English cricket journalists. Lillee thought such criticism was insincere


71

72 73 74

75 76 77 78

79 80 81 82 83 84 85

86 87 88 89 90 91

and wrote later in his second book that fast bowlers who bowled short-pitched deliveries were deliberately trying to hit the batsman. In his view: ‘It is just a matter of whether you are prepared to be honest about it’. See Lillee, The Art of Fast Bowling, p. 82. Mike Sheahan, ‘Rick Grits His Teeth’, Age, 14 March 1977, p. 1. In this situation, it was not Willis’s intention to injure McCosker. The ball deflected at high speed off the edge of McCosker’s bat and into his jaw. Willis did however go on to write later that, in general terms, while he did not believe in ‘blatant intimidation’, the bouncer is a ‘legitimate delivery’ if used ‘sparingly’. In Willis’s view, the bouncer is designed to reach the area between the batsman’s head and just above his chest’. Its purpose is ‘threefold’; to ‘frighten the batsman and unnerve him, to get him caught close to the wicket as he fends it off the gloves, or to encourage a mistimed hookshot’. See Willis, Fast Bowling with Bob Willis, p. 52. See Peter McFarline and Mike Sheahan, ‘Hookes Out 6 Weeks’, Age, 17 December 1977, and Cricket Alive! World Series Cricket: The First Exciting Year, Golden Press, Sydney, 1978, p. 11. Greg Baum, ‘Injured Siddons to Miss 3 Weeks’, Age, 19 November 1991, p. 40. Awareness of the power of fast bowlers to intimidate can be traced back to eighteenth century England, yet the recognition and application of fast shortpitched bowling as a weapon is perhaps best illustrated by the notorious ‘Bodyline’ Test series of the early 1930s. This tactic saw the English fast bowler, Harold Larwood, hit the Australian captain in the chest and fracture the skull of the Australian wicketkeeper in the Adelaide Test. See Frith, The Fast Men, pp. 20–25, and pp. 138–149. Whitson, ‘Sport in the Social Construction of Masculinity’, p. 22. See M. R. Real, ‘The Post Modern Olympics: Technology and the Commodification of the Olympic Movement’, Quest, no. 48, 1996, pp. 9–23. Such global sport events are typified but not limited to the World Cup competitions in men’s soccer, rugby and cricket, the Basketball World Championships and the Olympic Games. See Joseph Maguire Global Sport. Identities, Societies, Civilizations, Polity Press, Cambridge, pp. 145–175. http://www.icc-cricket.com/icc/members/affiliate_members.html. Connell, Masculinities, p. 71. Connell, Masculinities, p. 71. Connell, Masculinities, p. 76. Connell, Masculinities, p. 76. Connell, Masculinities, p. 81. R. W. Connell, ‘Australian Masculinities’, in S. Tomsen and M. Donaldson (eds.), Male Trouble: Looking at Australian Masculinities, Pluto Press, North Melbourne, 2003, p. 14. Connell, Masculinities, p. 77. Connell defines hegemony as ‘the cultural dynamic by which a group claims and sustains a leading position in a social life’. Connell, Masculinities, p. 77. Connell, ‘Australian Masculinities’, p. 15. R. W. Connell, ‘An Iron Man: The Body and Some Contradictions of Hegemonic Masculinity’, in M. A. Messner and D. F. Sabo, Sport, Men, and the Gender Order. Critical Feminist Perspectives, Human Kinetics Books, Illinois, 1990, p. 94. McKay, ‘Sport and the Social Construction of Gender’, p. 248. Connell, Masculinities, p. 76.

