Misrepresented: Why names matter in international cricket

Why then is the team that represents the United Kingdom known as England? 

It seems akin to the entire West Indies being represented by a team called Jamaica. Unless you hail from Jamaica, I wager that thought made you rather angry. So imagine for a moment how the people of the wider British Isles have felt when ‘England’ has taken to the field in their name.

Cricket is often described as a quintessential English pastime, one cloaked in centuries of tradition and bound by long-standing institutions. But those traditions are shared throughout the United Kingdom, and people whose homes lie beyond England’s boundaries have long found the national team’s name a source of frustration, irritation, and exclusion.