Cricket - Evolution of the Game

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Cricket
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Floppy hats, people waving cards and a break specifically designated for tea - there is little else in the world quite like cricket, but the game as we know it today is not the same as when it first started. It has undergone many changes, some trivial yet important, some altering the game dramatically. It is a rather long story and should probably be started in the time old way, at the beginning.

Early Cricket

The origins of the game are highly debatable as it almost certainly started as a game that bares almost no resemblance to modern day cricket. Some theorise that shepherds used to stand in front of their paddock gates1 trying to hit a ball, made possibly of sheep's wool, with their crook, also known as a cricce2. Even if this is the case, it was probably heavily influenced by very primitive bat and ball games played across the Punjab region of southern Asia, making its way to England, like chess, via Persia and Constantinople. The earliest reference to it being played remotely like the form we know it, though, is around 1300 from the Royal Accounts.

In or around 1300, Edward I (also known as Edward Longshanks) paid £6 for his son to play creag with Piers Gaveston in Kent; creag is never mentioned again so its definition is unknown, but most historians agree this was probably an early form of the word. This is the last mention of the game being played, though, until well into the Tudor dynasty of the 16th Century. Though the term cricket is not used throughout that time, Edward IV decreed, during his late 15th Century reign, that the game of hand-in, hand-out was to be banned as it directed people's attentions away from more serious studies like archery. The game included bowlers, batsmen and fielders and is thus considered to be a loose form of the game.

Rising Popularity

In 1598 a dispute over the ownership of a plot of land arose, a 59 year old Surrey county coroner, John Derrick, testified that he and his schoolfriends 'did runne and play there at creckett and other plates' placing the time at around 1550. This game is far, far different to the game we play today, but it was certainly cricket. The most obvious difference is probably bowling, which was done in the manner of bowls rather than a pitch; bats were curved, much like a modern day hockey stick and the wicket was often a hole on the ground. In the same year, an Anglo-Italian dictionary was published giving the meaning of their equivalent word sgrittare as 'to make a noise like a cricket, to play cricket-a-wicket and be merry' - this does seem to be about the insect, but makes reference of the sport and the modern word at least. It is certainly possible to ascertain cricket as growing in popularity by the first two decades of the 1600s for Oliver Cromwell earned the childhood moniker of 'royster' by playing 'football, cricket, cudgelling and wrestling.' Even then, though, it was still seen as children's sport until two grown men were imprisoned in 1611 for playing it at the cost of missing church.

Organisation

A long time before the rules of cricket were officially stated, the first proper cricket match took place in 1646 at Coxheath, Kent. This would not start the rise of cricket though as the same year saw another clampdown when a lawsuit came about over a cricketing wager of a dozen candles. Moreover, the aftermath of the Civil War saw a Puritan-led inter regnum, during which time most public meetings were banned outside of the church, though it was more aimed at unruly sports such as football and cricket was never outlawed officially, it did suffer as a result. After the Restoration3, cricket made no great advances until the 'great match' of 1697 featuring 11 players per side, with a wager of fifty guineas at stake. Twelve years later two teams, one from Surrey and one from Kent, met in Dartford Brent for the first inter-county match, the next year is cricket's first mention at being played at Cambridge University. On a side note, in 1714 the House of Hanover took over the monarchy, George I was instrumental in raising the publicity of cricket in London.

Just after the turn of the century, in 1706, William Goldwyn wrote the first account of a cricket match and the first poem, at 95 lines long and in Latin, mused about cricket. He spoke of two teams carrying curved bats to the field, then arguing over the rules to be played. They tossed a coin to see who would bat, they pitched two sets of wickets, made only of two stumps and a single bail resting on top. The umpire called for play and one team would bowl a 'leathern orb' four times in an over. Runs were scored by batsmen touching a stave each umpire would lean on; the scores were kept by scorers on a mound, making notches for each run. Still cricket was not quite the game as it is known today but shows many similarities: bowlers could still only change ends to bowl from once a match and declaring an innings was unheard of to name but a few differences. Interestingly though, women's cricket, despite still being in the shadow of the men's game today realised its first match around this era, women played the first recorded match at Guildford, in 1745.

