History of cricket

First Grand Match of Cricket Played by Members of the Royal Amateur Society on Hampton Court Green

The game of cricket has a known history beginning in the late 16th century. Having originated in south-east England, it became the country's national sport in the 18th century and has developed globally in the 19th and 20th centuries. International matches have been played since 1844, although international Test cricket began, retrospectively recognised, in 1877. Cricket is the world's second most popular spectator sport after association football. Governance is by the International Cricket Council (ICC) which has over one hundred members although only ten play Test cricket.

Early cricket

Main article: History of cricket to 1725

Origin

The origin of cricket is unknown. There is a consensus of expert opinion that it was probably created during Saxon orNorman times by children living in theWeald, an area of dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England that lies across Kent and Sussex.^[1] The first definite reference is dated Monday, 17 January 1597 (Julian date; see below).

There have been several speculations about the game's origins including some that it was created in France or Flanders. The earliest of these speculative references is dated Thursday, 10 March 1300 (Julian date) and concerns the future King Edward IIplaying at "creag and other games" in both Westminster and Newenden. It has been suggested that "creag" was anOlde English word for cricket but expert opinion is that it was an early spelling of "craic", meaning "fun and games in general".^[2]

It is generally believed that cricket survived as a children's game for many generations before it was increasingly taken up by adults around the beginning of the 17th century. Possibly cricket was derived from bowls, assuming bowls is the older sport, by the intervention of a batsman trying to stop the ball from reaching its target by hitting it away. Playing on sheep-grazed land or in clearings, the original implements may have been a matted lump of sheep’s wool (or even a stone or a small lump of wood) as the ball; a stick or a crook or another farm tool as the bat; and a stool or a tree stump or a gate (e.g., a wicket gate) as the wicket.^[3]

First definite reference

John Derrick was a pupil at the Royal Grammar School, then the Free School, in Guildford when he and his friends playedcreckett circa 1550

A 1597 court case in England concerning an ownership dispute over a plot of common land in Guildford, Surreymentions the game of creckett. A 59-year-old coroner, John Derrick, testified that he and his school friends had played creckett on the site fifty years earlier when they attended the Free School. Derrick's account proves beyond reasonable doubt that the game was being played in Surrey circa 1550, and is the earliest universally accepted reference to the game.^[4][5]

The first reference to cricket being played as an adult sport was in 1611, when two men in Sussex were prosecuted for playing cricket on Sunday instead of going to church.^[6] In the same year, a dictionary defined cricket as a boys' game and this suggests that adult participation was a recent development.^[4]

Derivation of the name of "cricket"

A number of words are thought to be possible sources for the term "cricket". In the earliest definite reference, it was spelled creckett. The name may have been derived from the Middle Dutchkrick(-e), meaning a stick; or the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff, or the French word criquetmeaning a wooden post.^[3] The Middle Dutch word krickstoel means a long low stool used for kneeling in church; this resembled the long low wicket with twostumps used in early cricket.^[7]According to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of theUniversity of Bonn, "cricket" derives from the Middle Dutch phrase for hockey, met de (krik ket)sen (i.e., "with the stick chase").^[8]

It is more likely that the terminology of cricket was based on words in use in south-east England at the time and, given trade connections with the County of Flanders, especially in the 15th century when it belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy, many Middle Dutch^[9]words found their way into southern English dialects.^[10]

Early 17th century

A number of references occur up to theEnglish Civil War and these indicate that cricket had become an adult game contested by parish teams, but there is no evidence of county strength teams at this time. Equally, there is little evidence of the rampant gambling that characterised the game throughout the 18th century. It is generally believed, therefore, that village cricket had developed by the middle of the 17th century but that county cricket had not and that investment in the game had not begun.^[11]

The Commonwealth

After the Civil War ended in 1648, the new Puritan government clamped down on "unlawful assemblies", in particular the more raucous sports such as football. Their laws also demanded a stricter observance of the Sabbath than there had been previously. As the Sabbath was the only free time available to the lower classes, cricket's popularity may have waned during theCommonwealth. However, it did flourish in public fee-paying schools such asWinchester and St Paul's. There is no actual evidence that Oliver Cromwell's regime banned cricket specifically and there are references to it during theinterregnum that suggest it was acceptable to the authorities provided that it did not cause any "breach of the Sabbath".^[11] It is believed that the nobility in general adopted cricket at this time through involvement in village games.^[4]

Gambling and press coverage

Cricket certainly thrived after theRestoration in 1660 and is believed to have first attracted gamblers making large bets at this time. In 1664, the "Cavalier" Parliament passed the Gaming Act 1664 which limited stakes to £100, although that was still a fortune at the time,^[11] equivalent to about £14 thousand in present-day terms ^[12]. Cricket had certainly become a significant gambling sport by the end of the 17th century. There is a newspaper report of a "great match" played in Sussex in 1697 which was 11-a-side and played for high stakes of 50 guineas a side.^[6]

With freedom of the press having been granted in 1696, cricket for the first time could be reported in the newspapers. But it was a long time before the newspaper industry adapted sufficiently to provide frequent, let alone comprehensive, coverage of the game. During the first half of the 18th century, press reports tended to focus on the betting rather than on the play.