Cricket is a
bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players each on a
field at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long
pitch. Each team takes its turn to
bat, attempting to score
runs, while the other team
fields. Each turn is known as an
innings.
The
bowler delivers the
ball to the batsman who attempts to hit the ball with his
bat away from the fielders so he can run to the other end of the pitch and score a run. Each batsman continues batting until he is
out. The batting team continues batting until ten batsmen are out, or a specified number of
overs of six balls have been bowled, at which point the teams switch roles and the fielding team comes in to bat.
In professional cricket the length of a game ranges from
20 overs per side to
Test cricket played over five days. The
Laws of Cricket are maintained by the
International Cricket Council (ICC) and the
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) with additional Standard Playing Conditions for Test matches and One Day Internationals.
[1]
Cricket was first played in southern
England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, it had developed to be the
national sport of England. The expansion of the
British Empire
led to cricket being played overseas and by the mid-19th century the
first international match was held. ICC, the game's governing body, has
10
full members.
[2] The game is most popular in
Australasia,
England, the
Indian subcontinent, the
West Indies and
Southern Africa.
Early cricket was at some time or another described as "a club
striking a ball (like) the ancient games of club-ball, stool-ball,
trap-ball, stob-ball".
[3] Cricket can definitely be traced back to Tudor times in early 16th-century England. Written evidence exists of a game known as
creag being played by
Prince Edward, the son of
Edward I (Longshanks), at Newenden, Kent in 1301
[4] and there has been speculation, but no evidence, that this was a form of cricket.
A number of other words have been suggested as sources for the term
"cricket". In the earliest definite reference to the sport in 1598,
[5] it is called
creckett. Given the strong medieval trade connections between south-east England and the
County of Flanders when the latter belonged to the
Duchy of Burgundy, the name may have been derived from the
Middle Dutch[6] krick(
-e), meaning a stick (crook); or the
Old English cricc or
cryce meaning a crutch or staff.
[7] In
Old French, the word
criquet seems to have meant a kind of club or stick.
[8] In
Samuel Johnson's
Dictionary, he derived cricket from "
cryce, Saxon, a stick".
[9] 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.
[10] According to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of
Bonn University, "cricket" derives from the Middle Dutch phrase for
hockey,
met de (krik ket)sen (i.e., "with the stick chase").
[11] Dr Gillmeister believes that not only the name but the sport itself is of Flemish origin.
[12]
The first English touring team on board ship at
Liverpool in 1859
The earliest definite reference to cricket being played in England
(and hence anywhere) is in evidence given at a 1598 court case which
mentions that "creckett" was played on common land in
Guildford,
Surrey, around 1550. The court in Guildford heard on Monday, 17 January
1597 (Julian date, equating to the year 1598 in the Gregorian calendar)
from a 59-year-old
coroner,
John Derrick,
who gave witness that when he was a scholar at the "Free School at
Guildford", fifty years earlier, "hee and diverse of his fellows did
runne and play [on the common land] at creckett and other plaies."
[13][14] It is believed that it was originally a children's game but references around 1610
[14] indicate that adults had started playing it and the earliest reference to inter-parish or
village cricket occurs soon afterwards. In 1624, a player called
Jasper Vinall was killed when he was struck on the head during a match between two parish teams in Sussex.
[15]
During the 17th century, numerous references indicate the growth of
cricket in the south-east of England. By the end of the century, it had
become an organised activity being played for high stakes and it is
believed that the first professionals appeared in the years following
the
Restoration
in 1660. A newspaper report survives of "a great cricket match" with
eleven players a side that was played for high stakes in Sussex in 1697
and this is the earliest known reference to a cricket match of such
importance.
The game underwent major development in the 18th century and became
the national sport of England. Betting played a major part in that
development with rich patrons forming their own "select XIs". Cricket
was prominent in London as early as 1707 and large crowds flocked to
matches on the
Artillery Ground in Finsbury. The
single wicket form of the sport attracted huge crowds and wagers to match. In the 1730s
Frederick Prince of Wales played a major role in developing the sport.
[16]
Bowling evolved around 1760 when bowlers began to pitch the ball
instead of rolling or skimming it towards the batsman. This caused a
revolution in bat design because, to deal with the bouncing ball, it was
necessary to introduce the modern straight bat in place of the old
"hockey stick" shape. The
Hambledon Club was founded in the 1760s and, for the next 20 years until the formation of
MCC and the opening of
Lord's Old Ground
in 1787, Hambledon was both the game's greatest club and its focal
point. MCC quickly became the sport's premier club and the custodian of
the
Laws of Cricket. New Laws introduced in the latter part of the 18th century included the three stump wicket and leg before wicket (lbw).