This is just a quick reflection of how sport in Wales looks to me in respect of “How Welsh” it is, and perhaps as a metaphor for how each reflects the constitutional options for Wales! All assertion and feelings to fill the empty August pages – so plenty I am sure to disagree with.
I will look at three main sports and focus on the mens game – cricket, rugby and football.
When I was growing up in the 1970s, I loved watching cricket over the summer and especially watching the test matches. The series between England and the West Indies in 1976 stands out. Playing cricket in the garden or the street with my brother and local friends, I was always the West Indies – Alvin Kallicharran, Gordon Greenidge, Roy Fredericks, Gary Sobers (who had retired by 1976), Clive Lloyd, Michael Holding…and the incredible Viv Richards (and remember well cheering him and his then Glamorgan colleagues when Glamorgan won the Sunday League in 1993..and without Viv won the County Championship in 1997). All names that were part of one the best and most entertaining cricket teams of all time (who didn’t have to grovel in 1976 as Tony Greig suggested they would!).
The West Indies dominated the game from the mid-1970s and into the 80s with a confidence and flamboyance matched by few – Ian Botham, Bob Willis, etc as part of the 1981 Ashes series was an exception!
Now there was no prospect of me supporting England in that 1976 series, I wasn’t English…and I did like the underdog or anyone other than an England team (apart perhaps from Australia in Cricket?). I felt that, despite the high-profile role of an earlier England captain Tony Lewis. At that time and being so young, I was completely unaware of his role – but I did know that Glamorgan had won the County Championship in 1969.
That’s just how I felt, despite the valiant efforts of Tony Greig, Alan Knott, Mike Brearley, Chris Old, Bob Woolmer, Jon Snow, Derek Underwood etc. The only time I did really lean into support England vs being a neutral observer at test level was perhaps the 2005 Ashes with Simon Jones and his reverse swing!
The reality of cricket in Wales, is that Wales does not really exist. Wales is part of an “England and Wales” ecosystem and has a lower profile than most of the other English counties.
Nonetheless, I still like cricket and take a keen interest in the South Wales Premier League. My son Tomos plays for Newport (who are currently top of the table…a few points ahead of St Fagans) and he spent many years playing for Cardiff Cricket club who gave him a chance to progress after some fantastic early years and as Capt. of the U14 local Asian team called Cardiff Gymkhana. I did a lot of miles giving lifts between games in that period!
However, my observation and despite the best efforts of the likes of Cricket Wales and the Lords Taverners to support and grow the game in Wales, the deck is stacked against them. This is because for many people there is no Welsh profile, no Wales T20 team, no international one-day team, …Wales is subsumed into an English persona. Cricket does not feel Welsh and doesn’t really tap into the Welsh psyche as some other sports do. Truth is whilst I am less partizan about support than I was playing street cricket in the 1970s, even in the recent test series, I was supporting India! However, more often than not I am a neutral observer at test matches. That’s just how I feel!
I think the opportunity to build and grow the game in Wales would benefit from a more independent Welsh profile (not just a “Welsh Fire” in the “100” who have secured significant backing from Glamorgan and new investors, and seem likely to do well, Current Glam management did well there) and something that properly taps into “Wales”. The current ecosystem of the game seems to me to be an impediment in that regard.
Now money and history and the way the game has developed in Wales, means that change is unlikely. So, whilst the very best Scots and Irish cricketers who want to play test cricket end up playing for England (eg Mike Dennes and Eoin Morgan), they do at least have national representation for World Cups, T20, one day games….whereas Wales is conspicuous by its absence. Surely, even within the current ecosystem, some changes could be made?
Cricket is very much an English game which has comprehensively colonised Wales and mirrors the look of Wales after the 1535 Act of Union initiated by Henry VIII which absorbed Wales into the “Kingdom of England” (all without democratic mandate I would add – so completely lacked legitimacy!! – and effectively reversed via the Welsh Language Act of 1967) Nonetheless I will be hoping Tom and Newport win the South Wales Premier league this year! (and maybe Cardiff next)…and that Glamorgan get promoted back to Division 1.
