Cricket is a sport with a vast history, with origins tracing back many hundreds of years. Of course, there has been minor adaptations to the game, but the name and the core rules are over 400 years old. Below we look into the history and the evolution of the famous sport loved by many around the world!
The Origin of Cricket
Finding origins of ancient sports can be difficult as there is rarely any concrete evidence. However, we do know that cricket was first spoken of in South-East England in the 16th Century, but it was most likely already being played amongst the local community even earlier.
Dictionary entry – A Boy’s Game (1611)
The first concrete mention of a cricket game was back in 1611 where 2 adult men in Sussex were arrested and prosecuted for missing church and playing cricket on the Sunday instead. Due to the uproar that it created, it had to be officially entered into the English dictionary, explaining the game of cricket as a “boy’s game”.
The 17th & 18th Century
Cricket was adopted and played by many adults and children after the “boy’s game” incident. Throughout the early 17th century, before the English Civil War broke out, many parishes had created their own cricket teams and were competing with neighbourhood parishes in local matches.
Founded in 1760, the Hambledon Club was responsible for highlighting cricket as a national-grade sport. Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) were the first to document the rules of a cricket game in 1787 and continued to update the Laws of Cricket.
Since 1787, the rules have changed significantly but this is where cricket began and started to evolve into the National Sport of England.
International Competition
The first ever international sports match was a 3-day cricket match between British Canada and the USA. This ran from the 24th – 26th September 1844 and British Canada won the match by 23 runs.
This cricket match took place in Broadway in Manhattan, USA in front of thousands of fans. In 1844 the George’s Cricket Ground at Bloomingdale was also located in the same area.
The Globalisation of Cricket
England and Australia were the first nations which were recognised as a cricket playing nation in 1877. Over the following hundreds of years, the same distinguishable rights expanded to the following nations:
1889 – South Africa
1928 – The West Indies
1930 – New Zealand
1952 – Pakistan
1982 – Sri Lanka
1992 – Zimbabwe
2018 – Ireland
2018 – Afghanistan
2000 – Bangladesh
Even though there are many other nations that play cricket, the teams above have been recognised as test playing nations.
T20 cricket
The England Cricket Board put in place T20 cricket across England in 2003, without realising the impact it would have on the world as a whole. The T20 format became popular in England and rapidly spread to Australia, India and many other cricketing nations.
Not long after, the T20 Cricket World Cup 2007 was held in South Africa and won by India in a riveting game against rivals Pakistan.
A cricket test match is known to be a test of stamina, patience and quality. As good as tests are, they did not make for a global cricket game in the same way that T20 did. In the earlier days, T20 was considered to be an inferior version of cricket, and many renowned cricket players refused to play. These negative thoughts have certainly changed, and the shorter format of cricket globalised and revolutionised cricket.