Hi friends in this article let us see about the history and origin of the game which is considered as a religion in India, in spite of not being a national game. The Game which we are going to discuss is none other than the game called “cricket” which is played in each and every town and villages, and the spirit of cricket is in the vein of all the Indian people and somehow they could able to show interest in this game, right from the young age, and a similar kind of encouragement should be given for the other sports also, especially our National Game, Hockey.
When we analyze the origin of cricket, we must go to the 16th century, because an official report say that cricket was originated in 1598, whereas the introduction of test matches began in 1877. As we everyone knew Cricket was developed in Great Britain and as a result the game began to spread in the countries which were under British rule and that is why many Asian countries, especially sub continent and also African countries play cricket well, than compared to that of American and other European countries, where the game is at the developing stage.
It was said that the game was originated Weald amid Sussex and Kent, during the medieval period, but as said early officially the game was originated in 1598, at the Royal Grammar School, and it was called as creckett at that time. It was also said that the match was played by a 59-year old coroner, John Derrick and his friends. Mainly the game is concentrated in the commonwealth countries, the countries which were under British rule and credit must go to the ICC for taking a sincere effort to promote the game and the result has paid well as more than 100 countries has got the membership, affiliate and associate member, from ICC and game has become the second popular international game after football.
The reason for the name is games, is obtained from a Dutch word, which means “with the stick chase”. In 1611, two boys started to play this game instead of going to Church on a Sunday and thereafter the game was considered as the boy’s game. By 18th century, cricket started to move out of England and it was also started playing in North America, especially in the Caribbean Countries, which is now termed as West Indies.
Cricket started to develop and official formation of the game took place in the 18th century, with a positive step, by the formation of the oldest cricket club in the world called as Sussex, which was established in 1839.Till that time even underarm bowling was allowed and another milestone was a rule which was set up in 1864, by which the concept of over arm was set up and this is followed till now. Do you know which two countries played in the first ever international matches? You will be surprised to know the answer, but it is the fact. The first official match was played in 1844, between USA and Canada in New York.
Then the English team also toured Australia and in 1882, the Ashes started between England and Australia. These two countries were the officially recognized test playing nations, followed by South Africa. Till that time the matches contained 4 balls over and a first change occurred in 1839, when the 4 ball over was replaced by 5 balls over and again in 1900 it was changed to a 6 ball over, which is still followed now. But some say that it was replaced by 8 balls over in 1924, but only in Australia.
When it comes to ODI, the limited over game was first introduced in 1971 and the success of this made for the creation of the Cricket World Cup in 1975.Later the technology was also used in the game, with the introduction of third umpire in 1992. But at present many technologies are used such as Hawk eye, hot spot etc.
So let us hope that the game provides us entertainment and many countries participated and show interest in the game.