A Brief History of Cricket | The Origins of Cricket

History of Cricket

Cricket is the world's second most popular spectator sport after association Football. We will look at the full history of cricket. Looking at all the important events that have occurred throughout the years initially the origin of cricket dates back to Thursday the 10th of march 1300 and where king Edward I played at Krieg at Westminster in Newenden it has been suggested that creed was an old English word for cricket.

Cricket it's the game that we know and love but where did it come from what was there before t20s early eyes alright let's get into the cricket is believed to have been around since possibly the 13th century. That's right cricket was around in the same era as the Mongol empire however if we're on the safe side the spot of cricket has a known history beginning in the late 16th century, And you must be thinking oh it's something invented by the noble elite of the time no who played it sheep boys that's right country boys bowled a tree stump or a hurdle gate into a sheep pen. This gate consisted of two uprights and a crossbar resting on the slotted tops the crossbar was called a bale, And the entire gate was called a wicket so that's where bail comes from not the other definition in terms of the word cricket a number of words are thought to be possible sources for the term.

In the earliest references it was spelt croquette the name may have come from the middle Dutch word crick meaning a stick or the old English crick or Christ meaning a staff or the French word cricket meaning a wooden post or the middle Dutch one meaning a cricket. There it is a lot of words it could have been any of them these early bats were shaped branches of trees. A bit like modern hockey sticks but longer and heavier the bat was shortened. In the handle and straightened and broadened in the blade. Which led to forward play driving and cutting unfortunately these sheep boys still hadn't figured out to bowl so batting dominated bowling. Through till the 18th century having originated in southeast England. It became the country's national sport in the 18th century a key part of cricket, In the 1800s was something you might not expect gambling gambling introduced a lot of money into the game. Because some of the gamblers decided to strengthen their bets by forming their own teams. 

This is how the first county teams were formed and also how some of the first professional cricketers were introduced well cricket hadn't reached a stage where it was a viable career option. But people were still getting paid a little bit as local experts from village cricket, And then cricket was introduced to north America by the English colonies however, I don't think it really caught on there did it but it was introduced to the west indies. By colonists and also to India by the eastern India company and both those countries are now major cricketing nations. And the prisoners on the ships to Australia also bought it with them when they were sent there the late 1800s to the early 1900s was the era of WG Grace.

Often credited as the pioneer of modern day batting one of the things he invented was specific foot movement previously. Batsman often made a specialty of a certain stroke and stuck to that however grace incorporated both forward and back play. Into his repertoire of strokes and favoring only that which was appropriate to the ball being delivered at the moment. Basically, a fancy way of saying he moved forward and back a turning point in the game was in 1864. When overall bowling was legal the earliest bowling was underwrote and the next step around 1800 was to roundarm bowling. However, by the 1860s the bowlers were trying to sneak the hand above the shoulder to try and gain an edge on the batsman. As is always the case in cricket. 

Why America And Canada Not Play Cricket?

In 1862 Edgar Wilshere playing for England against surrey at the oval was no bald for overall bowling. There was a bit of a controversy around this and two years. Later the MCC relented and overall bowling was legalized and bowling. As we know it today was born unfortunately, we did lose some cricketing nations in this period Canada and America as they separated from the English also lost interest in the game. And both the countries saw a decline in the popularity of it from 1860 to 1960.

Cricket also had to compete with the growing rise of baseball in these two markets and eventually lost out to it. However, cricket was still growing as strong as ever in Britain. As well in fact on the eve of the battle of waterloo British soldiers played a cricket match in the park in brussels. And they won clearly it worked at the start of the 19th century. The game underwent a fundamental change of organization. With the formation of the first modern county cricket clubs despite first coming out in England it paved. The way for other countries to set up the system. That eventually, is in use today and then of course the first international cricket game was it between England and Australia, India and England no it was the united states in Canada despite as said earlier the game dropping off in these areas this game was a momentous occasion it kicked off the tradition of international cricket and 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. You could say the true beginning of the actions another interesting change over the course of time in cricket is balls per over cricket. Started with four balls per over however. in 1889 it was replaced by five balls for over and then this was changed to the current six balls in 1900. Subsequently some countries experimented with eight balls per over in 1922 the number of bulls per ovals changed from six to eight in Australia. Only this however didn't last and we were left with the six balls of rover. We used today and just as well for some batsmen. I'm not sure they'd like Jasper Boomer or pat Cummins bowling at them for eight balls in a row in the 20th century. 

The ICC was formed but no not the international cricket council the imperial cricket conference was founded in 1909. Only England, Australia and south Africa were members. However, they let in west indies, new Zealand and India all became test nations. Before world war ii and Pakistan soon afterwards the international game grew with several ICC affiliate members. Being appointed and in the last quarter of the 20th century three of those became four members Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh so there you go that's a brief history in cricket.