Early Cricket History

              EARLY HISTORY OF CRICKET

Cricket started as a sport like hockey. The bat was also curved like the hockey bat. It was rolled underarm and continued as long as possible. For a match to complete both teams had to lose all their wickets twice. It was the earliest modern sport. As it was no professional sport initially, there were no fixed boundaries.

The first laws of cricket were codified in 1744. These had  several laws including:

• THE BALL SHOULD WEIGH BETWEEN 4-5 OUNCES
• THE PRINCIPALS  PRESENT THERE SHOULD CHOOSE TWO UMPIRES WHO SHALL SOLVE DISPUTES THROUGHOUT THE GAME
• THE STUMPS OF A WICKET SHOULD MEASURE 22 INCHES LONG
• THE  WICKET SHOULD BE 22 FEET AWAY FROM EACH OTHER OR THE PITCH SHOULD BE 22 FEET

The first cricket club was Hambledon. Later another club, Marylebone was started in 1787. It verified the laws written previously and published its new laws in 1788. It was governing the rules of cricket.

• THE BALL SHOULD WEIGH BETWEEN  5 1/2 AND 5 3/4 OUNCE
• THE THIRD STUMP CAME INTO EXISTENCE
• BOUNDARIES WERE INTRODUCED
• LEG BEFORE LAW CAME INTO FORCE
• WIDES ALSO FORMED A WAY TO SCORE
• OVERARM  BOWLING  WAS DONE
• THE BAT BECAME STRAIGHT
• THE FIRST SIX-SEAM BALLS WERE USED
• THREE DAYS BECAME THE DURATION OF A STANDARD  TEST MATCHES

*RELATED TO NCERT SYLLABI, GRADE IX