Cricket is not a game, it is a carpet that is knit with rich history and culture and emotion. With an almost four-hundred year transformation, since being played on the grass meadow of England, the bat-and-ball game has developed to be a huge spectacle throughout the world, involving more than a hundred member states under the umbrella International Cricket Council (ICC) as the second most popular game in the world, just after football , the game is characterized by its complex rules and variety of forms, features which make it stand out of the other globally popular games.
Being a classic game, the history of cricket is extremely diverse, as its rules, duration and commercial value altered during different periods. This report will trace the historical development of the game in chronological order, including its primitive beginnings in the sixteenth century and the T20 revolution of the twenty first century, its modernisation, growth around the world, and its legends, who have contributed most to its history.
Part One: Birth and Infancy (16 th to 18 th Century)
The Genesis of Cricket: an English Rural Game.
It is a well-known fact that the birth of cricket was in England. The earliest reference to the game was in the late sixteenth century in the south-eastern regions of England. It started as a rustic rural game, which was played on usual pasturage or school ground. The instruments were primitive and natural. It is hypothetically believed that the game of Bowls turned into cricket; in this game, the batsman used to prevent the ball by using a stick and batted it away rather than allowing it to hit the mark.
The primitive machinery was not similar to the present machinery. It consisted of a lump of sheep-wool, or of a stone, or of a small block of wood, the ball. The bat was a stick, a curved staff or even a farm implement. The wickets might be a sitting stool, a tree root or a gate (the wicket gate).
The Etymological Hunt after the Word Cricket.
Cricket is a game whose name has some history. European language specialist Heiner Gillmeister of the University of Bonn believes that the term Cricket was derived as a derivative of the Middle Dutch expression ‘Krik Ket’ (meaning to chase with a stick).It is probable that the terms evolved as a result of the local dialects of south-east England. This is the case that is backed by the historical trade relations between England and Flanders, a region in the fifteenth century of Duchy of Burgundy, bringing many of Middle Dutch words to the local vernacular and possibly contributing to the naming of the game.
The MCC and the Codification of Laws (1788) The Foundation of Modern Cricket.
Cricket evolved over the eighteenth century as a village game to become a popular activity in the country and finally as a national sport of England. With the game becoming more popular, particularly due to the emergence of betting, the formal regulation that was necessary was of the essence. This institutionalisation entailed the need of the patronage of the English aristocracy to codify the rules and provide the game with a codified form which was a major breakthrough.
The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) had published the first codified set of laws of cricket in 1788. This was a landmark move towards the modernisation of the game. The MCC is a club that is known to be the busiest club in the globe in cricket, the creator of the Lord Ground and the protector of the Laws of the game. The role of MCC highlights the fact that institutional control on elite clubs even though the game has a lowly rural beginning, led to globalization of the game.
Part Two: Growth and the Era of International Cricket (19 th Century):
History, Growth, and Modern Era of International Cricket Explained
The nineteenth century was associated with the global spread of cricket. With the expansion of the British Empire, the game was exported to its colonies which included Australia, India, South Africa and the West Indies. Cricket was not just entertainment and soon, it became a cultural essence of British colonial powers, which soon found its way in several regions of the planet.
The First International Game: Canada VS USA (1844).
1844 is marked in golden letters in the history of cricket. This was the time when the first international cricket match was conducted. The oldest rivalry, Australia vs. England (since 1877) is also often mistaken to have occurred first, but this is not the case, so the match in 1844 is 33 years older than the first of 1877.
This was the first international match in the history of cricket between two provinces of the British Empire, Canada and the United States, which was held at the Bloomingdale Park of the St George’s Cricket Club in New York between September 24 and 25 (later into the 26th because of unfavorable weather).
The match involved two of the best players of local clubs playing in Canada and the US.
Description and Importance of the Match:
Canada won the match by 23 runs over the USA in this low score match. The match did not only mark a sporting affair but also a commercial spectacle. The attendance at the match was very high, around 20,000 people, and this is even more impressive given it was also a very active betting match with the betting depot putting down about 120,000 dollars (unbelievable amount at that time) on the match. Nevertheless, the emergence of American football and baseball and the period of time spent by cricket probably contributed to its future loss of popularity in the area.
An overview of the first international match is given below:
Canada vs USA (1844) First International Cricket Match.
Detail
Information
Date
September 24-26, 1804
Venue
Bloomingdale Park, New York, St George Cricket Club.
Teams
Canada vs USA
Result
Canada lost by 23 runs (USA did not bring out the tenth batsman)
Spectators
20,000
Betting Amount
Approximately $120,000
The Birth of the Eternal Rivalry (1877) The Beginning of Test cricket.
Despite matches being played internationally since 1844 the best form of the game Test cricket did not begin till 33 years later. The inaugural Test match was to be played between England and Australia in 1877 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and was acknowledged as the first Test match in the world. This opened a new chapter in the history of cricket-the beginning of the test cricket.
The oldest and longest type of the game is still regarded as test cricket. A Test match is usually a five days event, both teams have two innings. This format is the final test of physical prowess, patience, mental stability, and intricacy of strategy of a player even though the ICC has more than a hundred member nations only twelve of them have qualified to play Test cricket.
International Governing Body (1909) was founded.
An international governance body was required as the game spread around the world and there was the requirement of standard laws. In order to fulfill this requirement, the International Cricket Council (ICC) was formed in 1909.2 The ICC is today the main international governing body of the sport of cricket and its role is to create order and govern the game of cricket across the globe.
Part Three: Competition on a Global Scale and the Limited Overs.
As much as Test cricket was a tradition and a prestige, it took a long time to be played and the game was often attended by large crowds hence a need arose to have a more fast-paced entertainment by the audience. This requirement introduced the initial revolution in the cricketing styles.
The Rise of the One Day international (ODI) Format (1970)
With the demands of the audiences and commercial television, the administrators of cricket opted to come up with a new faster format. The inaugural match of One Day International (ODI) took place in 1971. ODI cricket is a one-day event, and both parties have a usual 50-over batting. It is much quicker and more entertaining than Test cricket. The ODI format served a major economic purpose in ensuring that the result is realised in a set time restriction period which was best suited to television coverage and advertisers.
1975: The Year Cricket’s First World Cup Made History
The advent of the ODI form brought back dynamism in world cricket. The inaugural Cricket World Cup, which was in the ODI format, was held in the year 1975. This international competition immediately brought the popularity of cricket on a new level and increased the level of competition on the international arena. Since that time, the Cricket world Cup is held after every four years and is considered as the climax and most significant event in the international cricket. The success of the first World Cup was a confirmation that with the right time span of the game, which was any specific and less than long, then the game would be able to attract audiences of very large numbers worldwide
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