Full Circle: Richard Heller and Peter Oborne embark on hugely ambitious global history of cricket
Elliott & Thompson is delighted to announce it will be publishing Full Circle: A History of Cricket by Richard Heller and Peter Oborne. Elliott & Thompson Director Olivia Bays acquired World rights directly from the authors. The book will be published in hardback and ebook on 23rd April 2026.
Full Circle traces the origins of cricket as a commercial entertainment through its evolution to a form of moral improvement and tool of empire. The authors argue that cricket today – dominated by the Indian Premier League’s wealth and scale – has come full circle back to its early form. From Australia to the Caribbean to Afghanistan, they explore the way cricket developed across the globe, examining its role in colonialism, education and politics; where it flourished and where it failed to take root.
In the 18th century, cricket was a commercial entertainment, a vehicle for gambling alongside cock-fighting or wrestling. In the Victorian era, the sport was rejuvenated as a means of keeping order in England’s public schools and increasingly became linked with ideas of virtue and manliness. Exported by empire loyalists abroad, cricket took root across the globe – wildly successfully in some countries, indelibly linked with racism and violence in others, and failing to thrive in certain regions. Today, the monetisation of cricket suggests it has returned to its original purpose – less a sport or self-mythologising value system than a commercial enterprise to be ruthlessly exploited.
Cricketing historians, commentators, players and fans, Oborne and Heller have produced an authoritative, erudite and entertaining history of the game that is not to be missed.
Richard Heller and Peter Oborne say:
‘We have traced the forces which shaped cricket’s destiny. So besides cricket, our book embraces religion, gambling, railways, public schools, the penny post, empire, post-colonialism, lawnmowers, steamships, media, neo-liberalism, resistance, racism, world wars and much else off the field. We relate the battles for control of the game’s revenues, ideology and aesthetics and ponder – provocatively – the grave threats to its survival.’
Olivia Bays, Director at Elliott & Thompson, says:
‘We are thrilled to be publishing this hugely ambitious, global history of cricket. Peter Oborne and Richard Heller bring all of their experience and expertise to bear in their utterly compelling account of cricket’s evolution. From its earliest beginnings to the game’s contemporary form, they examine how cricket spread across the world – thriving in some regions, faltering in others – and what that has meant for the sport. Full Circle is a masterful read, and an essential one for all cricket fans.’
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
RICHARD HELLER and PETER OBORNE are the co- authors of White On Green and during lockdown launched the popular podcast, Oborne & Heller On Cricket.
Richard Heller was a long-serving columnist for the Mail on Sunday and The Times, and is the author of two cricket novels.
Peter Oborne is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and journalist, currently writing for Open Democracy and Middle East Eye. His books include Basil D’Oliveira: Cricket and Controversy (winner of the William Hill Prize 2004) and Wounded Tiger (Wisden’s book of the year, 2014).