The Laws

As this Goldwyn's poem shows, there were still no official rules in place, other than the 1727 Articles of Agreement for conduct of matches, but this was only between the teams of Richmond and Surrey. This was rectified in 1744 when basic rules were set down, formalising the ball having to weigh from five to six ounces; the distance between bowling and popping crease be 46 inches; the stumps to be 22 yards apart and 22 inches high, with the bail six inches wide - at some point in the next few decades the amount of stumps went from two, or occasionally four, to a definite three. Much more interesting a development, though, is in the 1760s when the style of bowling completely changed; rather than pitching the ball as is common practice today, bowlers rolled the ball along the ground in the style of bowels up until this point. The idea of pitching, though it was restricted to under-arm, led to a new skill being born and variations growing in line, length and pace. Change in bowling was also the impetus for a change in the bat from curved to straight, by the 1850s the modern day bat was in common usage.

The rules were subject to much change in the following years due to the shambles of writing the 1744 laws were. The only notable change to the rules was in 1771 when a rather unsportsmanly chap called 'Shock' White of Ryegate played with a bat that was as wide as the wicket against the Hambledon Club: thus the width was restricted to 4 and a half inches, where it has stayed ever since. In February 1774 a group of distinguished gentleman met in the Star and Garter pub to draw up the first official laws that were published the next year, among other rules established here was the infamously confusing LBW rule, though it would not be until 1795 that someone would be dismissed for this. These rules were not followed like the previous ones and so a group of defectors formed the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1787, staging the first game between Middlesex and Essex. The following year saw the first publication of a complete codification of rules and regulations of the game, as well as demands for pitch dimensions and equipment. Soon the laws were adopted by all clubs across England and the MCC remains the custodian of the laws today and the game of cricket fully began being played as it is today.

Fine Tuning

The MCC moved from Dorset Fields to Regents Park in 1811, then three years later to its present location at St. John's Wood. When Thomas Lord, a bowler who started the MCC faction, died in 1825 the ground was named Lord's, which has remained ever since and continues to be the premier ground of world cricket. As well as this move in location, there had been a move in the playing of the game. 1794 saw the first inter-schools match (Charterhouse against Westminster); 1806 was the advent of Gentleman Vs. Players matches4; the following year John Willes was the first to be mentioned as utilising the 'round-arm' bowl5 and in 1811, Surrey met Hampshire in London for the first recorded women's county match. Many laws were also modified and fine tuned over the course of the century, most notably:

  • 1809 - The ball's weight was restricted to between 5.5 and 5.75 ounces
  • 1816 - In response to the increasing number of straight-armed bowlers the MCC decreed 'the ball must be delivered underhand, not thrown or jerked, with the hand underneath the elbow at the time of delivering the ball', prohibiting this style of play
  • 1821 - The distance between creases was increased from 46 to 48 inches
  • 1835 - Bowling was relaxed again, any delivery 'not thrown or jerked in which the hand or arm did not go above the shoulder' became allowed
  • 1838 - The ball's circumference was settled to be between nine and nine and a quarter inches
  • 1864 - After bowler Edgar Willsher was given seven no-ball calls for bowling over his shoulder, he walked off the pitch nearly inciting a riot from the keen fans. After much heated debate over-arm bowling became legal
  • 1889 - Declarations were made legal but only after the third day of a First Class match or a one day match.

The game of cricket has evolved not just because of laws though, technology and equipment has changed much of the game as it was known. In 1841 the first cricket pads were used, made of cork but then swiftly changed to vulcanised rubber, which was also used to make protective gloves in 18486. In the same year a printing tent was erected at Lord's to sell match cards allowing for a greater study of cricket statistics - by 1864 John Wisden published the first of his Cricketer's Almanack which has since been published annually since with commentary and statistics of each cricket season, with the advent of the internet it opened its own website CricInfo which holds a multitude of cricketing information. Another revolution in cricketing technology was something much more simple - before 1865 the crease was formed by cutting the turf an inch deep and wide, but now whitewash was seen as a much clearer way for the umpire to see the crease. Another form of marking came somewhere in the next decade, though no specific date is available. Though it seems impossible to imagine the game without it, the boundary was only an invention of the 1870s, before this time the audience would have to remove themself from the line of the ball while the fielders ran after it though before overarm bowling there would be little chance of a ball going so far. Originally the boundary only indicated runs of four, it was not until 10 years into the next Century that a six was marked by the boundary - before then a batsman had to hit the ball out of the ground.

1Which somewhat resembles the modern wicket2The earliest cricket bat, dated 1729 is curved at the end much like a shepherd's crook. Incidentally it belonged to John Chitty and now resides in the pavilion of Lord's Cricket Ground.3Which is the earliest date that has been argued for the beginning of first-class cricket matches, though arguments have been made for many years after this up to 1864.4A type of game abandoned in 1963 when amateur status was abolished.5Though it was still illegal, some umpires turned a blind-eye.6Wicket-keeping gloves would have to wait another two years before their first use.

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