Drawing on elements of Dr Collins’ recent book Windrush Cricket (OUP September 2025), this session looks at the history of cricket as a locus of social organization and an evolving, contested form of cultural expression. The talk explores several different, inter-related problems/questions about British and imperial history. After some brief reflections on the long-term relationship between cricket and empire, the historical focus will be primarily on World War II and the post-war period of ‘Windrush migration’ from the Anglophone Caribbean to England. As is well known, this ostensibly began in June 1948 with the arrival at London’s Tilbury docks of the Empire Windrush, a former troopship; however, migration from the Caribbean was clearly evident before 1948 and accelerated numerically only from the early 1950s. That said, what do we actually mean by ‘Windrush’, and is it even a valid term? If it is (this talk will seek to justify the legitimacy of the term), how should we write the history of the so-called ‘Windrush Generation’ and what is at stake regarding the different perspectives and themes historians adopt? In terms of the recent historical literature, why has cricket manifestly been deemed of limited significance when, as this talk will claim, the game was a central component of both the projection of cultural Englishness within the empire and a resonant mid-century ‘multi-racial’ British imperial identity? (The talk will touch on the English/British problem too). What can be said about the changing role and meaning of cricket as expressive of specifically West Indian identities in the twentieth century, including for the immigrants who settled in England after World War II? How has our understanding of cricket and its relation to identity been shaped by the wider historiography of anti-colonial nationalism and the post-colonial diaspora, as well as the outsized influence of the Trinidadian writer C. L. R. James? Finally, in what sense can cricket be said to have ‘remade’ postwar England?

As some may be aware, until perhaps the mid-nineteenth century, cricket was still a popular sport in north America. Times have indeed changed, so please be reassured that no knowledge of cricket per se is required to enjoy this talk! 

IHGC's Games Lab welcomes Professor Michael Collins for this public lecture.  UVA students and faculty can access the online version of the book through UVA's Library's Oxford University Press subscription plan!

Please register by Friday, October 3.