History of Cricket
Test cricket remained the sport's highest level of standard throughout the 20th century but it had its problems, notably in the infamous "Bodyline Series" of 1932–33 when Douglas Jardine's England used so-called "leg theory" to try and neutralise the run-scoring brilliance of Australia'sDon Bradman.
From Wikipedia
The game of cricket has a known history
spanning from the 16th century to the present day, with international
matches played since 1844, although the official history of
international Test cricket began
in 1877. During this time, the game developed from its origins in
England into a game which is now played professionally in most of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Origin
No
one knows when or where cricket began but there is a body of evidence,
much of it circumstantial, that strongly suggests the game was devised
during Saxon or Norman times by children living in the Weald, an area of
dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England that lies across
Kent and Sussex. In medieval times, the Weald was populated by small
farming and metal-working communities. It is generally believed that
cricket survived as a children's game for many centuries before it was
increasingly taken up by adults around the beginning of the 17th
century.
It
is quite likely that cricket was devised by children and survived for
many generations as essentially a children’s game. Adult participation
is unknown before the early 17th century. Possibly cricket was derived
from bowls, assuming bowls is the older sport, by the intervention of a
batsman trying to stop the ball from reaching its target by hitting it
away. Playing on sheep-grazed land or in clearings, the original
implements may have been a matted lump of sheep’s wool (or even a stone
or a small lump of wood) as the ball; a stick or a crook or another farm
tool as the bat; and a stool or a tree stump or a gate (e.g., a wicket
gate) as the wicket.
Derivation of the name of "cricket"
A
number of words are thought to be possible sources for the term
"cricket". In the earliest known reference to the sport in 1598 (see below), it is called creckett. The name may have been derived from the Middle Dutch krick(-e), meaning a stick; or the Old English cricc or crycemeaning a crutch or staff. Another possible source is the Middle Dutch word krickstoel, meaning a long low stool used for kneeling inchurch and which resembled the long low wicket with two stumps used in early cricket.
According to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of Bonn University, "cricket" derives from the Middle Dutch met de (krik ket)sen(i.e.,
"with the stick chase"), which also suggests a Dutch connection in the
game's origin. It is more likely that the terminology of cricket was
based on words in use in south east England at the time and, given trade
connections with the County of Flanders, especially in the 15th century
when it belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy, many Middle Dutch words
found their way into southern English dialects.
First definite reference
Despite
many prior suggested references, the first definite mention of the game
is found in a 1598 court case concerning an ownership dispute over a
plot of common land in Guildford,Surrey. A 59-year old coroner, John
Derrick, testified that he and his school friends had played creckett on
the site fifty years earlier when they attended the Free School.
Derrick's account proves beyond reasonable doubt that the game was being
played in Surrey circa 1550.
The
first reference to cricket being played as an adult sport was in 1611,
when two men in Sussex were prosecuted for playing cricket on Sunday
instead of going to church. In the same year, a dictionary defined
cricket as a boys' game and this suggests that adult participation was a
recent development.
Early 17th century
A
number of references occur up to the English Civil War and these
indicate that cricket had become an adult game contested by parish
teams, but there is no evidence of county strength teams at this time.
Equally, there is little evidence of the rampant gambling that
characterised the game throughout the 18th century. It is generally
believed, therefore, that village cricket had developed by the middle of
the 17th century but that county cricket had not and that investment in
the game had not begun.
The Commonwealth
After
the Civil War ended in 1648, the new Puritan government clamped down on
"unlawful assemblies", in particular the more raucous sports such as
football. Their laws also demanded a stricter observance of the Sabbath
than there had been previously. As the Sabbath was the only free time
available to the lower classes, cricket's popularity may have waned
during the Commonwealth. Having said that, it did flourish in public
fee-paying schools such as Winchester and St Paul's. There is no actual
evidence that Oliver Cromwell's regime banned cricket specifically and
there are references to it during the interregnum that suggest it was
acceptable to the authorities provided that it did not cause any "breach
of the Sabbath". It is believed that the nobility in general adopted
cricket at this time through involvement in village games.
Gambling and press coverage
Cricket
certainly thrived after the Restoration in 1660 and is believed to have
first attracted gamblers making large bets at this time. In 1664, the
"Cavalier" Parliament passed the Gaming Act 1664 which limited stakes to
£100, although that was still a fortune at the time,equivalent to about
£12 thousand in present day terms . Cricket had certainly become a
significant gambling sport by the end of the 17th century. There is a
newspaper report of a "great match" played in Sussex in 1697 which was
11-a-side and played for high stakes of 50guineas a side.
