Yes, I know you must be thinking, ‘Is this topic for a blog?’. But I think this will give you some knowledge related to Cricket, ‘a very famous and rich game’. Most of us know, Cricket is a game played between two teams, each having 11 players. But very few of us know the history of Cricket.
No one knows when or where cricket began but there is a body of evidence, much of it circumstantial, that strongly suggests the game was devised during Saxon or Norman times by children living in the Weald, an area of dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England that lies across Kent and Sussex. It is generally believed that cricket survived as a children’s game for many centuries before it was increasingly taken up by adults around the beginning of the 17th century.
There is also a theory that it originated from ancient bat-and-ball games played in the Indian subcontinent, which were then transported to Europe via Persia and the near east by merchants, and eventually developed into the game of cricket in England.
However it is commonly accepted that the game originated from a very old leisure activity indulged by shepherds. The shepherds used crook and other farm equipments to hit a ball like deceive which used to be made up of wool or stone.
There is a reference (not having any record) in the household accounts of Edward I in 1300 of a game like cricket being played in Kent .The first evidence of cricket being played was recorded in the year 1550, by the pupils of Royal Grammar School, Guildford. In the year 1611 it is reported that two young men from Sussex were punished for playing cricket instead of going to the church. The first match is recorded to have been played at Coxheath in Kent in the year 1646. During the 18th century cricket survived and thrived due to the huge amounts of money via monetary backing and gambling and now days also this game is only for money.
In the year 1787, the Marylebone Cricket Club also known MCC was created.
The MCC has since then gone on to become one of the most prominent bodies in world cricket.
Cricket in its initial days were restricted to the aristocratic class of England.
In the present times, the International Cricket Council, better known as the ICC is the governing body in world cricket. The ICC was founded on the 15th of June in the year 1909. All laws relating to ODIs, Test Cricket and Twenty- Twenty are framed and implemented by the ICC. The ICC has 101 members: 10 Full Members that play official Test matches, 33 Associate Members, and 58 Affiliate Members. It promulgates the ICC Code of Conduct, which sets professional standards of discipline for international crickets, and also co-ordinates action against corruption and match-fixing through its Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU).
Sir Donald Bradman (Don), Sachin Tendulkar(Master Blaster),Shane Warne, Anil Kumble and many more personalities make Cricket so famous.
