‘That’s not a quirk of racism [. . .] – that’s a quirk of geography’

Exploring the role of place(s) in assigning responsibility for exclusion in grassroots cricket in Australia

Bibliographic Data

ID24228596
AuthorsMarianna Patrick (0009-0003-7536-8600, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK), Stephanie Schnurr (0000-0001-5601-7491, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK), Kieran File (0000-0001-6202-0013, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK), Lucas Moreira dos Anjos‐Santos (0000-0001-5340-4680, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia), Ruth Jeanes (0000-0002-3907-0108, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia), Daniel Howe (Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia)
Year2026
Publication date2026-09-09
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0957-9265 • E-ISSN: 1460-3624
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/09579265261481839
OpenAlexW7203591494
LanguageEN
References cited48

This article examines how place is discursively constructed as an agent in talk about the exclusion of ethnic minority players in Australian grassroots cricket. Drawing on 40 semi-structured interviews with players and other stakeholders, we combine thematic analysis with Critical Discourse Analysis to identify the linguistic strategies used to construct place(s). We show how references to places of different degrees of granularity – from very specific to more general – shift responsibility for exclusion away from individuals and organisations, attributing it instead to geography. This discursive framing constructs exclusion as natural, inevitable, and beyond human intervention, thereby obscuring accountability and limiting the potential for meaningful change. By foregrounding references to place as a mechanism through which exclusion is normalised and justified, the article advances sociolinguistic understandings of how language shapes experiences of belonging and marginalisation in sport. The study highlights the need to critically examine spatial discourses when addressing inequalities in sport.

attribution of responsibility · Australian cricket · racism in sport · spatial discourse · Media Discourse and Social Analysis · Physical Education and Sports Studies · Sports, Gender, and Society

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