History of cricket
Cricket was created 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.
The earliest of these speculative references is from 1300 and concerns the future King Edward II playing at "creag and other games" in both Westminster and Newenden.
It has been suggested that "creag" was an Old English word for cricket, but expert opinion is that it was an early spelling of "craic", meaning "fun and games in general".
[5] In an account of a case brought before the King's Bench in 1640, it is recorded that a cricket match "between the Weald & Upland" took place "about 30 yeares [sic]" previously.
[9] According to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of the University of Bonn, "cricket" derives from the Middle Dutch phrase for hockey, met de (krik ket)sen (i.e., "with the stick chase").
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".
[13][14] 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 £19,000 in present-day terms [15].
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.
[7] 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.
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.
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.
[29][30][31] William Humber argues that there was also less of a social taboo against playing baseball in the New World than in England, despite the game having initially been low in popularity in both places due to cricket having been perceived as more appropriate for adults.
[32] The same factors that favored baseball's rise in the United States then saw the sport overtake cricket in Japan, with growing American influence in the Pacific Rim also playing a role.
By the 20th century, the growing influence of America eventually meant that baseball became the more popular bat-and-ball sport in the Caribbean,[37] while World War I resulted in British expatriates returning to Britain to fight, drying up the support base for the game in Mexico.
Other national competitions to be established were the Currie Cup in South Africa, the Plunket Shield in New Zealand and the Ranji Trophy in India.
The era has been called The Golden Age of cricket and it featured numerous great names such as Grace, Wilfred Rhodes, C. B. Fry, Ranjitsinhji and Victor Trumper.
[52] At the initial suggestion of Pakistan, the ICC was expanded to include non-Test playing countries from 1965, with Associate members being admitted.
[53] Because the ICC was predominantly a Western organization, the founding countries decided who was allowed to join the conference or engage in test cricket.
[51] There was no desire or attempt to create a set of Associate nations that would play in Test status, which is why countries such as Sri Lanka were not permitted to partake until the 1980s.
[51] The international game continued to grow with the introduction of Affiliate Member status in 1984,[53] a level of membership designed for sides with less history of playing cricket.
[55] The greatest crisis to hit international cricket was brought about by apartheid, the South African policy of racial segregation.
The ICC's response was to blacklist any rebel players who agreed to tour South Africa, banning them from officially sanctioned international cricket.
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.
Starting in 1963 as a knockout competition only, limited-overs cricket 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.
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 run-out appeals with television replays was introduced in the Test series between South Africa and India.
As indicated by ICC rankings,[64] the various cricket formats have continued to be a major competitive sport in most former British Empire countries, notably the Indian subcontinent, and new participants including the Netherlands.
