Playing in Drag: How Cross-Dressing Changed Cricket in Australia

Playing in Drag: How Cross-Dressing Changed Cricket in Australia

Fancy dress cricket matches enjoyed a remarkable popularity across Australia, especially from the late 1880s until the mid-1930s. Participants and spectators from local communities enjoyed a fun and comical day out, and the games provided an acceptable way for clubs and associations to raise money for themselves or local charity. Originally, participants were male, many of whom enthusiastically performed the role of ‘lady’ cricketers, but gradually women themselves played in the matches, some of whom went on to play for Australia. Cross-dressing behaviours that were ‘transgressive’ in private were socially permissible on the cricket ground. Playing cricket in drag costume influenced the development of cricket in country areas as well as cities, and among women as well as men. These games provide a new and novel way to view the rise in the popularity of cricket through the lens of cross-dressing intertwined with gender relations in Australia.

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