Cricket started in a variety of different cultures from the 16th century, ranging from upper-class grammar schools to lower-class farming communities. Around the 18th centuries nobles started seeing cricket not just as a sport, but as an amazing opportunity for betting. So, recorded as early as 1744, the first rules of cricket were created, to regulate the sport.
Local matches were encouraged and regular fixtures started to occur. The longest dated annual fixture was Eton v Harrow, played every year since 1805. Moving on from the national scene, cricket recorded its first global match in 1877, when England took on Australia in Melbourne. This is where the term ‘test’ was born, as playing against each other for five days was deemed the maximum test of body and mind.
However, five years later Australia won their first game on English soil. Australian newspapers were delighted at the win, printing such headlines as “the death of English cricket” and that “the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia”. Hence ‘The Ashes’ was born, an annual battle between the two sides.
Since then cricket has recorded some staggering statistics. The fastest bowl ever was over 100 mph, by Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar. The longest Test innings for a single player was 970 minutes, by Hanif Mohammed in 1958. He scored a total of 337 runs.
The rules of cricket, whilst seemingly complicated, are simple in practice. Two teams, with 11 players each, take it in turns to either bat or bowl. Batting consists of hitting the ball which is thrown at the given batsman, who then runs as many lengths of the wicket as possible. For the bowling team, their objective is to throw the ball back to either side of the wicket, catching it or hitting the stumps, whilst the batsman is mid-run. This would deem the batsman out, allowing the batting team to send in their next player. This continues until a team has used all it’s players, which is termed an ‘inning’. Games may have a number of innings, but the more common amount is two each.
There are a variety of different positions, each with their own roles, for either side of play. The attached image is somewhat confusing, but the bold text shows the fielding positions, each allotted a portion of the field to allow for maximum coverage.
However, whilst cricket may be deemed as a gentleman's sport, it isn’t short of it’s controversies. As any sport sadly experiences, there are a few players who tarnish their reputation, in an attempt to get the better of their opponents.
Michael Atherton, who was England’s captain during a 1994 Test match in South Africa, was accused of ‘dirting the ball’, after cameras caught him rubbing a suspicious substance along the ball. Whilst he claimed that the substance was used for drying his hands, as opposed to tampering with the ball to aid his style of bowling, he was fined £2,000 (£4,000 today) for failing to disclose the dirt to the referee.
More recently, in a 2018 test match between Australia and South Africa, Australian cricket players Steve Smith and David Warner were banned from international and domestic cricket for 12 months, while Cameron Bancroft was banned for 9. This was due to another ball tampering scandal labelled "Sandpapergate", in which Bancroft was caught roughing up one side of the ball with sandpaper, in an attempt to make it swing in flight. The scandal was reported on by our very own Head of Sport Rebecca Johnson, who wrote an article available here on the history of the Australian cricket team.
However, ball-tampering isn't the only scandal that cricket has seen...
‘Short pitched’ or ‘fast leg theory’ is a style of bowling in which the ball is thrown at a high velocity towards the centre of the batsman. The theory suggests that the batsman would protect themselves, using their bat to stop the ball awkwardly, which would allow nearby fielders to catch it. Whilst not against the rules of the sport, and still permitted by official cricket organisations, it is deemed as extreme foul play and heavily frowned upon.
One of the more infamous cases was dubbed ‘Bodyline’, in which the England national team, when facing up against Australia in 1932-33, devised the tactic to combat the Australian batsman Don Bradman. The tactic was deemed as intimidating and physically threatening, and during play there was a great tension between the two nations, created as a result of England’s overpowering tactics.
While there’s sadly no cricket on TV at the moment, as a result of the mass pressure in which COVID-19 has placed on sport, the classic teams in UK cricket are divided by counties. For this reason, anyone wanting to get into cricket would want to look at their county teams. The County Championship is the more popular league in the UK, with teams such as Essex and Yorkshire boasting success for the last few decades. Of course people should wish to support their national side, as cricket has broken across the globe as far as the West Indies and Sri Lanka, but inter-county cricket is our national equivalent.
After being asked to look at a sport I’ve never been interested in, and subsequently picking cricket, I have a newfound understanding for why people might find it interesting. It’s a staple of English culture, being dubbed one of England’s oldest sports, but with balls flying at extreme speeds and teams facing off across the globe, it’s actually quite exciting. Reading into it has made me look forward to when it’s back in full swing, and I hope that reading this has made you too. I may finally be able to hold my own in a conversation about cricket with my grandad!
