Malign or benign? English national identities and cricket

This essay examines English cricket discourse in an attempt to expand upon existing analyses of English sporting nationalism. It is argued that there has been a marked strengthening of English national identity in recent years, both in sport and other spheres, and that certain historical peculiarities stand in the way of the emergence of a coherent, or unified, sense of Englishness. This essay argues that whilst discourses of Englishness and cricket were dominated by a malign sense of Englishness during the 1980s and 1990s, in the early years of the twenty-first century, a benign form of Englishness has come to the fore. It is suggested that this is a manifestation of a growing consciousness amongst those in the media and in administrative and political positions that the openness and tolerance characteristic of benign Englishness is how an increasing number of English people would like themselves to be seen.