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Hello and welcome to Empire with me Anita Arnand.

And me, William Durunpool.

So we're taking a little break from Writers of Empire for a little bit of a sporting interlude, if you will.

We're going to talk about the history of cricket and the way in which it is completely intertwined with the history of empire.

In the next three episodes, two that you get anyway, one special, if you're a member of our club.

We're going to be talking about the relationships of England, the mother country, if you will, and her former colonies.

So we'll be covering Australia and Australian cricket, especially the ashes.

We'll be talking about the test cricket history of countries like India. And then our special bonus, we'll be talking about the West Indies and South Africa. These are episodes which even if you're not

into cricket, you can still enjoy because they are wound around huge seismic changes in

the political landscape of the empire, but also gigantic characters

exist in these stories. So we really do hope you enjoyed, and it seems like a good time

to do it because the ashes are underway. Two sides of the world are coming together in one

of the biggest cricketing grudge matches that there is.

The ashes.

Between November 2025 and January 2026, England and her one-time colony are going to be slugging it out for a small terracotta earned that once, and it's not this one, this is a replica, but once contained the ashes of,

it depends who you talk to, cricket stumps or the ball used in the very first match.

So, we're going to talk about that.

We're going to talk about the international rivalry.

I mean, this represents so much more, doesn't it, Willie?

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