How Cricket Helped Shape Football in Glasgow | ETPL

Glasgow, home to one of the six franchises in the European T20 Premier League (ETPL), is gearing up to get behind its team. Whether you are from the city or not, you might just end up cheering for the Glasgow franchise, once the inaugural edition of the ETPL kicks-off. Cricket, after all, is in Glasgow's genes.

To call Glasgow a magical city, with a very interesting past, would be an understatement.

It was once called "the second city of the British Empire", its wider metropolitan area has a population of around 1.73 million, and it is known around the world for its quality universities, commerce, shopping and culture. And oh yes, can we really forget the football? It wouldn't be a stretch to call the beautiful game the city's biggest cultural institution. The attendance figures of Celtic FC and Rangers FC rival those of major English Premier League clubs and are among the highest in the UK. Glasgow's city area population is around 650,300, yet the city has three huge football stadiums, all with 50,000 plus seating capacity - Celtic Park (60,000 seats), Ibrox Stadium (51,700 seats) and Hampden Park (51,800 seats). That in itself reflects how big football is in Glasgow.

But did you know that it was cricket that really shaped football in Glasgow?

For much of the 19th century cricket was one of the key sports shaping Glasgow's sporting culture.

The following explains cricket's significant role in shaping Glasgow football, or, more simply, how cricket helped give Glasgow one of its biggest cultural identities:

The historic Clydesdale Cricket Club, established in 1848, had its original ground at Kinning Park. In 1873, when the club moved to its new ground at Titwood, it sold the old venue to Rangers, which was then a very young football club. In a sense, the relocation of a cricket club provided one of the foundations for the modern Rangers. Clydesdale in fact was not just a cricket club. Like many Victorian sporting institutions, it also had football teams. Members of the club were also involved in founding the Scottish Football Association. The Clydesdale football club made the cut for the very first Scottish Cup final in 1874. An example of how cricket and football were intertwined in Scotland.

Clydesdale Cricket Club in Titwood has a storied history in the annals of Scottish cricket. Image courtesy: @DaleCricket/X
Did you know that the first official international football match was played between Scotland and England in Glasgow, in 1872? If you did know that one, did you know that the venue for that match - Hamilton Crescent - was the home of the West of Scotland Cricket Club? Since cricket clubs possessed the best sporting infrastructure in the city, it was a no-brainer to play the match there. Cricket clubs in Scotland had facilities like pavilions, enclosed grounds, seating, and of course organisational experience well before football became Scotland's dominant sport. About 4,000 fans attended the Scotland–England match at, what was for all intents and purposes, a cricket ground. Cricket clubs in Scotland also went on to have rugby teams, and cricket administrators went on to become decision-makers in other sports too.
Glasgow's connection and bond with cricket continued to grow stronger. The city emerged as Scotland's cricket capital. At Hamilton Crescent, the West of Scotland Cricket Club pursued an ambitious vision. According to reports, founder John McNeill wanted the club to become "the MCC of Scotland". Or in other words - a national center of cricket excellence. One of the things the club did to achieve that goal was to invite elite teams from outside Scotland. And guess what? In 1878, the first Australian cricket team ever to tour Scotland played at Hamilton Crescent. All-England teams too toured Scotland. The Ashes rivalry had not yet fully developed at the time and football had not yet overshadowed cricket in Scotland.