LIJ IN GOLDEN

History and Sport: The Story of Cricket

Major Aspects

Evolution of Cricket in EnglandHistorical Development of Cricket

Cricket LawsInitial MatchesCricket in England SocietySport for girls

Spreading of CricketHow it reached in IndiaCricket- Race and Religioncricket and Caste

New Transformation in CricketCommerce and Media and Cricket today

What were the first written laws of Cricket

The first written Laws of Cricket were drawn up in 1744 AD. They stated the following rules.

1. The principals shall choose from amongst the gentleman present two umpires who shall absolutely decide all disputes.

2. The stumps must be 22 inches and the bail across them six inches.

3. The ball must be between 5 and 6 ounces and the two sets of stumps 22 yards apart.

4. But there were no limits on the shape or the size of the bat. About 40 notches or runs were viewed as a very big score, probably due to the bowlers bowling quickly at shins unprotected by pads.

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)

The world’s first cricket club was formed in Hambledon in the 1760. The Marylebone cricket Club (MCC) was founded in 1787. In 1788, the MCC published its first revision of the laws and became the guardian of Cricket regulations.

1. During the 1760 and 1770 it became common to pitch the ball through the air, rather than roll it along the ground.

2. This change gave bowlers the options of length, deception through the air and increased the pace.

3. It also opened new possibilities for spin and swing.

4. The batsman had to master timing and short selection

5. The curved bat was replaced with a straight one.

6. The weight of the ball was limited to between 5.5 to 5.75 ounces and the width of the bat to four inches.

Changes in the 18th century

1. The world’s first cricket club was formed in Hambledon in the 1760. The Marylebone cricket Club (MCC) was founded in 1787. In 1788, the MCC published its first revision of the laws and became the guardian of Cricket regulations.

2. During the 1760 and 1770 it became common to pitch the ball through the air, rather than roll it along the ground.

3. This change gave bowlers the options of length, deception through the air and increased the pace.

4. It also opened new possibilities for spin and swing.

5. The batsman had to master timing and short selection

6. The curved bat was replaced with a straight one.

7. The weight of the ball was limited to between 5.5 to 5.75 ounces and the width of the bat to four inches.

8. First leg before law- 17749. The length of the match fixed only three days-

178010. 1780- first seam cricket ball introduced.

Changes occurred in the 19th century

1. The rule about the wide ball introduced.2. The exact circumference of the ball was

specified.3. Protective equipments like pads began to

used4. Boundaries were introduced where

previously all shot had to be run.5. Over arm bowling became legal

How the industrialization changed the nature of the Cricket

Originally cricket matches had no time limit. The game went on for as long as it look to bowl out a side twice.

The nature of the village life were slower and cricket rules were made before industrial revolution.

Modern factory works paid the salary on the hour base or day or week.

So after the industrial revolution games laws that were codified.

The sports items like football, hockey and cricket fit the routines of the industrial city life.

The size and shape of the cricket ground is not a specified one why?

The size of the cricket ground is also related with the village origins.

The length of the pitch is specified only 22 yards but the shape and size of the ground is not specified.

The cricket originally played in unfenced land in public property.

The size of the commons varied from one village to another and there is no designated boundaries or boundary hits. When the ball went to the crowd they would retrieve to the fieldsman.

After boundaries were written in to the laws the distance from wicket not specified.

The law simply lay down the umpire shall agree with both captains on the boundaries of the playing area.

Eg: Adelaide Oval or nearly circular like Chepauk in ChennaiA six at Melbourne ground to compare with Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi have much more distance.

The cricket laws were changed but the cricket equipments remained true to

origin in rural England- Why?

Most of the cricket tools were made of natural, pre industrial material.

The bat is made of wood as are the stumps and bails.

The ball is made leather, twine and cork.Both bat and ball they are handmade not

industrially manufactured.The material of the bat changed slightly- once it

was cut of single piece of wood. Now it consists of two pieces the blade which made of the wood of the willow tree and handle made of cane.

Unlike the golf and tennis the cricket has refused to remake its tools with industrial or man made materials; plastic, fibre glass and metal have been firmly rejected.

But the introduction of the vulcanised rubber led to the introduction of pads and glove in 1848 and the helmets were made of metal and synthetic lightweight materials.

Eg: Dennis Lillee (Australia) tried to play with aluminium bat, only to have it outlawed by the umpires

What is the difference between Amateurs and Professionals

Most of the cricket laws are favour to the batsman Why?

The organisation of cricket in England reflected the nature of the English society.

The rich who could played for pleasure were called Amateurs and those who played for living were called professionals.

The rich were amateurs because of two reasons.1. They considered sport a kind of leisure. To play for the pleasure of playing and not for money.

2. There was not enough money in the game for the rich to be interested.

The wages of professionals paid in the form of patronage or subscription (gate money)

The game was seasonal and did not offer the employment in whole year so the professionals they were worked in the mines especially in the winter and off seasons.

The social superiority of amateurs was built the customs in the cricket.

Amateurs were called Gentlemen and professionals were called players.

They were entered in the ground from different entrances.

The amateurs tended to be batsman and hardworking aspect of the game like fast bowling did by the professionals.

So according to the law of cricket the doubts were favoured to the batsman and cricket became the game of batsman or gentleman.

The captains of the team most of the time was batsman generally gentleman.

The captain of the club teams, national side- were always amateurs.

It continued till to 1930, Yorkshire batsman Len Hutton was the first captain from the professional.

‘The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton’- what does this mean

This implies the military success of Britain in the battle of Waterloo over the Napoleon was based on the values taught to school boys in Britain’s best public school.

Eton was the most famous of these schools.The English boarding school trained the English boys

for their carrier in military, civil service and Church the three great institution of Imperial England

Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of famous Rugby school and the founder of the modern public school system in 19th century considered the sports like Cricket and Rugby as an organised way of teaching.

The boys they learned the discipline, importance of hierarchy, the skills and the leadership qualities that helped them to build and run the British empire.

Victorian empire builders justified the conquest of other countries as an act of unselfish social service by which backward people were introduced to the civilising influence of British law and knowledge.

Cricket helped them to confirm this self image of the English elite by glorifying the amateur ideal.

The cricket they played not for victory or profit but its own sake of the spirit of the fair play

Sports items for the girls in 19th century

Till the last part of the 19th century, sports and vigorous exercise for girls was not a part of their education. The boys they got this exercise from cricket.

In 1890, the schools began to began to acquiring the playgrounds and allowed the girls to play some of the games earlier preserved only for the males. But the competition was still discouraged.

What were the two ironies attached to the win of West Indies First Test

Series against England in 1950

1. The West Indian team that won was captained by a white player. The first time a black player led the West Indies test team was in 1960 when Frank Worrell was named as captain.

2. The West Indies cricket team represented not one nation but several dominions that later became independent countries. The Pan west Indian team that represent the Caribbean region in international Test cricket is the only exception to a series of unsuccessful efforts to bring about West Indian Unification

Cricket in Colonial India was organised on the principle of race and religion- Discuss

The cricket was first played in India from 1721 by English sailors in Cambay. The Calcutta Cricket Club (the first Indian Club) was established in1792. The origin of Indian cricket can be traced to Bombay. The first Indian community to start playing the game was the Parsis.

The Parsis founded the first Indian Cricket Club, the Oriental Cricket Club in Bombay in 1848. Parsi Cricket club were funded and sponsored by Parsi businessman like the Tatas and the Wadias. The parsis built their own gymkhana to play cricket in

The establishment of Parsi Gymkhana became an example for other Indians who in turn established the clubs based on the idea of religious community.

By the 1890, Hindus and Muslims were busy gathering funds and support for a Hindu Gymkhana and Muslim Gymkhana.

The British did not colonial India as a nation. They saw it as a collection of castes, races and religious communities and gave themselves the credit for unifying the sub continent

The team that played colonial India’s greatest and most famous first class cricket tournament but not on the base of the regions but on the base of religion and caste.

The tournament was initially called the ‘Quadrangular’ because it was played by four teams.; the Europeans, the Parsis, the Hindus and the Muslims. It later became the Pentangular when the fifth team was added, namely Rest, which comprised all the communities left over, such as Indian Christian

What was the reason India, Pakistan and West Indies refused to play against Southa Africa

During the period of 1950- 1960South Arica followed a racist policy of racial segregation. They were not allowed the majority of Non whites to play the cricket. But the common wealth countries like England, Australia and New Zealand, they were ready to play the cricket. But the countries like India, Pakistan and West Indies they refused to play cricket. They have the necessary power in the ICC to debar the country from Test Cricket.

How the medias revolutionized the Cricket

Kerry Packer, Australian television tycoon understood the money making potential of cricket as televised sport and signed 55 one of the world’s leading cricketers against the wishes of national cricket board and for about two years staged unofficial Test and One day internationals under the name of the World Series Cricket.

After two years cricket became more attractive to televisions audience and changed the nature of the game

Coloured dress, protective helmets, field restrictions, cricket under light became a standard part of the post packer game

Cricket boards became rich by selling television rights to television companies.

Television channels made money by selling television spots to companies they paid huge money for advertisement.

Continuous television coverage made cricketers celebrities and the cricket boards paid better payment.

The television changed the cricket and reached in to small towns and villages.

The children they saw the international cricket matches and they started to imitate their heroes.

The technology of satellite television and world wide reach of multi national television companies created a global market for cricket

India had the largest viewership for the game amongst the cricket playing nations and the largest market in the cricketing world, the game centre of gravity shifted to south Asia.

This shift led to the shifting of ICC headquarters from London to tax- free Dubai

The centre of gravity in cricket has shifted from old Anglo Australian axis to sub continental teams in countries like India, Pakistan and Srilanka.

Pakistan has pioneered two great advance in bowling; doosra and reverse swing

These skills were developed on the base of the sub continental conditions.

The doosra to counter aggressive batsman with heavy modern bats who were making threatening to make finger spin obsolete (No longer in use)

The reverse swing to move the ball in on dusty, unresponsive wickets under skies.

Initially the Britain and Australia they greeted this innovation with suspicion.

The first Indian Cricketers, the parsis has the struggle to find an open space in the team

These transformation brought small changes.The replacement of gentlemanly amateur by the paid

professionalsTo compare with Test matches the One day

internationals gained much more popularity

Hockey, India’s National Game

Modern hockey evolved from the game from traditional game in Britain.

Among its sports ancestors, hockey can count the scottish game called Shinty, the English game called bandy and Irish hurling.

Like cricket the hockey was introduced by British military in India

The first hockey club in India was started in Calcutta in 1885-86

India was represented in the hockey competition of the Olympic games for the first time in 1928 and India reached the finals defeating Austria, Belgium, denmark and Switzerland.

In the final India defeated Holland by three goals to nil

The players like the great Dhyan Chand brought India a string of Olympic gold medals

Between 1928 and 1956, India won the gold medals in six consecutive Olympic games.

During this golden age of Indian dominance, India played 24 Olympic matches and won them all, scored 178 goals and conceded only seven goals.

The two other gold medals for India came in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 1980 Moscow Olympics