Cricket, a bat and ball game played by two teams, has
long been regarded as the archetypal English game,
and its complex and even archaic rules baffle those
who have not grown up in cricket-playing countries.
The leisurely pace of cricket has inspired much reflection and literature. Others make lofty claims for the
game as a moral and healthy pastime; one Australian
clergyman even claimed that had Adolf Hitler played
cricket World War II would not have occurred.
History
Cricket’s origins are obscure; it is still not clear whether
the word cricket refers to the target that is defended
(the three stumps that make up the wicket) or the implement used to defend this target, the bat. The derivation of the word cricket is also uncertain. Some scholars argue that the word is related to the Flemish or Low
German krick-stoel, a low stool similar to the earliest
types of wicket. Others contend that cricket derives
from the Old English crycc or Middle Flemish crick, literally a staff for leaning on. Uncertainty about cricket’s
prehistory has encouraged fanciful attempts to establish its ancient antecedents. Some writers have attempted to link cricket with bat-and-ball folk games
such as stool-ball, trap-ball, tip-cat, cat-and-dog, and
club-ball, suggesting that they were the acorn from
which the mighty oak cricket sprang. Others have
posited a connection between cricket and folk games
such as creag, a game played by the Prince of Wales in
1299–1300. No evidence supports any of these claims.
The first authentic reference to cricket dates to
1598, and it seems clear that cricket was played in the
south of England in the 16th century. Increased references to the game in the 17th century suggest that the
game was becoming more popular in both city and
country. The involvement of wealthy landowners who
patronized the game from the late 17th century helped
transform an informal intervillage pastime to a more
organized sport. Aristocrats with time and money to
lavish on leisure played an important role in establishing and codifying the rules of the game; one reason
consistent rules were desirable was the substantial bets
(up to £10,000) placed on matches. From 1711 articles
of agreement were often drawn up for individual
matches. These articles set out the core rules of the
game and were later incorporated into the versions of
the “laws” drafted in 1744, 1771, 1774, and 1788. By the
end of the 1700s rules covered the form of the bat, ball,
stumps, and bails; the size of the wicket; methods of
batting and bowling; and methods of dismissal. The
essential rules of the game were completed by the next
century with the evolution from underarm to
roundarm bowling in 1835 and the legalization of overarm (over the shoulder) bowling in 1864.
Cricket was transformed in the 18th century largely
because it fired the imagination of a number of aristocrats. Cricket appealed to English aristocrats because it
was a complex and leisurely game amenable to subtle
distinctions of class. The aristocrat could lead the side
and bat, leaving the more physically taxing fast bowling
to the estate laborer. Another aspect of the game’s appeal may have been that it conjured a romantic vision
of bucolic bliss and class cooperation on rustic swards
on sunlit afternoons while England was rapidly becoming urban and industrial.
Village cricket clubs also flourished; 1,000 were reported in England and Wales in this century. Competition grew more demanding in the 1740s, and matches
were played between teams representing counties.
Teams designated as “All England” also took the field.
From the 1730s to the 1770s, cricket found a London home at the Artillery Ground, Finsbury, the
grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company, which was partly enclosed, enabling gate entry charges. Lord’s
cricket ground was established at the same time. The
1740s brought intervillage cricket games for women,
particularly in the counties of Surrey and Sussex. The
rise of more organized cricket for women paralleled
that of the men’s game. Some of the games were robust
and boisterous and involved gambling. Arguably,
women cricketers achieved greater acceptance in the
18th century than later. Their matches were advertised
in the press, gate-entry was charged, and large crowds
watched. However, after the novelty wore off they were
treated with indifference.
The second great transformation in cricket—the
spread of the game throughout England and abroad
and its growth into a highly profitable mass spectator
sport—was not so much the achievement of the gentlemen of the MCC at Lord’s as of the working-class
professionals whose role has not been properly acknowledged until recently. The professionals, or teams
made up predominantly of professionals, took the
game overseas to Canada and the United States in 1859,
to Australia in 1862, and to Australia and New Zealand
in 1864. Their tours overseas proved immensely profitable and did much to stimulate interest in overseas
cricket. The success of the Australians, who in 1878
performed very creditably against the best English
sides, helped install cricket as an international game,
and indigenous traditions soon developed. International matches, which were played regularly from 1877,
came to be known as tests.
