Once Upon a Time
You guys may all know the sport of cricket. It is a commonly played sport (300 million) around the world, with more than 2.5 billions cricket fans. Cricket has been played for a long time. But its origins are not well known. The origin of cricket is what we will be discussing today.
The beautiful game of cricket in fact originates from England. WHAT A SURPRISE! I'm guessing most of you guys had your minds set on India. Despite the fact that the game originates from England, India was one of the first countries to play the game.
Cricket was created in the late 16th century from south-east England. The game was made by the Normans or the Saxons during the time. The game was first recorded in 1598, in the woodlands of Weald (Located across Kent and Sussex). There have also been some speculations that the game originates from France by King Edward II. It is generally believed that cricket survived as a children's game for many generations before it was taken up by adults around the beginning of the 17th century. Cricket was possibly originated by the game bowls. This is because the idea of not letting the ball hit the bowler's target. A number of words are thought to be possible sources for the term "cricket". In the earliest reference,it was spelled creckett. The name may have been originated from the Middle Dutch krick, meaning a stick.
The game over time had developed as a sport and in the 18th century it had developed globally. International cricket had started in 1844 and test cricket started in 1877. The first recorded cricket match was in 1646 in Kent, the description was written by William Goldwyn. The first ever international cricket game was between the US and Canada in 1844. The match was played at the grounds of the St George's Cricket Club in New York. And Yes, Canada and America also played cricket. County clubs were created during the 19th century, starting with Sussex in 1839. Soon after, William Clarke put together the 'All England XI'. In 1859, a team of leading English professionals set off to North America on the first-ever overseas tour and, in 1862, the first English team toured Australia. Between May and October 1868, a team of Australian Aboriginals toured England which was the first Australian cricket team to travel overseas. The very first cricket test match to be played that was officially recorded, was played from the 15th March to the 19th of March in 1877. The match was played between Australia and England at the historic MCG and Australia emerged victorious, winning by 45 runs.
A significant development in domestic cricket occurred in 1890 when the official County Championship was formed in England. Cricket started with four balls per over. In 1889 the four balls per over was replaced by a five balls per over and then this was changed to the current six balls per over in 1900. Soon after, some countries tried eight balls per over. In 1922, the number of balls per over was changed from six to eight in Australia. In 1924 the eight balls per over was extended to New Zealand and in 1937 to South Africa. In England, the eight balls per over was used for the 1939 season. The intention was to continue the use of the eight balls per over in 1940, but first-class cricket was suspended for the Second World War and when it resumed, English cricket went back to the six ball over.
In the 1960s, English county teams began playing a different style of cricket with games of only one innings each and a maximum amount of overs per innings. Starting in 1963 as a knockout competition, limited-overs cricket grew in popularity and, in 1969, a national league was created which consequently caused a reduction in the number of matches in the County Championship. Although many "traditional" cricket fans objected to the shorter form of the game, limited-overs cricket did have the advantage of delivering a result to spectators within a single day; it did improve cricket's appeal to younger people. Limited-overs cricket increased television ratings for cricket coverage. New methods introduced in coverage of limited-over matches were soon used for Test match coverage.
In 1975 the first Cricket World Cup was held in England as a series of one-day matches of 60 overs per side. West Indies emerged victorious out of the tournament.
The transition of ODI cricket to T20 cricket occured on 5 August 2004 between England and New Zealand women's teams with New Zealand winning by nine runs. On 17 February 2005 Australia defeated New Zealand in the first men's international T20 match, played at Eden Park in Auckland. At this point ODI cricket was still more popular. However, the creation of Indian Premier League, established by the BCCI in 2007, made t20 cricket more popular than ODI cricket due to international stars participating in the tournament. The first game kicked-off on 18 April 2008. The creation of 10 over cricket was also founded in 2017 by the UAE. However, despite the fact that the overs got reduced, the hype is still there for t20 cricket.
The future of cricket looks like there will be shortened games with the upcoming 100 ball tournament in England. Overall this shows cricket's origins are very deep and interesting. In my opinion, the game has changed a lot, with the world cups and t20 leagues gaining popularity in the last decade. However, I think that test cricket is dying because it is a comparatively slow game that doesn't have lots of excitement. People used to watch test cricket more when the West Indies had their golden era. Games against Australia and India at the time had a lot of excitement. So, I think that test cricket should bring more contested matches as this will make the game have more excitement and entertainment. This will help test cricket to regain popularity. For example, having a tri-series with India, England, and Australia would have lots of action and tight games. So overall I feel that cricket has changed a lot and that it could bring in some more contested games and entertainment to gain more popularity.
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