History of Cricket

Origins

The first reference to cricket was in 1478 when a game called criquet was played at St. Omer in north-east France. In 1598 the game was first recorded in Britain during a court case, a dispute over land in Guildford, Surrey. This game was entitled krickett.

The first cricket match on record took place in 1646, when two teams met at Coxheath in Kent. The first county match was played between Kent and Surrey in 1709.

As the popularity of the game spread, especially to the Home Counties and universities, there was a need for official rules to be drawn up.

In 1744 the first Laws of Cricket were formulated by the London Club.

The development of cricket in England

Kent were dominant in the early part of the eighteenth century, but in the later half of the century, English cricket became popular is a small English village called Hambledon. It was ten miles north of the city of Portsmouth.

Hambledon became the strongest team in the country, led by Richard Nyren, landlord of the Bat & Ball Inn, who gathered support and enthusiasm for the game.

They played their matches at Broadhalfpenny Down, and attracted the best players in the area. In 1777 they beat a full England side by an innings and 168 runs at the Vine ground, Sevenoaks.

One of the Hambledon batsmen, John Small, scored 135 runs against Surrey at Broadhalfpenny Down in 1775. This is the first century on record.

The Hambledon supremacy lasted until 1791, when Nyren moved to London. While Hambledon were the sport's main team, there were plans being made in London to organise the sport properly.

The White Conduit Club was formed, and they played their matches at White Conduit Fields in Islington, London. This club was to be the forerunner of the world-famous Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).

One member of the White Conduit Club was Thomas Lord, who came from Yorkshire. When the White Conduit's ground was at risk of being closed for building projects, Lord had the job of finding new premises for the club.

He found and developed a new ground at what is now Dorset Square, near Marylebone Station, in 1787. In that year, the White Conduit Club was dissolved an reformed as the Marylebone Cricket Club.

When the lease expired on the Dorset Square ground in 1810, Thomas Lord was asked to find a new ground for the MCC. The ground was relocated three quarters of a mile away to 'North Bank'.

Within three years, Parliament declared that the new Regent's Canal should pass through the area where the ground was, so the ground was relocated again, this time to a site a few hundred yards north-west of the 'North Bank', and in 1814, the third Lord's ground was opened.

This is where both the MCC and Middlesex County Cricket Club has based, and the name actually comes from Thomas Lord, and not from an aristocratic connection.

By the mid-nineteenth century, cricket had become more and more popular, mostly in the southern part of England. The newly dominant side were the All-England XI, managed by George Parr. They played challenge matches against the county sides.

In 1848, one of the stars of the All England XI was born, in Bristol, England. William Gilbert Grace, also known as W.G. Grace. He helped to turn his county of Gloucestershire into a first-class county side.

Matches between counties were played more often, and although there was not an official championship, there is a reference from 1853 to Nottinghamshire as being the 'Champion County'.

As the popularity of the sport increased, so did the press publications to meet demand, and newspapers began offering coverage and reports. In 1864, John Wisden produced the first of the now famous 'Wisden's Almanacs'.

Also in 1864, as county matches became more established, an organized competition was introduced. Counties such as Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Yorkshire competed, but there were no strict rules of competition.

Players could play for more than one county, there was no limit on the number of games to be played, and so on. The sports papers were left to decide the eventual winners, with Surrey being pronounced the unofficial champions in 1864.

Nottinghamshire won the unofficial title 13 times between 1865 and 1889. The teams from the northern counties began to dominate the game for the first time, mainly due to the game turning professional, while in the south it was amateur.

By 1873, the championship was more regulated, with certain rules, but only thirty-one matches were played in a season. In 1890, it was reformed completely, with a points system introduced.

In 1895, the number of counties competing was increased to 14, and Surrey were champions for the fifth time since the rule changes in 1890.

The rules of cricket have only been revised in a major way four times, in 1835, 1844, 1947, and 1980.

Further counties were admitted to the Championship, Worcestershire in 1899, Northants in 1905, and Glamorgan in 1921, and Durham in 1992, bringing the total to eighteen first-class counties.

The game grows

By the end of the nineteenth century, cricket had spread from it's English roots to be played in many overseas countries, particularly those which had British Empire connections.

In the mid-eighteenth century, cricket was played in mainland Europe, and in 1721 mariners of the East India Company ships played cricket at Cambay in India. The other traditional test-playing nations started to develop the game in the early part of the nineteenth century.

An England cricket team has toured abroad since 1859, when they first went to Canada and the United States, as the All-England XI, led by George Parr.

In 1844 Canada and the United States played each other in an international match. This is the oldest recorded international fixture in cricket.

International cricket in the form of test matches started in 1877, when Australia and England played at Melbourne Cricket Ground on 15 March. Since then, other countries have begun playing test cricket.

South Africa in 1889, the West Indies in 1928, New Zealand in 1930, India in 1932, Pakistan in 1952 and Sri Lanka in 1982.

The first limited overs competition was the Gillette Cup in England, now called the NatWest Trophy (the National Westminster Bank Trophy), which was inaugurated in 1963.

The first international limited overs game was played between Australia and England at Melbourne on 5 January 1971. Australia beat England by five wickets.

Since then one day internationals (limited overs games) have become popular, and the Cricket World Cup, launched in England in 1975 is a series of them.

The main cricket-playing countries include Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, and Zimbabwe.

Women's cricket is also well established, although not as widely popular as the men's game. The first recorded ladies' match took place at Gosden Common in Surrey in 1745.

England and Australia are the main players in women's cricket, and the two nations have competed strongly since their first test match in Brisbane, Australia, in December 1934.

Cricket

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