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
John Derrick was a pupil
at The Royal Grammar School in Guildford when he and his friends played creckett circa 1550
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 Dart
ford in the early 18th century.
London played its matches on the Artillery
Ground, which still exists. Others followed, particularly London 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, Adding ton, had low and Chertier.
But far and away the most famous of the early
clubs was Humbled 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 Elevenin 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 over arm 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 Australian
touring team (1878) pictured at Niagara Falls
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 the first Australian cricket teamto 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 Shieldin
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.
20th-century cricket
Growth of Test cricket
Sid Barnes, traps Lala Amaranth 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" 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.
