DAVID ADAMS looks back over the centuries to the start of the game of cricket…
|
PICTURE: Mark Fletcher/www.freeimages.com |
With cricket’s World Cup coming to the decisive end of the competition in Australia and New Zealand, it’s timely to take a quick look back to the game’s beginnings.
Cricket’s origins go back as far as the idea of someone throwing a ball or rock to someone else and them then hitting it with a club of some form but evidence of the game as we know it starts to emerge in England in the early to mid-Middle Ages.
The earliest reference to a cricket game dates back to the 16th century while the earliest reference to an 11-a-side match – a game in Surrey – apparently dates from 1697.
In 1744, the first known version of the “laws of cricket” were issued by the London Club, with the length of the pitch as formalised as 22 yards long (that club was apparently founded in 1722, although some claim the Hambledon Cricket Club, formed in the 1760s, was the first cricket club).
The third stump apparently first appeared in the 1770s as did the standard weighting of the ball – between 5.5 and 5.75 ounces (156 and 163 grams).
Later that century, in 1787, the world famous Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was born, publishing its first revised code of laws the following year.
In 1814, the MCC moved to its current ground at Lord’s in London which subsequently became the headquarters of world cricket (although the International Cricket Council – formed in 1909 as the Imperial Cricket Conference – moved to Dubai in 2005).
Cricket had spread overseas with the expansion of the British Empire but international cricket – that is, cricket between two different countries – didn’t start until the mid-nineteenth century with the first official international match apparently between Canada and the US.
In 1877 the first official test match was played between England and Australia in Melbourne – this game was the start of one of test cricket’s greatest rivalries, the Ashes.
The late 1800s and early 20th century saw the emergence of cricketing greats like Englishman WG Grace and Australian Sir Don Bradman, who, with a test batting average of 99.94, has been described by the BBC as the “greatest player the game has ever produced”. The period also saw the controversial Bodyline series between England and Australia.
One day international matches (one day matches had started to be played more generally in the mid-20th century) were introduced in the 1970s with the first World Cup held in 1975. Subsequently held every four years, the World Cup was first held outside of England – in India and Pakistan – in 1987.
The newest international form of the game, Twenty20 (aka T20, this is a game in which each side only faces 20 overs) debuted in 2003.
SOURCES:
‘Cricket’, Encyclopaedia Britannica
‘A brief history of cricket’, ESPNCricInfo
If you have something you’d like to know the origins of, simply send an email to [email protected].
