History of Indian cricket - Before 1930s

The game of cricket was introduced in India in the middle of the 18th century. On 3rd March 1845
the ‘Sporting Intelligence’ magazine carried a reasonably lengthy match report between ‘Sepoy’ cricketers and
the European ones. The article clearly proved that Indian cricket was underway in a city called Sylhet, in
modern day Bangladesh.

An impressed reporter proudly stated “the most enthusiastic European Cricketers could not have played with
more energy and cheerfulness than the Sepoys did”. However, chroniclers of cricket unanimously suggest that
the formation of ‘Parsi Oriental Cricket Club’ in Bombay in the year 1848 led to the start of organized cricket by
the Indians.
Parsi cricket
The first Indians to take to the game were the Parsis of Bombay, an educated, well-to-do and progressive
community. In 1848, the Parsi boys established the ‘Oriental Cricket Club’.
The emerging Parsi middle class supported cricket as a means of strengthening ties with the overlords, while
intellectuals welcomed it as a renewal of physical energy for the race. Around thirty Parsi clubs were formed in
the within two decades of the formation of the first club. They were named for British viceroys and statesmen
and for Roman gods.
Hindu cricket
The Hindu’s took up the game of cricket with the primary reason that they did not want to fall behind the Parsis
in any manner. The first Hindu club ‘Bombay Union’ was formed in 1866. Hindus started playing cricket due to
social and business rivalry with the Parsis. Hindu cricketers sorted themselves on the lines of caste and region of
origin.
One of the primary Hindu cricketer was Ramchandra Vishnu Navlekar.
Some of the main clubs were Gowd Saraswat Cricket Club, Kshatriya
Cricket Club, Gujrati Union Cricket Club, Maratha Cricket Club, Teluu Youn Cricketrs etc.
There is no more agreeable sight to me,” remarked the Mayor of Bombay in 1886, “than of the whole Maidan
overspread by a lot of enthusiastic Parsi and Hindu cricketers, keenly and eagerly engaged in this manly game.”

Gymkhanas
The all-white Bombay Gymkhana, which even refused admission to Ranji, was established in 1875. The
Europeans invited the Parsis to paly with them for the first time in 1877. This more or less became a regular
feature though it was a decade before the Parsis’ eventually managed to win. Beginning from 1886, the Hindus
also began playing an annual match with the Europeans.
With the efforts of Luxmani and Tyebjee families, also famous for their social work such as establishing schools
and good work at the law courts, the Muslims had also set up their own cricket club in 1883. This was known as
the Muslim Cricket Club.
Cricket in India got a huge impetus by the formation of Parsi, Hindu and Muslim Gymkhanas in the 1890s. The
British alloted one plot each to the three major religious communities in the city, for their exclusive use ending
their conflict with the colonizers.

Ranjit Singhji
A notable mention in this era is the vital contribution of the Black Prince, Prince Ranjit Singhji who had moved
to England to study at Cambridge University and was given a cricket “blue” in his final year by the college.

He then went on to play county cricket for Sussex. He made his Test debut for England in 1896. This made him
the first Indian to play Test cricket.

Ranjit Singhji was Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1897. He scored a century in the second innings on his Test
debut, making his only the second batsman for England to achieve this feat. Duing the year 1899 he amassed
2,780 runs during a season which was the highest aggregate ever made!

India’s most prestigious first-class cricket tournament – Ranji Trophy was named after him in order to honour
this great cricketer.

The Bombay Quadrangular

It started as a contest between the Parsis and the Europeans and evolved thereafter. The Hindus joined in 1886.
These matches came to be called the Presidency matches due to their ever-rising popularity. In 1907 a triangular
tournament was started which involved the Parsis, Europeans and the Hindus.

It was in 1912 that the Muslims joined the league of the famous Bombay tournaments turning it into a
Quadrangular. Neutral umpires were introduced for the first time in 1917. Uptil now, umpires were mainly
appointed from the Bombay Gymkhana. However, all this changed and umpires began to be appointed from the
non-competing teams.