I would observe that in Ireland, the role of the Gaelic games has, and still keeps cricket and all other sports on the sidelines. Watch one of the All-Ireland finals and you will clearly see how Gaelic Football and Hurling tap into the soul of Ireland in a way other sports just can’t.
In Wales, I think rugby is different from cricket. It has a completely independent Welsh structure, and its formation may well have helped influence Welsh identity at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.
Its clubs and the national team tapped into the psyche of Wales. However, the game is still quite “English” or perhaps “British” in some regard. It has a royal patron, maintains the three feathers that some would wish discarded, and has the military overtones at the beginning of home international games. There are also many freemason groups in rugby. I have even attended a masons fund raising dinner which Max Boyce entertained us.
The crowd and singing in the north stand in the 1970s really was an experience in terms of “hairs standing up on the back of your neck”. However, the way the national game and attendances has been corporatised, as well as a degree of US sports entertaining at the Millenium Stadium, since, suggests to me the emotional fervour and authenticity has been degraded somewhat. The current malaise of the national team and lack of direction and success at club level doesn’t help.
Football is different again. Yes there is an independent Welsh eco system. However, Wales best clubs play in the English pyramid system (I have no problem with that). For years there was no fervent demonstration of Welshness at national games. “Mae hen Wlad fy nhadau” was barely heard when sung and was drowned out by efforts from Cardiff Arms Park. Most action was on the terraces and typically fighting between Cardiff and Swansea fans!
I think in the last 15 years that has been reversed. Before Wales’s home football games, the anthem is now sung by the crowd, following a few notes intro, better and with more emotion than at the Arms Park/Millenium Stadium; and Dafydd Iwan had tapped into a football, Yma o Hyd zeitgeist (despite this being a Llanelli rugby favourite). There is no royal patron, no royal insignia, etc and now the Welsh FA refers to the national team as “Cymru”.
To me the Welsh football eco system comes over as more Welsh than rugby and certainly cricket, and has tapped into a sense of a more “independent minded” Wales. Now some of the energy in football is linked to success and/or lack thereof. I wonder how it would be without Gareth Bale and multiple qualifications. Remember, I was born in 1963, so apart from the forgotten 1976 Euro campaign, Wales never qualified for World or European competition until 2016! So, support was hard to build and maintain. The role of Gary Speed and FA Cymru with their” together stronger” motto (and current CEO Noel Mooney) cannot be understated either.
So, for me, currently football has the Welsh soul, rugby has lost its way…and cricket is a great sport that I watch but does not and cannot not really in its current arrangement, tap into the Welsh psyche.
As a metaphor, politically and constitutionally, Wales is somewhere between cricket and rugby…. but perhaps needs to be more like football; clearly independent with a Welsh soul, but engaged in cross border systems and arrangements where that is appropriate?
Thank you for this rich reflection, Mark. I was particularly struck by how you map sport—cricket, rugby, football—not just as games but as expressions of identity, history, and politics. The idea that cricket feels “subsumed,” rugby perhaps over-institutionalized, and that football is moving more toward capturing the emotional soul of modern Wales really resonates. I grew up around similar dynamics (though elsewhere), and I recognize how significant things like anthem singing, local support, and independent structures are in giving people a sense that “this is ours” not “this is inherited.”
I also appreciate how your personal stories—like supporting South Wales Premier League, the shared community moments, and watching how your son plays—anchor the bigger ideas in human experience. It reminds me that for programs like RobbinsAthletics, culture isn’t just built in the boardroom or by marketers, but by families showing up, by youth athletes carrying traditions, by local crowds, by little rituals over time. Thanks for this post—it’s not only informing but also affirming for people who believe sport can hold space for both competition and belonging.