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 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. 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. There is also a theory that it originated from ancient bat-and-ball games played in the
Indian subcontinent, which were then transported to Europe via Persia and the near east by merchants, and eventually developed into the game of cricket in England.
Origin A number of words are thought to be possible sources for the term
cricket, which could refer to the bat or the wicket. In old
French, the word
criquet meant a kind of club which probably gave its name to
croquet. Some believe that cricket and croquet have a common origin. In
Flemish,
krick(e) means a stick, and, in
Old English,
cricc or
cryce means a crutch or staff (though the hard "k" sound suggests the North or Northeast midlands, rather than the Southeast, where cricket seems to have begun). The Isle of Man has a game called
Cammag. It involves a stick (cammag) and a ball (crick) with anything between four and hundreds of players. The 'crick' in this instance may be derived from, though indirectly, Flemish.
Alternatively, the French
criquet apparently comes from the Flemish word
krickstoel, which is a long low stool on which one kneels in church which may appear similar to the long low wicket with two stumps used in early cricket, or the early stool in
stoolball. The word
stool is old [Sussex] dialect for a tree stump in a forest, but in
stoolball it may well refer to the milking-stools which are believed to have been used as wickets in early times.
Stoolball is an ancient sport similar to cricket, still played in southern counties of England, especially Sussex, and is considered a precursor to cricket,
rounders and
baseball.
Derivation of the name of "cricket" Despite many prior suggested references, the first definite reference to the game is found in a 1597 court case concerning dispute over a school's ownership of a plot of land. A 59-year old coroner, John Derrick, testified that he and his school friends had played
kreckett on the site fifty years earlier. The school was the
Royal Grammar School, Guildford, and Mr Derrick's account proves beyond reasonable doubt that the game was being played in
Surrey c.1550.
The first reference to it 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 defines cricket as a boys' game and this suggests that adult participation was a recent development.
First definite reference A number of references occur up to the
English Civil War and these indicate that it 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.
Early Seventeenth Century 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
Cromwell's government banned cricket specifically and there are references to it during the
interregnum that suggest it was acceptable to the authorities providing it did not cause any "breach of the Sabbath".
The Commonwealth 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 a
Gambling Act which limited stakes to £100, although that was a fortune. Cricket had certainly become a significant gambling sport by the end of the 17th century. We know of a "great match" played in Sussex in 1697 which was 11-a-side and played for high stakes of 50
guineas a side. Our knowledge of this game came about because, for the first time, cricket could be reported in the
newspapers with
freedom of the press having been granted the previous year. But it was a long time before the newspapers adapted sufficiently to provide frequent, let alone comprehensive coverage of the game.
Gambling and press coverage See also: History of cricket 1697 - 1725 and History of cricket 1726 - 1815 Eighteenth Century cricket 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. The first game we know of 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 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
Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond,
Sir William Gage, 7th Baronet,
Alan Brodrick and
Edward Stead. For the first time, the press tells us something about individual players like
Thomas Waymark.
Patronage and players 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.
Cricket moves out of England See also: Laws of Cricket 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, we first hear of "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.
Development of the Laws 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 we have an increasingly clear picture of the sport's development.
The first famous clubs were
London and
Dartford in the early 18th century. London played its matches on the famous
Artillery Ground, which is still there. 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 and 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 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.
Continued growth in England See also: English cricket from 1816 to 1918 Nineteenth Century cricket Cricket faced its first real crisis at the beginning of the
19th century when major matches virtually ceased during the culminating period of the
Napoleonic Wars. This was largely due to shortage of players and lack of investment. But the game survived and a slow recovery began in 1815. Then cricket faced a crisis of its own making as the campaign to allow
roundarm bowling gathered pace.
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, were founded during the 19th century.
No sooner had the county clubs established themselves than they faced what amounted to "player action" as
William Clarke created the travelling
All-England Eleven in 1846. 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.
Cricket and crisis The first ever international cricket game was between the
USA and
Canada in 1844. The match was played at
Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey In 1859, a team of leading English professionals set off to North America on the first-ever overseas tour.
In 1864, another bowling revolution resulted in the legalisation of
overarm. The "Great Cricketer",
W G Grace, made his debut the same year.
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.
International cricket begins A major watershed occurred in 1890 when the
County Cricket Championship was formally constituted for the first time to replace the
ad hoc championship criteria that had been used hitherto. The period from 1890 to the outbreak of the
First World War has become especially nostalgic, ostensibly because the teams played cricket according to "the spirit of the game". In reality, this nostalgia was due to the sense of loss brought about by the war. But the era has been called "The Golden Age of Cricket" and it featured numerous great names such as
Wilfred Rhodes,
C B Fry,
K S Ranjitsinhji and
Victor Trumper.
The County Championship 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.
Balls per over Twentieth Century cricket When the
Imperial Cricket Conference (as it was originally called) was founded in 1909, only England, Australia and South Africa were members. But that would soon change, and
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 most popular form of the sport throughout the
20th century but it had its problems, never more so than 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.
Growth of Test cricket See also: International cricket in South Africa (1971 to 1981) 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 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.
Limited overs cricket Cricket now is arguably the second most popular sport in the world.
21st Century cricket 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 since they were first published.
Cricket remains a major world sport and is the most popular spectator sport in the
Indian subcontinent. 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.
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, India emerged as the first champions.
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