Cricket has an well known histroy which had been begun in late 16th century. It has been originated in South-East England. Also in the 18th century it became the national game for England and in 19th and 20th centuries, the game of cricket spreads all over the world. Matches at international level have been played from 1844 and era of Test Cricket starts and in 1877 it gets recognised. In present cricket became the second most popular sport for spectator after football. 

Cricket in Early Days.

Cricket is generally believed to be that it was treated as a children's game for many generations before the beginning of 17th century in which it has been increasingly taken by adults. It was derived from Bowls, as it is assumed bowls as the older sport, by the intention of batsman who tried to stop a ball from hitting its target and batsman hits it away. Earlier they played this game on sheep-grazed land or in clearings, the implements used as a ball was sheep's wool (or a stone), bat was used as a stick or a crook and finally a piece of stool or stump of tree is considered as a wicket.

It is thought that number of words will be possible source for  team. In earlier ,it was spelled as "Creckett" Its name have been derived from the Middle-Dutch  Krick(-e) which means a stick. Or if we go to old english "cricc" or "cryce" it means crutch or stuff. Also in French, Criquet means a wooden post. The "Krickstoel" word of Middle Dutch which means a long low stool which is used  in Chruch for kneeling, in early cricket it resembles the long low wicket with two stumps. As European language expert of University of Bonn, Heiner Gillmeister is considered , "cricket" has been derived from the phrase of Middle Dutch for Hockey, as "met de (krik ket)sen (i.e: " with stick chase"). 

In 17th Century.

As the number of references has been appeared up to English Civil War and it gave the indication that cricket had became an game of adlts which had been contested by Paris teams, but at that time there was no evidence of country strength teams. In the middle of the 17th century Village Cricket had developed but the Country Cricket was still at rest also investment had not begun for the game. 

Cricket of 18th Century.

First patrons introduced by Gambling as few of the gamblers has decided to strengthen bets of their own by creating their own teams and it is believed as the first "Country team" has been formed after the Restoration in 1660. The first game in which country names are used for teams in 1709. Match of Sussex versus Another country was probably in 1697.

Spread of Cricket out of England.

 

In 17th century English colonies introduced cricket to North America. In the 18th century it spreads over the other parts of world. Colonists introduced it to West Indies and British East India Company introduced it to India. As soon as colonisation began in 1788 it arrived to Australia and in the early years of 19th century it comes to New Zealand and South Africa. 

Development of Laws.

Basic rules of cricket like bat,ball the wicket, overs , pitch dimensions , how out, etc  came in existance since time of immemorial. The Articles of Arrangement to determine the code of practice in a particular game which later on became a common feature given by Allan Brodick and the Duke of Richmond in 1728. It gave the concept of investing in the game and distribution of winning. It gives the imporatance for Gambling.


Cricket in 19th century.

In the mid and late of 19th century ,the growth of cricket was assisted by the development of railway network. Teams from a larger distance could play with one other by going to a long distance without time consuming journey. Also people could travel from larger distance to watch these matches, also it increases the size of crowd. Army units also encouraged the locals so that they have some entertaining competition. Cricket was embraced by moat of the Empires but the exception was the Canada. In 1864, W. G. Grace started his long and influensive career, his feats were doing too much to increase popularity of cricket and also some technical innovations especially in batting were introduced by him ,which put the revolution in the game.

Rise of International Cricket.

In 1844, match between USA and Canada was the first international cricket game which was played at St George's Cricket Club in New York. In 1859, the first overseas tour of leading English professionals to North America, and in 1863 , it was the first English team to tour Australia. Then the first Australian cricket team to travel overseas was "Australian Aborigines" toured England in 1877 between  May and October. In 1877, the team of England touring to Australia played two matches against the full XI's which is now considered as the inaugural of Test Matches. Australian's toured first time to England in the following year and their success in this tour sets the popular demand for similar fixtures in future. The rise to "The Ashes" was due to the victroy of Australia. In 1889 South Africa was the third Nation to play Test Cricket.

Balls to Bowl in an Over.

In early, cricket was started to bowl four balls in a single over. In 1889 the four ball over was replaced to five ball over and then it was changed to six ball over in 1900. Some countries started to bowl 8 ball in an over. In 1922, only Austrwlia changed the six ball over to eight ball over also in 1924 it was extented to New Zealand and also in 1937 to South Africa. Also England adopted 8 balls per over for 1939 season, their intention was also to continue in 1940 but after the second world war first cricket was suspended, when it resumed, it was reverted to six ball by English Cricket. In 1947 The laws of Cricket allowed six or eight ball cricket depending on the conditions to play. The season of  Australia and New Zealand in 1979/80 , the six ball over has been established and also it is said that six ball over will  be used worldwide. And also the Laws of 2000 only allows to bowl six balls in an over.

Cricket in This Century.

In June 2001, It is said that "Test Championship Table" was introduce by ICC and "One-Day International Championship Table" was also introduced in October 2002 by ICC. The various cricket formats have been continued to be a major competative game in most of the British ountries, some parts of Asia with Neitherlands.  Recently the addition of Afghanistan and Ireland increses the full ICC membership to twelve. 


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