With freedom
of the press having been granted in 1696, cricket for the first time
could be reported in the newspapers. But it was a long time before the
newspaper industry adapted sufficiently to provide frequent, let alone
comprehensive, coverage of the game. During the first half of the 18th
century, press reports tended to focus on the betting rather than on the
play.
18-th Century Cricket
Patronage and players
Gambling
introduced the first patrons because some of the gamblers decided to
strengthen their bets by forming their own teams and it is believed the
first "county teams" were formed in the aftermath of the Restoration in
1660, especially as members of the nobility were employing "local
experts" from village cricket as the earliest professionals. The first
known game in which the teams use county names is in 1709 but there can
be little doubt that these sort of fixtures were being arranged long
before that. The match in 1697 was probably Sussex versus another
county.
The
most notable of the early patrons were a group of aristocrats and
businessmen who were active from about 1725, which is the time that
press coverage became more regular, perhaps as a result of the patrons'
influence. These men included the 2nd Duke of Richmond, Sir William
Gage, Alan Brodrick and Edward Stead. For the first time, the press
mentions individual players like Thomas Waymark.
Cricket moves out of England
Cricket
was introduced to North America via the English colonies in the 17th
century, probably before it had even reached the north of England. In
the 18th century it arrived in other parts of the globe. It was
introduced to the West Indies by colonists and to India by British East
India Company mariners in the first half of the century. It arrived in
Australia almost as soon as colonization began in 1788. New Zealand and
South Africa followed in the early years of the 19th century.
Development of the Laws
The
basic rules of cricket such as bat and ball, the wicket, pitch
dimensions, overs, how out, etc. have existed since time immemorial. In
1728, the Duke of Richmond and Alan Brodick drew up "Articles of
Agreement" to determine the code of practice in a particular game and
this became a common feature, especially around payment of stake money
and distributing the winnings given the importance of gambling.
In
1744, the Laws of Cricket were codified for the first time and then
amended in 1774, when innovations such as lbw, middle stump and maximum
bat width were added. These laws stated that the principals shall choose from amongst the gentlemen present two umpires who shall absolutely decide all disputes.
The codes were drawn up by the so-called "Star and Garter Club" whose
members ultimately foundedMCC at Lord's in 1787. MCC immediately became
the custodian of the Laws and has made periodic revisions and
recodifications subsequently.
Continued growth in England
The
game continued to spread throughout England and, in 1751, Yorkshire is
first mentioned as a venue. The original form of bowling (i.e., rolling
the ball along the ground as in bowls) was superseded sometime after
1760 when bowlers began to pitch the ball and study variations in line,
length and pace. Scorecards began to be kept on a regular basis from
1772 and since then an increasingly clear picture has emerged of the
sport's development.
The
first famous clubs were London and Dartford in the early 18th century.
London played its matches on the Artillery Ground, which still exists.
Others followed, particularly Slindon in Sussex which was backed by the
Duke of Richmond and featured the star player Richard Newland. There
were other prominent clubs at Maidenhead, Hornchurch, Maidstone,
Sevenoaks, Bromley, Addington, Hadlowand Chertsey.
But
far and away the most famous of the early clubs was Hambledon in
Hampshire. It started as a parish organisation that first achieved
prominence in 1756. The club itself was founded in the 1760s and was
well patronised to the extent that it was the focal point of the game
for about thirty years until the formation of MCC and the opening
of Lord's Cricket Ground in 1787. Hambledon produced several outstanding
players including the master batsman John Small and the first great
fast bowler Thomas Brett. Their most notable opponent was the Chertsey
and Surrey bowler Edward "Lumpy" Stevens, who is believed to have been
the main proponent of the flighted delivery.
It
was in answer to the flighted, or pitched, delivery that the straight
bat was introduced. The old "hockey stick" style of bat was only really
effective against the ball being trundled or skimmed along the ground.
Cricket and crisis
Cricket
faced its first real crisis during the 18th century when major matches
virtually ceased during the Seven Years War. This was largely due to
shortage of players and lack of investment. But the game survived and
the "Hambledon Era" proper began in the mid-1760s.
Cricket
faced another major crisis at the beginning of the 19th century when a
cessation of major matches occurred during the culminating period of
the Napoleonic Wars. Again, the causes were shortage of players and lack
of investment. But, as in the 1760s, the game survived and a slow
recovery began in 1815.
On June 17th 1815, on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo British soldiers played a cricket match in the Bois de la Cambre park in Brussels. Ever since the park area where that match took place has been called La Pelouse des Anglais (the Englishmen's lawn).
