Would the man who dreamt up the ICC recognise modern cricket?

Would the Man Who Dreamt Up the ICC Recognise Modern Cricket?

Modern international cricket was shaped by a man who played only three first-class matches.

Abe Bailey said in England in 1907, "Inter-rivalry within the Empire cannot fail to draw together in closer friendly interest all those many thousands of our kinsmen who regard cricket as our national sport…"

The ICC was Founded

In June 1909, the ICC was founded. It was Bailey's baby, and it has grown into the central authority that organises and runs.

Who was Bailey?

Bailey was born in November 1864 to a father from Yorkshire and a Scottish mother in the Eastern Cape. He became a member of the gold and diamond mining tycoons known as the Randlords.

Bailey's Legacy

What might Bailey make of modern cricket? Would he be amazed that the country he helped plunder has not only emerged from colonialism and changed its name, but has a team who are in Nottingham to play their first Test in almost 22 years?

Would he welcome the warmth of the Zimbabwe supporters singing well-worn songs from home into Nottingham's grim grey skies?

Would Bailey marvel at the fact that his brainchild from 1907 now has 108 members? And that a dozen of them play Tests?

And that the current incarnation of his abiding passion is more Asian than it is of anywhere else?

What would Bailey make of Ashis Nandy's assertion that "cricket is an Indian game accidentally discovered by the English"?

It's cricket, Abe, but not as you knew it.