In the 1920’s, the quadrangular tournament gained immense popularity. Players were being selected from all
over the sub-continent region. This gave a huge boost to cricket in India and led to the start of several other
tournaments all over the country.

In the year 1937, a new team called the Rests was also added to the already four teams turning it into a
Pentangular tournament. However, in 1946 due to communal disturbances this Pentangular tournament was
done away with, and a zonal competition came into existence.

The Nayudus from Nagpur

The Nayudu family spent thousands on the promotion of cricket. They formed a club in Nagpur that coached
many underprivelaged boys and took care of their education provided they fulfilled the only condition, that is, to
play cricket.
Such was the family’s fascination with the sport that C K Nayudu’s birth was celebrated by his granddad by
organising a cricket match.

The family’s contribution proved fruitful as C.K Nayudu, the family’s illustrious son, went on to become one of
the finest batsmen that India has ever produced.

One of Nayudu’s most memorable innings was his 153 in Bombay in 1926. Coming in an hour and thirteen
minutes against six English top line bowlers spoke volumes of the progress made by Indian cricket. CK Nayudu
was Wisden’s Cricketer of the Year in 1933 and was also nicknamed as the ‘Hindu Bradman’.

Formation of BCCI

A.E.R Gilligan’s MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) toured India in 1926 and took on Bombay in a match that
proved to be a turning point in the history of Indian cricket. As C K Naidu smashed 153, with elevan sixes and
thirteen fours, for the Hindus, India began dreaming big. It eventually led to the formation of BCCI in 1928.
Records prove that the first meeting was held on 4 December 1928 and was funded by the Maharaja of Patiala.

The first President of the Board was RE Grant Govan and the founding Secretary was AS De Mello. De Mello
later went on to become Board President and was also involved in the creation of the Cricket Club of India. He
also helped in establishing Brabourne Stadium which was India’s first permanent cricket venue in 1937.
CRICKET Origin

No one knows when or where cricket began but there is a body of evidence, much of it circumstantial, that
strongly suggests the game was devised during Saxon or Norman times by children living in the Weald, an area
of dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England that lies across Kent and Sussex. In medieval times, the
Weald was populated by small farming and metal-working communities. It is generally believed that cricket
survived as a children's game for many centuries before it was increasingly taken up by adults around the
beginning of the 17th century.[1]

It is quite likely that cricket was devised by children and survived for many generations as essentially a
children’s game. Adult participation is unknown before the early 17th century. Possibly cricket was derived
from bowls, assuming bowls is the older sport, by the intervention of a batsman trying to stop the ball from
reaching its target by hitting it away. Playing on sheep-grazed land or in clearings, the original implements may
have been a matted lump of sheep’s wool (or even a stone or a small lump of wood) as the ball; a stick or a
crook or another farm tool as the bat; and a stool or a tree stump or a gate (e.g., a wicket gate) as the wicket.[2]
Derivation of the name of "cricket"

A number of words are thought to be possible sources for the term "cricket". In the earliest known reference to
the sport in 1598 (see below), it is called creckett. The name may have been derived from the Middle Dutch
krick(-e), meaning a stick; or the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff.[2] Another possible source
is the Middle Dutch word krickstoel, meaning a long low stool used for kneeling in church and which resembled
the long low wicket with two stumps used in early cricket.

