Announcement: Thursday 30th November 2023
The relationship between cricket clubs and the establishment of association football, whether played domestically or internationally, has been well documented in recent months, including today’s anniversary of the world’s first international football match held at West of Scotland Cricket Ground in 1872. The importance of this relationship has been a little-known one, and the sterling work of the Hampden Collection and its #Fitba150 programme of events has brought this story to the public eye.
Richard Young, Author of As The Willow Vanishes and member of The Hampden Collection Team, explains, “The forgotten legacy of the cricket clubs is its involvement with association football from the beginning. Alongside Queen’s Park Football Club, they were the pioneers and promulgators of the explosion of modern football, which caught the public’s attention very quickly. Many of these early football teams were principally cricket clubs who played football as a winter sport to keep fit, and were located in Football’s Square Mile.”
In 1873, Queen’s Park Football Club gathered seven cricket clubs to form the Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Football Challenge Cup, changing the footballing world forever. Clydesdale, Kilmarnock and Vale of Leven Cricket Clubs, three surviving WDCU members, signed up at the meeting in the Dewar’s Temperance Hotel in Bridge Street in 1873, and remain part of the foundation of what would become the beautiful people’s game.
Khizar Ali, WDCU Chairman, stated, “We support the Football’s Square Mile campaign because it recognises cricket’s founding contribution to association football in Scotland. This contribution demonstrates the power of teamwork, people working together as clubs, and what can be achieved, on and off the field of play, irrespective of the sport. The Hampden Collection’s mission for UNESCO status for Football’s Square Mile tells cricket’s story within the footballing world and the many cricket sites located within it.”
Bryan Clarke, WDCU Secretary, added, “It has been a joy to watch the last 18 months as the important role of the early cricketers and their clubs have played out in articles and interviews. As a cricketer, I am filled with pride, and as a football fan and a Scot, I am forever learning about our sporting legacies and having nothing but respect for those before me. Their original endeavours mean so much to over 3.5 billion people who now play or watch football around the world today. Cricket has to support Football’s Square Mile and the UNESCO status bid, and we are delighted to be involved.”
The Western District Cricket Union joins the growing membership of the Football’s Square Mile Alliance, supporting the mission to recognise the cradle of the world’s biggest cultural sporting phenomenon and make it a UNESCO World Herigate Site.
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