MCC
was itself the centre of controversy in the Regency period, largely on
account of the enmity between Lord Frederick Beauclerk andGeorge
Osbaldeston. In 1817, their intrigues and jealousies exploded into a
match-fixing scandal with the top player William Lambert being banned
from playing at Lord's Cricket Ground for life. Gambling scandals in
cricket have been going on since the 17th century.
In the 1820s, cricket faced a major crisis of its own making as the campaign to allow roundarm bowling gathered pace.
19-th Century Cricket
The
game also underwent a fundamental change of organisation with the
formation for the first time of county clubs. All the modern county
clubs, starting with Sussex in 1839, were founded during the 19th century.
No
sooner had the first county clubs established themselves than they
faced what amounted to "player action" as William Clarke created the
travelling All-England Eleven in 1846. Though a commercial venture, this
team did much to popularise the game in districts which had never
previously been visited by high-class cricketers. Other similar teams
were created and this vogue lasted for about thirty years. But the
counties and MCC prevailed.
The
growth of cricket in the mid and late 19th century was assisted by the
development of the railway network. For the first time, teams from a
long distance apart could play one other without a prohibitively
time-consuming journey. Spectators could travel longer distances to
matches, increasing the size of crowds.
In
1864, another bowling revolution resulted in the legalisation
of overarm and in the same yearWisden Cricketers' Almanack was first
published.
The
"Great Cricketer", W G Grace, made his first-class debut in 1865. His
feats did much to increase the game's popularity and he introduced
technical innovations which revolutionised the game, particularly in
batting.
International cricket begins
The first
ever international cricket game was between the USA and Canada in 1844.
The match was played at the grounds of the St George's Cricket Club in
New York.
In
1859, a team of leading English professionals set off to North America
on the first-ever overseas tour and, in 1862, the first English team
toured Australia.
Between
May and October 1868, a team of Australian Aborigines toured England in
what was thefirst Australian cricket team to travel overseas.
In 1877, an England touring
team in Australia played two matches against full Australian XIs that
are now regarded as the inaugural Test matches. The following year, the
Australians toured England for the first time and were a spectacular
success. No Tests were played on that tour but more soon followed and,
at The Oval in 1882, arguably the most famous match of all time gave
rise to The Ashes. South Africa became the third Test nation in 1889.
National championships
A
major watershed occurred in 1890 when the official County
Championship was constituted in England. This organisational initiative
has been repeated in other countries. Australia established
the Sheffield Shield in 1892–93. Other national competitions to be
established were the Currie Cup in South Africa, the Plunkett Shield in
New Zealand and the Ranji Trophy in India.
The
period from 1890 to the outbreak of the First World War has become an
object of nostalgia, ostensibly because the teams played cricket
according to "the spirit of the game", but more realistically because it
was a peacetime period that was shattered by the First World War. The
era has been called The Golden Age of cricket and it featured numerous
great names such as Grace, Wilfred Rhodes, C B Fry, K S
Ranjitsinhji and Victor Trumper.
Balls per over
In
1889 the immemorial four ball over was replaced by a five ball over and
then this was changed to the current six balls an over in 1900.
Subsequently, some countries experimented with eight balls an over. In
1922, the number of balls per over was changed from six to eight in
Australia only. In 1924 the eight ball over was extended to New Zealand
and in 1937 to South Africa. In England, the eight ball over was adopted
experimentally for the 1939 season; the intention was to continue the
experiment in 1940, but first-class cricket was suspended for the Second
World War and when it resumed, English cricket reverted to the six ball
over. The 1947 Laws of Cricket allowed six or eight balls depending on
the conditions of play. Since the 1979/80 Australian and New Zealand
seasons, the six ball over has been used worldwide and the most recent
version of the Laws in 2000 only permits six ball overs.
20 Century Cricket
Growth of Test cricket
When
the Imperial Cricket Conference (as it was originally called) was
founded in 1909, only England, Australia and South Africa were
members. India, West Indies and New Zealand became Test nations before
the Second World War and Pakistan soon afterwards. The international
game grew with several "affiliate nations" getting involved and, in the
closing years of the 20th century, three of those became Test nations
also: Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
Test cricket remained the sport's highest level of standard throughout the 20th century but it had its problems, notably in the infamous "Bodyline Series" of 1932–33 when Douglas Jardine's England used so-called "leg theory" to try and neutralise the run-scoring brilliance of Australia'sDon Bradman.
Suspension of South Africa (1970–91)
The
greatest crisis to hit international cricket was brought about
by apartheid, the South African policy of racial segregation. The
situation began to crystallise after 1961 when South Africa left
the Commonwealth of Nations and so, under the rules of the day, its
cricket board had to leave the International Cricket Conference (ICC).