According to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of Bonn University, "cricket" derives from the
Middle Dutch met de (krik ket)sen (i.e., "with the stick chase"), which also suggests a Dutch connection in the
game's origin. It is more likely that the terminology of cricket was based on words in use in south east England
at the time and, given trade connections with the County of Flanders, especially in the 15th century when it
belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy, many Middle Dutch[3] words found their way into southern English
dialects.[4]

First definite reference

John Derrick was a pupil at The Royal Grammar School in Guildford when he and his friends played creckett
circa1550

Despite many prior suggested references, the first definite mention of the game is found in a 1598 court case
concerning an ownership dispute over a plot of common land in Guildford, Surrey. A 59-year old coroner, John
Derrick, testified that he and his school friends had played creckett on the site fifty years earlier when they
attended the Free School. Derrick's account proves beyond reasonable doubt that the game was being played in
Surrey circa1550.[5][6]

The first reference to cricket being played as an adult sport was in 1611, when two men in Sussex were
prosecuted for playing cricket on Sunday instead of going to church.[7] In the same year, a dictionary defined
cricket as a boys' game and this suggests that adult participation was a recent development.[5]

Early 17th century

A number of references occur up to the English Civil War and these indicate that cricket had become an adult
game contested by parish teams, but there is no evidence of county strength teams at this time. Equally, there is
little evidence of the rampant gambling that characterised the game throughout the 18th century. It is generally
believed, therefore, that village cricket had developed by the middle of the 17th century but that county cricket
had not and that investment in the game had not begun.[1]

The Commonwealth

After the Civil War ended in 1648, the new Puritan government clamped down on "unlawful assemblies", in
particular the more raucous sports such as football. Their laws also demanded a stricter observance of the
Sabbath than there had been previously. As the Sabbath was the only free time available to the lower classes,
cricket's popularity may have waned during the Commonwealth. Having said that, it did flourish in public fee-
paying schools such as Winchester and St Paul's. There is no actual evidence that Oliver Cromwell's regime
banned cricket specifically and there are references to it during the interregnum that suggest it was acceptable to
the authorities providing it did not cause any "breach of the Sabbath".[1] It is believed that the nobility in general
adopted cricket at this time through involvement in village games.[5]

Gambling and press coverage

Cricket certainly thrived after the Restoration in 1660 and is believed to have first attracted gamblers making
large bets at this time. In 1664, the "Cavalier" Parliament passed the Gaming Act 1664 which limited stakes to
£100, although that was still a fortune at the time,[1] equivalent to about £12 thousand in present day terms [8].
Cricket had certainly become a significant gambling sport by the end of the 17th century. There is a newspaper
report of a "great match" played in Sussex in 1697 which was 11-a-side and played for high stakes of 50 guineas
a side.[7]

With freedom of the press having been granted in 1696, cricket for the first time could be reported in the
newspapers. But it was a long time before the newspaper industry adapted sufficiently to provide frequent, let
alone comprehensive, coverage of the game. During the first half of the 18th century, press reports tended to
focus on the betting rather than on the play.[1]

18th-century cricket

See also: 1697 to 1725 English cricket seasons and Overview of English cricket 1726 - 1815

Patronage and players

Gambling introduced the first patrons because some of the gamblers decided to strengthen their bets by forming
their own teams and it is believed the first "county teams" were formed in the aftermath of the Restoration in
1660, especially as members of the nobility were employing "local experts" from village cricket as the earliest
professionals.[5] The first known game in which the teams use county names is in 1709 but there can be little
doubt that these sort of fixtures were being arranged long before that. The match in 1697 was probably Sussex
versus another county.

The most notable of the early patrons were a group of aristocrats and businessmen who were active from about
1725, which is the time that press coverage became more regular, perhaps as a result of the patrons' influence.
These men included the 2nd Duke of Richmond, Sir William Gage, Alan Brodrick and Edward Stead. For the
first time, the press mentions individual players like Thomas Waymark.

