Fast Facts and History of Cricket Game

The history of cricket to 1725 traces the sport’s development from its perceived origins to the stage where it had become a major sport in England and had been introduced to other countries.

The earliest definite reference to cricket occurs in 1598 and makes clear that the sport was being played c. 1550, but its true origin is a mystery. All that can be said with a fair degree of probability is that its beginning was earlier than 1550, somewhere in south-east England within the counties of Kent, Sussex and Surrey, possibly in the region known as the Weald. Unlike other games with batsmen, bowlers and fielders, such as stoolball and rounders, cricket can only be played on relatively short grass, especially as the ball was delivered along the ground until the 1760s. Therefore, forest clearings and land where sheep had grazed would have been suitable places to play.It is believed that cricket was started in England in 1300 A.D.

Their are some important informational points about to cricket are given below-

• It started as a game of shepherds and became popular among other classes in 18^th century A.D.
• After some time a club known as “Merylebone Cricket Club” (M.C.C) was formed at Lords in London.
• Cricket became popular in Australia due to British influence there.
• The first official cricket test match was played in the year 1977 between Australia and England in Melbourne.
• When some other countries started playing cricket imperical cricket conference was formed in 1909 which gave birth to International Cricket conference in 1956.
• The first One Day international cricket match was played in the year 1971 between England and Australia in Melbourne.
• The first word cup of one day matches was played in 1975 in London. West Indies won the world Cup beating Australia by 17 runs.
• The apex institution of world cricket is the ‘International Cricket Council’ (ICC) and its headquarters is now in Dubai from August 1, 2005. Earlier it was in Lords (England).
• The president of the ICC is Mr. Percy Sonn of South Africa.
• Australia has won maximum of three world cups till date.
• In India Cricket was introduced by British royalty. Parsee community of India was the first to take part in cricket in 1848.
• Later on Parsee team visited England in 1986. Matches between European and Parsee teams, called presidency matches, were started in Poona (now pune) and Bombay (now Mumbai)
• Raja Bhupindra Singh of Patiala donated the Ranji Trophy in 1934 for the National Championship of Cricket

The Board of Control for cricket in India was formed in 1927.