Class distinctions were incorporated into all facets
of the game: the amateur was segregated from the professional in terms of accommodation and dining, and
he even entered the field from a different gate. The amateur had his name and initials recorded in the schoolbook, the professional was identified by surname only.
It was also thought proper that England should be captained by an amateur; not until 1953, when the Yorkshireman Len Hutton became captain, was England
captained by a professional.
The era before World War I has been called the
Golden Age of cricket, when the game itself was a form
of imperial cement that bound the British Empire together.An Indian prince, K. S. Ranjitsinhji, who was selected to play for England in the 1890s, became a potent symbol of empire.“Ranji”declared that cricket was
“one of the greatest contributions which the British
people have made to the cause of humanity.” Similarly
lofty claims were made for cricket as character building. One Australian official was convinced that cricket
encouraged “cleanliness of mind and thought.”
The major changes in the game in the 19th and 20th
centuries relate to improvements in facilities, technology, and equipment and changes in the form of competition and styles of play: the introduction of three- and
four-day competition, the beginning of five-day test
(international) matches, and limited overs contests.
Twentieth Century
The 20th century has seen significant growth in international cricket competition and an ever-expanding
program of international tours and contests. Many new
competitors have been accorded test status, including
South Africa (1889), West Indies (1928), New Zealand
(1930), India (1932), Pakistan (1952), Sri Lanka
(1981), and Zimbabwe (1992). Many other nations
have acquired associate status, including Bangladesh,
the Netherlands, Canada, Kenya, and the United Arab
Emirates. The expansion of international competition
led to the creation of a world cricket authority, the Imperial Cricket Conference (later the International
Cricket Conference) in 1909.
International cricket for women dates from the
1930s, when England toured Australia in 1934–1935
and played three tests. Since then a number of other
women’s teams have played test cricket, including New
Zealand, India, and teams from the West Indies, until it
was established on a surer basis in the 1970s. The staging of a World Cup for women’s cricket—two years before the men—was an inspired idea that helped to revive interest in the game. Since cricket is still regarded
as a man’s game, there remains an onus on women who
play cricket to prove their femininity.
The 20th century has been notable for major controversies that rocked the cricket world and altered the
character of the game. The first was the infamous
Bodyline series of 1932–1933. There was much debate
about the tactics employed by the English captain,
Douglas Jardine, to curb the Australian run-machine,
Sir Donald Bradman. Jardine instructed his chief
bowler to bowl at the batsmen in an intimidating fashion and in a manner many considered unfair and not
in the spirit of the game. The series strained relations
between Australia and England until a cricket solution,
a change in the rules, was devised.
The introduction of a new form of cricket, limited
overs, in English domestic cricket in 1963 had wide
ramifications. The experiment resulted from dwindling interest in three-day domestic cricket. A limited
overs match could be completed in a day and a result
was always achieved, eliminating the draw. The abbreviated format, which encouraged innovative play, proved an instant success. Although it took some time
for officials to fully comprehend the potential of the abbreviated game, limited overs internationals were
played from 1971, and the 1975 World Cup in England—exclusively composed of limited overs
matches—proved a huge success.
Advances in television also greatly extended the
popularity of cricket in the 1970s. The game translated
well on television, for from the mid-1970s slow-motion
replays helped unravel some of the intricacies of the
game. This television-related boom in cricket made the
game attractive to Australian media tycoon Kerry
Packer, who virtually hijacked world cricket after he
was denied exclusive Australian television rights. In a
daring raid, Packer signed up the majority of the
world’s best cricketers—offering players far more generous payment—and established a rival cricket circuit.
For two seasons Establishment cricket and World Series were locked in deadly combat, and a number of
court cases ensued before a truce was worked out in
May 1979. Packer’s great innovation in this period of
crisis was to popularize limited overs cricket and night
play, which proved commercially attractive.
Rules and Play
Cricket is played by two sides with 11 players each,
who take turns batting the ball bowled to them by the
bowler. Play occurs at both ends of rectangularshaped areas, with wickets consisting of three stumps
at each end of a 22-yard (20-meter) grass pitch in the
center of an oval or field. An over (now six balls) is
bowled from one end to one batsman, followed by an
over at the other end, by another bowler, to the second
batsman. A batsman can hit the ball (on the full or the
bounce) to any part of the field and a run or runs are
scored when both batsmen safely reach the other end.
