Various historians have offered different opinions regarding the actual inventor. Some believe the game was created by shepherds in England to pass the time as they guarded their sheep. Others believe children created the game during the Saxon or Norman times. The first-ever reference to the game of cricket that we are aware of, however, was actually found in a court case regarding a disagreement over the ownership of a plot of land.
John Derrick argued in court that he and his friends had been playing what they referred to at the time as "creckett" over a half a century ago on that piece of land. The first-ever recording of official rules written out that we know of came from That year the Articles of Agreement were written by The Duke of Richmond and Alan Brodick and consisted of some basic rules for the game as well as gambling rules for the games that occurred during that time.
The board was created to regulate matches between the three countries playing the sport at the time: England, Australia, and South Africa. The International Cricket Board still operates today under the name of the International Cricket Council and now includes 12 countries, which are referred to as Test Nations in cricket terminology. Cricket saw a seismic shift in popularity after the invention of Twenty20 Cricket in The new form of the game was a much shorter three-hour version compared to Test Cricket matches which last around five days.
Fans immediately became attracted to the shorter version, especially the younger generation. Due to the time limits per inning, players were changing the way they played to a more fast-paced and flashy style. The sport was seeing a lot more Six's, which is the equivalent of a home run in baseball , attracting more and more fans who previously considered the game to be boring and too lengthy. Cricket is commonly played in India, England, and Australia.
Each country has an international team that competes in Test Matches as well as a separate Twenty20 league. The three countries have devoted fan bases that regularly attend matches selling out the majority of them. In fact, they used to claim far more than they spent to participate in the game. In the 18th century, the game was developed.
In London, cricket was prominent from In the middle of the century, huge crowds spectated matches on the Artillery Ground in Finsbury.
The technique of the game changed. Bowlers used to roll or skim the ball, and they started to pitch it towards the batsman. The new club became a premier club and the custodian of the Laws of Cricket. The 19th century saw underarm bowling superseded, first by roundarm and then overarm bowling.
Both developments were controversial. In Sussex, there were eight new clubs, and they created the first County Championship. The most famous player of the 19th century was W. Grace, who started his long career in During his playing career, distinguishing between professional and amateur started to disappear.
Grace was nominally an amateur, but financially he was paid as a professional, in fact, far more than any professional that days. In the middle of the 19th century, cricket established itself in Australia, the Caribbean, India, New Zealand, North America and South Africa, so in every corner of the world where the British Empire managed to reach.
In , the first-ever international match took place between the United States and Canada. Fifteen years later, an English team travelled overseas to play in the USA tournament for the first time.
Three years later, English players made a tour to Australia. In , the Australian team of Aboriginal stockmen toured England. It was the country's first shot at international cricket. The Parsi Gymkhana was set up in Mumbai in the same year. A year later, Kolkata hosted a match between the Presidency Club and a team from Australia.
The relative economic stability of the Parsis was instrumental in their sending a team on a tour of England in Patel, one of the leading cricketers of the time, was named captain. At the team's send-off in Bombay, Pherozeshah Mehta, one of the eminent Indians of the time, stated the squad's objective; "As artists go to Italy to do homage to the Great Masters, or as pilgrims go to Jerusalem to worship at a shrine, so now the Parsis are going to England to pay homage to the English cricketers, to learn something of that noble and manly pastime in the very country that is cricket's chosen home.
As was expected, the Parsis could not get the better of their seasoned opponents, but they gained a lot of experience. The second Parsi outfit that went to England in was far more confident than its predecessor. The visitors exceeded all expectations, winning eight matches, losing eleven, and drawing twelve.
Their most successful cricketer was the round-arm bowler Dr. Mehellasha Pavri, who took as many as wickets. The British sent a team to India in under the captaincy of G. The main aim of the team was to play against Englishmen living in India. Critically from the Indian point of view, one game was scheduled against the Parsis, in the light of their impressive showing in In what was a red-letter event for Indian cricket, the Parsis prevailed by four wickets.
It was the first cricket defeat suffered by the British on Indian soil, and indeed, their first 'defeat' of any kind since they had crushed the War of Independence in However, while they were unremitting on the political front, the British were supportive on the sporting one. Lord Hawke's team that toured India in made room for two matches against the Parsis, wherein the spoils were shared.
Lord Harris, one of the game's influential figures of the time, did his bit in his capacity as Governor of the Bombay Province to further Indian interest in cricket. He instituted an annual 'Presidency' match between the Europeans and the Parsis, and also earmarked land on the Mumbai seafront, for the Parsis, Hindus and Muslims to set up their respective 'Gymkhanas' and 'maidans.
The game had by then spread across the subcontinent. It gained a fillip in the s when the Prince of the state of Nawanagar wowed all those in England who thronged to watch him bat. Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji was elegance personified on the cricket field. His fascinating wristwork and unconventional shot-making skills were a revelation to the British, who were born and bred on an orthodox approach. His success, first for Sussex in the English County Championship, and then England in Test cricket, made him one of the most popular personalities in the Empire 'where the sun never set.
His fellow Princes were quick on the uptake. Some of them took it upon themselves to do their bit for cricket, to facilitate their entry into the 'good books' of the British rulers.
The 'princely' influence worked wonders for cricket in India, as did other parallel developments. The annual Presidency match between the Europeans and the Parsis became a Triangular when the Hindus joined the fray in It became a Quadrangular in with the entry of the Muslims. The Christians and Anglo-Indians came together to form a 'Rest' team in , thus making the annual event a Pentangular.
The tournament was played till , after which it was banned on account of its communal overtones. Sponsored and captained by the Maharaja of Patiala, the team featured the best cricketers of the time. The top performer was the left-arm spinner Baloo Palwankar, who bagged over a hundred wickets. It was a memorable performance in more ways than one. A member of the so-called 'untouchable' segment of the Hindu society, Baloo underwent many a reverse early in his life. However, merit eventually superseded all the other factors, and Baloo went on to become the premier member of the Hindu side.
He also captained them for a number of years in the annual Quadrangular. An all-rounder from Nagpur made his first-class debut in the edition of the tournament. He batted at no. As the years passed, the young man gained prominence as a flamboyant batsman and inspirational captain.
It was in , eight years after the end of the War, that two representatives of the Calcutta Cricket Club travelled to London to attend a couple of meetings of the Imperial Cricket Conference.
Technically, the CCC should not have been allowed to participate in the meeting, as the club did not have exclusive control over cricket in India.
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