Cricket moves out of England

Cricket was introduced to North America via the English colonies in the 17th century,[4] probably before it had
even reached the north of England. In the 18th century it arrived in other parts of the globe. It was introduced to
the West Indies by colonists[4] and to India by British East India Company mariners in the first half of the
century. It arrived in Australia almost as soon as colonization began in 1788. New Zealand and South Africa
followed in the early years of the 19th century.[5]

Development of the Laws

See also: Laws of Cricket

The basic rules of cricket such as bat and ball, the wicket, pitch dimensions, overs, how out, etc. have existed
since time immemorial. In 1728, the Duke of Richmond and Alan Brodick drew up "Articles of Agreement" to
determine the code of practice in a particular game and this became a common feature, especially around
payment of stake money and distributing the winnings given the importance of gambling.[7]

In 1744, the Laws of Cricket were codified for the first time and then amended in 1774, when innovations such
as lbw, middle stump and maximum bat width were added. These laws stated that the principals shall choose
from amongst the gentlemen present two umpires who shall absolutely decide all disputes. The codes were
drawn up by the so-called "Star and Garter Club" whose members ultimately founded MCC at Lord's in 1787.
MCC immediately became the custodian of the Laws and has made periodic revisions and recodifications
subsequently.[9]

Continued growth in England

The game continued to spread throughout England and, in 1751, Yorkshire is first mentioned as a venue.[10] The
original form of bowling (i.e., rolling the ball along the ground as in bowls) was superseded sometime after 1760
when bowlers began to pitch the ball and study variations in line, length and pace.[1] Scorecards began to be kept
on a regular basis from 1772 and since then an increasingly clear picture has emerged of the sport's
development.[11]

An artwork depicting the history of the cricket bat

The first famous clubs were London and Dartford in the early 18th century. London played its matches on the
Artillery Ground, which still exists. Others followed, particularly Slindon in Sussex which was backed by the
Duke of Richmond and featured the star player Richard Newland. There were other prominent clubs at
Maidenhead, Hornchurch, Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Bromley, Addington, Hadlow and Chertsey.

But far and away the most famous of the early clubs was Hambledon in Hampshire. It started as a parish
organisation that first achieved prominence in 1756. The club itself was founded in the 1760s and was well
patronised to the extent that it 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. Hambledon produced several outstanding players including
the master batsman John Small and the first great fast bowler Thomas Brett. Their most notable opponent was
the Chertsey and Surrey bowler Edward "Lumpy" Stevens, who is believed to have been the main proponent of
the flighted delivery.

It was in answer to the flighted, or pitched, delivery that the straight bat was introduced. The old "hockey stick"
style of bat was only really effective against the ball being trundled or skimmed along the ground.

Cricket and crisis

Cricket faced its first real crisis during the 18th century when major matches virtually ceased during the Seven
Years War. This was largely due to shortage of players and lack of investment. But the game survived and the
"Hambledon Era" proper began in the mid-1760s.

Cricket faced another major crisis at the beginning of the 19th century when a cessation of major matches
occurred during the culminating period of the Napoleonic Wars. Again, the causes were shortage of players and
lack of investment. But, as in the 1760s, the game survived and a slow recovery began in 1815.

On June 17th 1815, on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo British soldiers played a cricket match in the Bois de la
Cambre park in Brussels. Ever since the park area where that match took place has been called La Pelouse des
Anglais (the Englishmen's lawn).

MCC was itself the centre of controversy in the Regency period, largely on account of the enmity between Lord
Frederick Beauclerk and George Osbaldeston. In 1817, their intrigues and jealousies exploded into a match-
fixing scandal with the top player William Lambert being banned from playing at Lord's Cricket Ground for life.
Gambling scandals in cricket have been going on since the 17th century.

In the 1820s, cricket faced a major crisis of its own making as the campaign to allow roundarm bowling
gathered pace.

19th-century cricket

Main article: Overview of English cricket from 1816 to 1863

View of Geneva's Plaine de Plainpalais with cricketers, 1817

The game also underwent a fundamental change of organisation with the formation for the first time of county
clubs. All the modern county clubs, starting with Sussex in 1839, were founded during the 19th century.

A cricket match at Darnall, Sheffield in the 1820s.

No sooner had the first county clubs established themselves than they faced what amounted to "player action" as
William Clarke created the travelling All-England Eleven in 1846. Though a commercial venture, this team did
much to popularise the game in districts which had never previously been visited by high-class cricketers. Other
similar teams were created and this vogue lasted for about thirty years. But the counties and MCC prevailed.

The growth of cricket in the mid and late 19th century was assisted by the development of the railway network.
For the first time, teams from a long distance apart could play one other without a prohibitively time-consuming
journey. Spectators could travel longer distances to matches, increasing the size of crowds.

In 1864, another bowling revolution resulted in the legalisation of overarm and in the same year Wisden
Cricketers' Almanack was first published.

The "Great Cricketer", W G Grace, made his first-class debut in 1865. His feats did much to increase the game's
popularity and he introduced technical innovations which revolutionised the game, particularly in batting.

International cricket begins

The first Australian touring team (1878) pictured at Niagara Falls

The first ever international cricket game was between the USA and Canada in 1844. The match was played at
the grounds of the St George's Cricket Club in New York.[12]

In 1859, a team of leading English professionals set off to North America on the first-ever overseas tour and, in
1862, the first English team toured Australia.

Between May and October 1868, a team of Australian Aborigines toured England in what was the first
Australian cricket team to travel overseas.

In 1877, an England touring team in Australia played two matches against full Australian XIs that are now
regarded as the inaugural Test matches. The following year, the Australians toured England for the first time and
were a spectacular success. No Tests were played on that tour but more soon followed and, at The Oval in 1882,
arguably the most famous match of all time gave rise to The Ashes. South Africa became the third Test nation in
1889.

National championships

A major watershed occurred in 1890 when the official County Championship was constituted in England. This
organisational initiative has been repeated in other countries. Australia established the Sheffield Shield in 1892–
93. Other national competitions to be established were the Currie Cup in South Africa, the Plunkett Shield in
New Zealand and the Ranji Trophy in India.

The period from 1890 to the outbreak of the First World War has become an object of nostalgia, ostensibly
because the teams played cricket according to "the spirit of the game", but more realistically because it was a
peacetime period that was shattered by the First World War. The era has been called The Golden Age of cricket
and it featured numerous great names such as Grace, Wilfred Rhodes, C B Fry, K S Ranjitsinhji and Victor
Trumper.

Balls per over

In 1889 the immemorial four ball over was replaced by a five ball over and then this was changed to the current
six balls an over in 1900. Subsequently, some countries experimented with eight balls an over. In 1922, the
number of balls per over was changed from six to eight in Australia only. In 1924 the eight ball over was
extended to New Zealand and in 1937 to South Africa. In England, the eight ball over was adopted
experimentally for the 1939 season; the intention was to continue the experiment in 1940, but first-class cricket
was suspended for the Second World War and when it resumed, English cricket reverted to the six ball over. The
1947 Laws of Cricket allowed six or eight balls depending on the conditions of play. Since the 1979/80
Australian and New Zealand seasons, the six ball over has been used worldwide and the most recent version of
the Laws in 2000 only permits six ball overs.

20th-century cricket

Growth of Test cricket

Sid Barnes, traps Lala Amarnath lbw in the first official Test between Australia and India at the MCG in 1948

When the Imperial Cricket Conference (as it was originally called) was founded in 1909, only England,
Australia and South Africa were members. India, West Indies and New Zealand became Test nations before the
Second World War and Pakistan soon afterwards. The international game grew with several "affiliate nations"
getting involved and, in the closing years of the 20th century, three of those became Test nations also: Sri
Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

Test cricket remained the sport's highest level of standard throughout the 20th century but it had its problems,
notably in the infamous "Bodyline Series" of 1932–33 when Douglas Jardine's England used so-called "leg
theory" to try and neutralise the run-scoring brilliance of Australia's Don Bradman.

Suspension of South Africa (1970–91)

See also: International cricket in South Africa from 1971 to 1981

The greatest crisis to hit international cricket was brought about by apartheid, the South African policy of racial
segregation. The situation began to crystallise after 1961 when South Africa left the Commonwealth of Nations
and so, under the rules of the day, its cricket board had to leave the International Cricket Conference (ICC).
Cricket's opposition to apartheid intensified in 1968 with the cancellation of England's tour to South Africa by
the South African authorities, due to the inclusion of "coloured" cricketer Basil D'Oliveira in the England team.
In 1970, the ICC members voted to suspend South Africa indefinitely from international cricket competition.
Ironically, the South African team at that time was probably the strongest in the world.

Starved of top-level competition for its best players, the South African Cricket Board began funding so-called
"rebel tours", offering large sums of money for international players to form teams and tour South Africa. The
ICC's response was to blacklist any rebel players who agreed to tour South Africa, banning them from officially
sanctioned international cricket. As players were poorly remunerated during the 1970s, several accepted the
offer to tour South Africa, particularly players getting towards the end of their careers for whom a blacklisting
would have little effect.

The rebel tours continued into the 1980s but then progress was made in South African politics and it became
clear that apartheid was ending. South Africa, now a "Rainbow Nation" under Nelson Mandela, was welcomed
back into international sport in 1991.

World Series Cricket

See also: World Series Cricket

The money problems of top cricketers were also the root cause of another cricketing crisis that arose in 1977
when the Australian media magnate Kerry Packer fell out with the Australian Cricket Board over TV rights.
Taking advantage of the low remuneration paid to players, Packer retaliated by signing several of the best
players in the world to a privately run cricket league outside the structure of international cricket. World Series
Cricket hired some of the banned South African players and allowed them to show off their skills in an
international arena against other world-class players. The schism lasted only until 1979 and the "rebel" players
were allowed back into established international cricket, though many found that their national teams had moved
on without them. Long-term results of World Series Cricket have included the introduction of significantly
higher player salaries and innovations such as coloured kit and night games.
Limited-overs cricket

In the 1960s, English county teams began playing a version of cricket with games of only one innings each and a
maximum number of overs per innings. Starting in 1963 as a knockout competition only, limited overs grew in
popularity and in 1969 a national league was created which consequently caused a reduction in the number of
matches in the County Championship.

Although many "traditional" cricket fans objected to the shorter form of the game, limited overs cricket did have
the advantage of delivering a result to spectators within a single day; it did improve cricket's appeal to younger
or busier people; and it did prove commercially successful.

The first limited overs international match took place at Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1971 as a time-filler after
a Test match had been abandoned because of heavy rain on the opening days. It was tried simply as an
experiment and to give the players some exercise, but turned out to be immensely popular. Limited overs
internationals (LOIs or ODIs, after One-day Internationals) have since grown to become a massively popular
form of the game, especially for busy people who want to be able to see a whole match. The International
Cricket Council reacted to this development by organising the first Cricket World Cup in England in 1975, with
all the Test playing nations taking part.

Increasing use of technology

Limited overs cricket increased television ratings for cricket coverage. Innovative techniques that were
originally introduced for coverage of LOI matches was soon adopted for Test coverage. The innovations
included presentation of in-depth statistics and graphical analysis, placing miniature cameras in the stumps,
multiple usage of cameras to provide shots from several locations around the ground, high speed photography
and computer graphics technology enabling television viewers to study the course of a delivery and help them
understand an umpire's decision.

In 1992, the use of a third umpire to adjudicate runout appeals with television replays was introduced in the Test
series between South Africa and India. The third umpire's duties have subsequently expanded to include
decisions on other aspects of play such as stumpings, catches and boundaries. As yet, the third umpire is not
called upon to adjudicate lbw appeals, although there is a virtual reality tracking technology (i.e., Hawk-Eye)
that is approaching perfection in predicting the course of a delivery.