If the ball reaches the boundary, four runs are scored;
if the ball crosses the boundary without bouncing, six
runs. A unique feature of cricket is that batsmen do
not have to run when they hit the ball: they can continue to bat for hours and, in international cricket, for
days on end.
Underarm bowling was the norm initially, but the
laws were altered in the 1800s to allow round arm and
eventually overarm bowling. The laws of cricket dictate
that the ball should be bowled (with a straight arm)
and not thrown. New traditions developed as the game
became more popular in the 19th century: the English
three-day county game was instituted in 1864, and international contests known as Test matches began in
1877, which came to be played over five days. An abbreviated form of cricket, limited overs, was introduced
in 1963 and soon became popular.
Cricket boasts a rich language of fielding positions
such as “fine leg,”“gully,”“silly mid on,” as well as terms
for specialist balls that include “bosie,” “googly,”
“wrong-un,” “Chinaman,” and “zuter.” Phrases such as
“sticky wicket” and “it’s not cricket” have assumed
many broader meanings outside cricket. It is now more
popular in many Commonwealth countries than it is in
Britain.
Spread of the Game
The British took cricket with them to all parts of their
empire, though they made very limited attempts to encourage the indigenes of Asia and Africa to play the
game. For almost a century in India (from the time of
the first cricket club at Calcutta in 1792) cricket was a
game for European soldiers, merchants, educators, and
missionaries, and the local population were not encouraged to play. Indian teams were not formed until
the mid-19th century and it was not until the late 1800s
that they played against European teams. In the 20th
century, however, cricket became the most popular
sport on the subcontinent, in India, Pakistan, and Sri
Lanka. The support of cricket by comprador communities, such as the Parsis of Bombay, and by many Indian
princes endowed the game with glamour and status.
Cricket on the subcontinent was able to reinvent itself
to fit in with local culture and society.
In the West Indies, too, cricket was initially a white
man’s game. C. L. R. James, in the cricket classic Beyond
a Boundary, shows how West Indian cricket, although
part of colonial oppression, was domesticated and
transformed into a vehicle for the liberation struggle.
Creolized West Indian cricket developed its own rich
traditions—including cricket as carnival—and produced outstanding teams that dominated world cricket
from the mid-1970s to the 1990s.
British settlers established cricket clubs early in European settlement in Australia and New Zealand. For
Europeans living in remote parts of the empire playing
cricket was a way to maintain their culture in remote
and exotic locations. Cricket comes close to being the
national game of Australia, and it is also popular in
New Zealand and South Africa, where it ranks second
to rugby. Each of these countries reinvented cricket to
suit its particular climate, culture, and society. The
hard and firm wickets of Australia encouraged fast and
leg spin bowling and more certain shot making.
Although cricket was exported at an earlier period
than soccer, it spread far less, remaining confined to the former British Empire. Various explanations for
this have been put forth. It is likely that cricket’s failure
to spread, for example, from local elites of Philadelphia
and other social bastions to the broader population in
North America was because these elites preferred to
maintain cricket as an exclusive game. Cricket also
failed to find a niche in Ireland, though rugby was
played there, possibly because cricket was the archetypal English game.
Cricket as a sport has been a great survivor in that it
has been able to reinvent itself many times over. It has
evolved from the era of gentlemen who loved to gamble,
to the time of the professional, to the amateur era, to the
more commercial and professional era following World
Series Cricket. In the 1980s and 1990s the balance of
cricket has shifted away from England. The game itself
will remain as it began: quintessentially English.
—RICHARD CASHMAN
Bibliography: Altham, H. S., and E. W. Swanton. (1962) A
History of Cricket. 2 vols. 5th ed. London: Allen and Unwin. Cashman, Richard, et al., eds. (1996) The Oxford
Companion to Australian Cricket. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Frith, David. (1987) Pageant of Cricket. Melbourne: Macmillan. Moorhouse, Geoffrey. (1983) Lord’s.
London: Hodder and Stoughton. James, C. L. R. (1963) Beyond the Boundary. London: Hutchinson. McPhee, Hilary,
and Brian Stoddart. (1995) Liberation Cricket: West Indies
Cricket Culture. Manchester: Manchester University
Press. Rundell, Michael. (1985) The Dictionary of Cricket.
London: Allen and Unwin.