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.
Early cricket
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 cryce meaning
a crutch or staff. Another
possible source is the Middle Dutch word krickstoel, meaning a long low stool used for kneeling in church 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 50 guineas 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.
18th-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 founded MCC 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.
An artwork depicting the history of the cricket
bat
The first famous clubs were London and Dartford in the early 18th century. London
played its matches on the ArtilleryGround, 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, Hadlow and 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 and George 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.
19th-century cricket
View of Geneva's Plaine de Plainpalais with cricketers, 1817
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.
A cricket match at Darnall, Sheffield in the
1820s.
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 year Wisden 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.
The English team 1859 on their way to
the USA
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 the first Australian cricket team to travel overseas.
The first Australian touring team (1878)
pictured at Niagara Falls
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 TheGolden 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.
20th-century cricket
Growth of Test cricket
Sid Barnes, traps Lala Amarnath lbw in the first official Test between Australia
and India at the MCG in 1948
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's Don 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" cricketerBasil 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.
21st-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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