Which History of Cricket

About ICC

The ICC

Our Members

Cricket

Development

Events

Integrity

Our Partners

History of Cricket

EARLY CRICKET

19TH CENTURY CRICKET

20TH CENTURY CRICKET

21ST CENTURY CRICKET

Early Cricket

Cricket On The Artillery Ground

There is a consensus of expert opinion that cricket may have been invented during Saxon or Norman times by children living in the area of dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England. The first reference to cricket being played as an adult sport was in 1611, and in the same year, a dictionary defined cricket as a boys' game. There is also the thought that cricket may have derived from bowls, by the intervention of a batsman trying to stop the ball from reaching its target by hitting it away.

Village cricket had developed by the middle of the 17th century and the first English “county teams” were formed in the second half of the century, as “local experts” from village cricket were employed as the earliest professionals. The first known game in which the teams use county names is in 1709.

Early village cricket

Itself as a leading sport in London and the south-eastern counties of England. Its spread was limited by the constraints of travel, but it was slowly gaining popularity in other parts of England and Women’s Cricket dates back to an 1745, when the first known match was played in Surrey.

In 1744, the first Laws of Cricket were written and subsequently amended in 1774, when innovations such as lbw, a 3rd stump, - the middle stump and a maximum bat width were added. The codes were drawn up by the “Star and Garter Club” whose members ultimately founded the famous Cricket Club at Lord's in 1787. MCC immediately became the custodian of the Laws and has made revisions ever since then to the current day.

The first instances of cricket

Rolling the ball along the ground was superseded sometime after 1760 when bowlers began to pitch the ball and in response to that innovation the straight bat replaced the old “hockey-stick” style of bat. The Club in Hampshire was the focal point of the game for about thirty years until the formation of MCC and the opening of Lord's Cricket Ground in 1787.

Cricket was introduced to North America via the English colonies as early as the 17th century, and in the 18th century it arrived in other parts of the globe. It was introduced to the West Indies by India by British East India Company mariners. It arrived in Australia almost as soon as being in 1788 and the sport reached New Zealand and South Africa in the early years of the 19th century.

When the Imperial Cricket Conference (as the ICC was originally called) was founded in 1909, only England, Australia and South Africa were members. However, the West Indies (1928), New Zealand (1930) and India (1932) became Test nations before the Second World War and Pakistan (1952) soon afterwards. Cricket soared in popularity in these countries with the advent of Test Cricket and domestic competitions gradually became more formalized with the West Indies formulating an island-based First-Class competition, New Zealand continuing their Shield that has origins back to 1906, India introducing the trophy in 1934 and Pakistan founding the trophy in 1953.

Women’s cricket also took its first significant international steps at the start of the 20th England and Australia in 1934. The founding of the International Women’s Cricket Council in 1958 (since merged with ICC in 2005), further developed the Women’s game it was in 1973 that the first Cricket World Cup of any kind took place. The Women’s World Cup was hosted by who went on to claim the inaugural cup with captain Rachel leading the way.