HISTORY OF CRICKET

The game of cricket has a known history spanning from the 16th century to the present day, with international matches played since 1844, although the official history of international Test cricket began in 1877. During this time, the game developed from its origins in England into a game which is now played professionally in most of the Commonwealth Of Nations

ORIGIN 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.

DERIVATION OF THE NAME OF "CRICKET"

 He name may have been derived from the Middle Dutch krick(-e), meaning a stick; or the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff.Another possible source is the Middle Dutch word krickstoel, meaning a long low stool used for kneeling in church and which resembled the long low Wicket with two Stumps used in early Cricket

FIRST DEFINITE REFERENCE

John Derrick was a pupil at The Royal Grammar School in Guildford when he and his friends played cricket circa 1550

CRICKET IN THE 21ST CENTURY (TODAY)

Today in the 21st century cricket has spread among most of the countries .In India cricket is the most watched game.

The advent of T20 Cricket and the wild success of the IPL in the first decade of the 21st century led to a period of great innovation in the game. The new, truncated form of the game privileged batting, partly by restricting the placement of fielders and shortening the boundaries. To counter free-scoring batsmen with heavy bats, bowlers began to perfect a great variety of different balls (deliveries). Disguise became an essential part of the bowler’s arm. Slow spin-bowling, which forces the batsman to generate “pace” (that is, to provide the bulk of the power to propel the batted ball, whereas fast bowling contributes more force to the batsman’s swing), proved a surprisingly effective weapon. Among the new shots that became commonplace for batsmen in T20 cricket was the reverse sweep, wherein a right-handed batsman, in mid-delivery, changes hands to swing at the ball like a left hander . Batters also began employing the scoop, a shot played almost vertically over the wicketkeeper’s head. Test cricket also benefited from these new techniques and from the new era of creativity, not least from the introduction of the doosra, a delivery disguised to look like an off-spinner that actually turns away from the right-handed batsman like a leg-spinner. Developed by the Pakistan off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq and taking its name from the Urdu expression meaning “the other one,” the ball was perfected by Muttaiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka.