Cricket has been the biggest sport in India with millions of fans for centuries. It’s popular with punters as well, with almost every cricket website in India offering tips on the ICL and the Indian national cricket team. But, have you ever wondered how it all started?
While it may not be as popular as football around the world, cricket certainly has a long and storied history. The first documents mention cricket as early as the XVII century. The sport originated in south-east England and in less than two centuries, it become the country’s national sport. It would develop globally in the following centuries, eventually reaching the West Indies in the XVIII century.
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Early Cricket
Historians believe that the earliest forms of cricket first appeared in the early XVII century. The so-called village cricket was played by children living in the Weald. This is a dense area of forest trees in south-east England where the first references to cricket were dated back to 1611. The reference defined cricket as a boys’ game.
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From there, the first “county teams” appeared. Cricket history was made in 1709 when the first game involving county teams was played. In the early XVIII century, it was already established as a leading sport in London. Travel constraints limited its development on a global scale. However, it slowly attracted interest in other parts of England, with the first Surrey match played in 1745.
The first cricket laws were written in 1744. Thirty years later in 1774, innovations were added such as the 3rd stump and maximum bat width. Cricket was becoming quite an attractive sport which resulted in the founding of several cricket clubs. One of the first ones was called Star and Garter which was responsible for the cricket laws. Members of this club found the Marylebone Cricket Club in Lords at the end of the XVIII century which became the official custodian of the laws.
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In the beginning, the game was played by rolling the ball on the ground. This was abandoned somewhere in the mid-XVIII century when the straight bat replaced the hockey stick. Bowlers began to pitch the ball, giving the early outlines of the sport we know of today.
The XVIII century is also the time when cricket became popular in other parts of the world. The British colonies brought it to the West Indies as early as the XVII century. It would take a century for it to develop into a popular sport, but once it did, it never looked back.
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Portrait Group of Members of the Marylebone Cricket Club. artuk
Continued Evolution
While the XVIII century saw cricket grow and evolve, it also faced its first crisis. The Seven Years War ceased matches due to shortage of players. However, the game persevered and continued evolving with the Hambledon Era in the mid-XVIII century.
The modern era of cricket began early in the XIX century. That’s the time when the first county cricket clubs were formed. All the modern clubs starting with Sussex were found in the XIX century. Significant progress was made with the constitution of the County Championship in 1890l. This was followed by subsequent tournaments in other countries such as the Ranjit Trophy in India.
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The period that follows is known as the Golden Age of Cricket. The game expanded fast outside of England and became a national sport in India. It would develop into a major sport in Asia in the XX century which would last until today.
Cricket is one of India’s top sports now. The country has won the Twenty20 World Cup and the Cricket World Cup in the past few decades, with many of the world’s best cricketeers coming from India. The most notable names are the legendary MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. These players are superstars in Asia just like Lebron James is in the USA.
The legend of cricket in India will continue to grow more in the future as new young players take the field and shatter records set by the previous legends. Thanks to new promising new talents, it has an exciting future ahead of it.
