Cricket (sport)
Cricket is a global team sport that originated in England. It is widely perceived as a men's sport but in fact women's cricket, which is organised and played separately, has also achieved international standard. Cricket is hugely popular in those countries where major playing standards have been achieved and where Test cricket is played: i.e., Great Britain[1], Australia, South Africa, India, the West Indies[2], New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. The sport is also well-established in several other countries which operate at international level but as yet do not play Test cricket, including United States, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Argentina, Namibia and the Netherlands.
Cricket has large participation with numerous minor competitions at all age levels widespread in all the countries in which it is played. It is one of the world's greatest spectator sports and attracts massive media coverage. Its social and cultural influence is considerable and many leading players have acquired "celebrity status". Cricket's global spread is directly attributable to the British Empire. It is generally viewed as the quintessential English sport that has followed British colonists, traders and military expeditions everywhere. It is thus no coincidence that it is mostly found in English-speaking countries.
Rules and objectives
A cricket match is played between two teams of eleven players each. (to be continued)
Origin and development
According to the former British Prime Minister John Major in his book entitled More Than A Game, cricket is "a club striking a ball (like) the ancient games of club-ball, stool-ball, trap-ball, stob-ball". As he says, each of these have at times been described as "early cricket".
Cricket has an immemorial existence. It was "invented" and developed in England, but ultimately has spread to more than 100 countries. It is generally believed that it began as a children's game and, despite some possibly spurious earlier references, it was first definitely mentioned in 1597 as a game played by boys at the Royal Grammar School in Guildford, Surrey around 1550. It is the world's oldest professional team sport. Having been a boy's game in 1550, it became an adult game in the early 17th century and then, almost certainly, a professional sport in or soon after 1660 in the wake of the Restoration.
References
- ↑ The British international team in Test cricket is called England, but it represents Scotland and Wales too. Confusingly, Scotland plays separately in limited overs cricket, for which England and Wales have a combined team but still called England. The County Championship is English in origin but it includes Glamorgan CCC which is representative of the Welsh county of Glamorgan.
- ↑ For the purposes of international cricket, many countries of the Caribbean region have formed a sporting federation that operates as a quasi-national team. These countries include Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands.
Bibliography
- More Than A Game by John Major