Cricket's opposition to apartheid intensified in 1968 with the
cancellation of England's tour to South Africa by the South African
authorities, due to the inclusion of "coloured" cricketer Basil
D'Oliveira in the England team. In 1970, the ICC members voted to
suspend South Africa indefinitely from international cricket
competition. Ironically, the South African team at that time was
probably the strongest in the world.
Starved
of top-level competition for its best players, the South African
Cricket Board began funding so-called "rebel tours", offering large sums
of money for international players to form teams and tour South Africa.
The ICC's response was to blacklist any rebel players who agreed to
tour South Africa, banning them from officially sanctioned international
cricket. As players were poorly remunerated during the 1970s, several
accepted the offer to tour South Africa, particularly players getting
towards the end of their careers for whom a blacklisting would have
little effect.
The
rebel tours continued into the 1980s but then progress was made in
South African politics and it became clear that apartheid was ending.
South Africa, now a "Rainbow Nation" under Nelson Mandela, was welcomed
back into international sport in 1991.
World Series Cricket
The
money problems of top cricketers were also the root cause of another
cricketing crisis that arose in 1977 when the Australian media
magnate Kerry Packer fell out with the Australian Cricket Board over TV
rights. Taking advantage of the low remuneration paid to players, Packer
retaliated by signing several of the best players in the world to a
privately run cricket league outside the structure of international
cricket. World Series Cricket hired some of the banned South African
players and allowed them to show off their skills in an international
arena against other world-class players. The schism lasted only until
1979 and the "rebel" players were allowed back into established
international cricket, though many found that their national teams had
moved on without them. Long-term results of World Series Cricket have
included the introduction of significantly higher player salaries and
innovations such as coloured kit and night games.
Limited-overs cricket
In
the 1960s, English county teams began playing a version of cricket with
games of only one innings each and a maximum number of overs per
innings. Starting in 1963 as a knockout competition only, limited overs
grew in popularity and in 1969 a national league was created which
consequently caused a reduction in the number of matches in the County
Championship.
Although
many "traditional" cricket fans objected to the shorter form of the
game, limited overs cricket did have the advantage of delivering a
result to spectators within a single day; it did improve cricket's
appeal to younger or busier people; and it did prove commercially
successful.
The first limited overs international match took place at Melbourne Cricket Ground in
1971 as a time-filler after a Test match had been abandoned because of
heavy rain on the opening days. It was tried simply as an experiment and
to give the players some exercise, but turned out to be immensely
popular. Limited overs internationals (LOIs or ODIs, after One-day
Internationals) have since grown to become a massively popular form of
the game, especially for busy people who want to be able to see a whole
match. The International Cricket Council reacted to this development by
organising the first Cricket World Cup in England in 1975, with all the
Test playing nations taking part.
Increasing use of technology
Limited
overs cricket increased television ratings for cricket coverage.
Innovative techniques that were originally introduced for coverage of
LOI matches was soon adopted for Test coverage. The innovations included
presentation of in-depth statistics and graphical analysis, placing
miniature cameras in the stumps, multiple usage of cameras to provide
shots from several locations around the ground, high speed photography
and computer graphics technology enabling television viewers to study
the course of a delivery and help them understand an umpire's decision.
In
1992, the use of a third umpire to adjudicate runout appeals with
television replays was introduced in the Test series between South
Africa and India. The third umpire's duties have subsequently expanded
to include decisions on other aspects of play such as stumpings, catches
and boundaries. As yet, the third umpire is not called upon to
adjudicate lbw appeals, although there is a virtual reality tracking
technology (i.e., Hawk-Eye) that is approaching perfection in predicting
the course of a delivery.
21-st Century Cricket
Cricket remains a major world sport in terms of participants, spectators and media interest.
The
ICC has expanded its development program with the goal of producing
more national teams capable of competing at Test level. Development
efforts are focused on African and Asian nations; and on the United
States. In 2004, the ICC Intercontinental Cup brought first-class
cricket to 12 nations, mostly for the first time.
In
June 2001, the ICC introduced a "Test Championship Table" and, in
October 2002, a "One-day International Championship Table". Australia
has consistently topped both these tables in the 2000s.
Cricket's
newest innovation is Twenty20, essentially an evening entertainment. It
has so far enjoyed enormous popularity and has attracted large
attendances at matches as well as good TV audience ratings.
The inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Cup tournament was held in 2007 with a
follow-up event in 2009. The formation of Twenty20 leagues in India –
the unofficial Indian Cricket League, which started in 2007, and the
official Indian Premier League, starting in 2008 – raised much
speculation in the cricketing press about their effect on the future of
cricket.
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