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assh STUDIES 20 92 Connell, Gender, p. 54. Both gender regimes and the gender order of a society represent the linkages or ‘relationships’ between people, groups, and/or organisations; gender relations are the relationships arising out of the reproductive arena. Jim McKay describes this explanation of the context of gender practice as ‘articulations between the macro-level gender order, and the micro-level gender regimes’. See Jim McKay, ‘Gender and Organisational Power in Australian Sport’, in Jim McKay and David Rowe (eds), Tourism, Leisure and Sport: Critical Perspectives, Hodder Headline, Sydney, 1998, p. 2. 93 Connell, Gender, p. 110. Evidence cited by Connell of the impact on gender through this global gender order include the social influence of visual images with specific gender meanings that are communicated in the international media; and international agreements that regulate gender issues sponsored by the United Nations. 94 Lois Bryson, ‘Challenges to Male Hegemony in Sport’, in M. A. Messner and D. Sabo, (eds.), Sport, Men and the Gender Order: Critical Feminist Perspectives, Human Kinetics Books, Champaign, Illinois, 1990, p. 174. 95 Connell, Gender, p. 4. The fluid and dynamic concept of ‘active learning’ of masculinity is advocated in place of ‘socialization’ where, it was argued, people learned gender by passively internalising fixed ‘traits’ transmitted from ‘active’ individuals or institutions. Connell argues that this view is flawed; that masculinity is not passively imposed on us from the outside. 96 Lois Bryson, ‘Challenges to Male Hegemony in Sport’, p. 174. 97 Bryson, 1990, ‘Challenges to Male Hegemony in Sport’, p. 174. 98 Bryson, 1990, ‘Challenges to Male Hegemony in Sport’, p. 174. Bryson cites a ‘Sweeney & Associates’ survey where 81% of males over sixteen expressed interest in football and 73% in cricket. 99 Bryson’s identification of football codes in constructing dominant masculinity is supported by other gender researchers. Christine Skelton, in her 1998 study of football, primary schools and masculinities, cites Epstein’s claim that ‘football is a major signifier of successful masculinity. See Christine Skelton, ‘A Passion for Football: Dominant Masculinities and Primary Schooling’, Sport, Education and Society, vol. 5, no. 1, March 2000, p. 7. 100 Jim McKay, and David Rowe, ‘Sport: Still a Man’s Game’, Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, December 1998, p. 113. 101 Connell as cited by Whitson, ‘Sport in the Social Construction of Masculinity’, p. 21. 102 Whitson, ‘Sport in the Social Construction of Masculinity’, p. 20. 103 Bryson, 1900, ‘Challenges to Male Hegemony in Sport’, p. 178. 104 Bryson, 1990, ‘Challenges to Male Hegemony in Sport’, p. 175. 105 M. A. Messner, ‘Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the Construction of Masculinities’, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, vol. 18, no. 4, 1990, p. 430. 106 Messner, ‘Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the Construction of Masculinities’, p. 431. 107 McKay, ‘Sport and the Social Construction of Gender’, p. 255.

contributors Greg Dingle is a PhD candidate in the School of Human Movement, Recreation and Performance at Victoria University in Melbourne, and is affiliated with the Centre for Ageing, Rehabilitation, Exercise and Sport at that institution. His research deals with the environmental sustainability of sport and he is currently completing a thesis exploring how and why Australian sport organisations will adapt their management practices in response to a carbon-constrained twenty-first century. Ai Kobayashi is currently completing a PhD with the Department of History at the University of Melbourne. Her thesis is based on a biographical study of William Ball (1901–1986), an eminent academic and public intellectual, who played a significant role in Australian diplomacy and foreign relations at the end of the Second World War. She is concurrently working on a joint research project on heritage and memory, based on a case study of the Cowra Japanese War Cemetery in New South Wales. This is part of the ARC research project, ‘Places of Pain and Shame: A Cross-Cultural Heritage Study of Imprisonment Sites’, emanating from the Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific, Deakin University. Chelsea Litchfield is a PhD candidate and sessional staff member in the School of Human Movement, Recreation and Performance at Victoria University in Melbourne. Her research deals with the gender dimensions of sport and she is currently completing a thesis on exploring safe and affirming spaces in women’s team sports in Melbourne. Mark E. O’Neill is a PhD candidate in the School of Human Movement Studies at the University of Queensland. His research focuses on representations of the past in popular mediums such as monuments, films, museums, and popular novels. He is currently completing a thesis centred on the way the Australian thoroughbred racehorse Phar Lap is remembered in Australian popular memory. Tim Shellcot is currently a sessional staff member at Victoria University and La Trobe University, where he teaches in the area of sports history as well as anatomy. He is also poised to become a PhD candidate in the School of Human Movement and Sport Sciences at the University of Ballarat, where his research will examine links between physical preparation, performance outcomes and injury risk in Australian Rules football.

Alicia Williams completed her Honours degree in the Department of Criminology at the University of Melbourne. Her thesis focused on the highly topical issue of the misbehaviour of high profile athletes, in particular the sexual assault cases involving players in the Australian Football League between the years 2000 and 2004. Rachel Winterton is a doctoral candidate and sessional staff member in the School of Human Movement, Recreation and Performance at Victoria University in Melbourne. Her research focuses on the social history of competitive swimming in Victoria. She is currently completing a thesis examining the development of a specific carnival culture within early swimming competitions in Melbourne.