Sport and War

Today is the Anzac day. It's been said that 'Sport is war minus the shooting', but what happens to sport when the shooting is real? Amanda Smith finds out about the role of cricket, in both the First and Second World Wars: for allied troops, for prisoners-of-war, and for the folks at home. Click here to read the transcript of this fascinating show aired in 1998.

I came across a photo in one of the volumes that's captioned 'The evacuation of Anzac'. The weird thing is though, that this is a photo of a cricket match in progress. So why were these diggers playing cricket when they were supposed to be withdrawing from Gallipoli?

Bill Gammage: Yes I know the photo, it's one Beam himself took actually, and it's one that was taken when the Australians had already started to evacuate the Anzac position. And the idea was that the people who were still on shore would pretend that things were going on as normal to deceive the Turks. Every night more and more Australians were withdrawn. And as more were withdrawn, there were more activities out in the open to pretend that everyone was still there and no evacuation was planned. That way the Turks wouldn't attack at the last minute and the chances of a successful evacuation were increased.

And this cricket match is one of them.