Sporting spectacles : cricket and football in Sydney 1890-1912

Abstract

Between 1890 and 1912 cricket and football became mass spectacles in Sydney. Cricket had been popular since the 1850s but an over-abundance of international tours in the 1880s almost killed the game as a spectacle. In the same decade rugby and Australian rules competed with each other to become Sydney's main football code. From the early 1890s public interest in cricket revived, partly because of a break in international tours and partly through the introduction of a local club competition based on Sydney's rapidly expanding suburbs. At the same time rugby eclipsed Australian rules and quickly emerged as a major participant and spectator sport. Cricket and rugby attracted officials, players and spectators from all sections of the community. At club level the social composition of clubs and teams varied according to the character of the suburb. Broadly, at all levels cricketers were about four-fifths middle class and one-fifth working class, rugby officials and players were half middle class and half working class and rugby league officials and players were about three-quarters working class and one quarter middle class. Cricket matches attracted more women and middle class spectators than did rugby matches but at both rugby and rugby league matches crowds were roughly equally divided between middle class and working class patrons. The development of cricket and rugby as mass spectacles generated large amounts of money. Once established both sports had to compete in the quickly expanding leisure market for paying customers. Throughout the period a major issue was whether officials or players should control the sports. The major private schools nurtured, and the daily and weekly press expressed the notion that cricket and rugby were more than just amusements - they were moral metaphors. Officials, many of whom also came from private schools, believed that only they could be trusted to maintain the purity of both sports through the exclusion of professionalism. Players believed that they deserved a share of the profits that their labours produced, especially when playing left them financially disadvantaged. Many cricketers sought and received generous payments to compensate them for loss of salary and wages while playing, but footballers received little compensation for injury or time off work until rugby league began in 1907. The popularity of rugby league, which eclipsed rugby union as a spectacle within three seasons, indicates that the majority of Sydney-siders rejected the view of officials and the press. For them the moral significance of sport was secondary to its value as an amusement. Show more