Cricket - The All Time Sporteology!

Cricket is one of the global passionate game, played everywhere from Test match arenas to village greens, dusty back lots and tropical beaches!!

History of Cricket started hundreds of years ago, during the 16^th Century. This game is originated in Southern England but today is most popular in England, Australasia, West Indies, Southern Africa and the Indian subcontinent. It raised globally in 19^th and 20^th century. Game Cricket has produced many legendary players till date, so today we are going to take a look at the best Cricketers of all time.

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field. At the center of which is a rectangular of 22-yard-long pitch with a wicket (set of three wooden stumps) sited at each end. One team will be designated as the ‘batting’ team, attempts to score as many runs as possible in the given time and balls in the field. Each phase of play is called as ‘innings’. After either ten batsmen have been dismissed or a number of overs have been completed, the innings ends and the two teams then swap their roles. The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained during their one or two innings.

Why do they call it as Cricket?

In the earliest, according to definite reference to the sport in 1598 it is called as ‘Crecket’.  One possible source for the name is – Old Engllish cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff. Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary – he derived it as a Cricket from ‘cycre, saxon, a stick’!

“You don’t play for the crowd,

You play for your country” – M S Dhoni, Indian Cricketer

Countries Playing Professionally

West Indies cricket team does not signify a single country. It is a mixture of more than 19 islands countries in the Caribbean. So if you do the math, more than 125 countries play cricket and there are around 107 countries having their own national teams.

• International matches have been played since 1844 and then Test Cricket started, recognized in 1877
•  Cricket is the world’s most second popular spectator sport
•   The Governance is by – International Cricket Council (ICC) which has one hundred members even though only ten play Test Cricket
•  First ever International Cricket Game was between USA and Canada in the year 1844

Make a note of this

1774 – LBW law created

1850 – Wicket-keeping gloves first used

1850 – First Test Match, Australia beat England by 45 runs in Melbourne

1889 – South- Africa’s first test match was held

1900 – six ball over becomes the norm, instead of five

1910 – Six runs for any hit over boundary, instead of only a hit out of the ground

1928 – West Indies first test match

1930 – New Zealand’s first test match

1932 – India’s first test match

1952 – Pakistan’s first test match

2000 – Laws of Cricket were revised and rewritten

2003 – Twenty20 Cup, 20 over per side evening tournament which was inaugurated in England

Cricket(T20) – is now the world’s second biggest sporting event!!

Here are Top Cricketers of all time –

Don Bradman – is considered the greatest batsmen of all time as he averaged approximately 100 in the test cricket. None of the recent batsman are able to even come close till date.

Sachin Tendulkar – known as ‘batting Guru’, he has scored a hundred 100s in this career. This is record which seems to be unbreakable. Sachin has the highest number of runs in both Test formats and ODI, with over 34000 runs below his belt.

Gary Sobers – is one of the best all-rounders the world has ever seen. Class and Test match batting average is above many legendary other cricketers.

Vivians Richard – well renowned for his destructive and explosive batting skills. Averages 46+ in ODI with a SR of more than 90.

Kapil Dev – under his captaincy, India won their first World Cup title in the year 1983. He was like a gifted batsman along with phenomenal bowling skills. He is a genuine all-rounder.

Imran Khan – he led Pakistan towards in 1992 World cup glory with his outstanding leadership and cricketing skills. He is measured as one of the topmost bowling all-rounders.

Ian Botham – was the best cricketer of 1970’s, and probably one of the best all-rounders England has ever produced.

Dennis Lillee – is one of the most renowned deadly bowlers of all time.

Jacques Kallis – counted in the list of best all-rounders, no one can beat the elegance and class of Jacque Kallis. Total score was 24000 runds with 400+ wickets in his career.

Muttaih Muralitharan – known as ‘kind of swing’ is undoubtedly and is one the greatest off-spinners of all time. Took exactly 800 wickets in his test career, as record which seems to be unbreakable after the introduction of t20 edition.

And many more including Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Virendra Sewag, AB de Villiers, Steve Waugh, Virat Kohli, Shahid Afridi, and etc.

Cricket is so successful till date in terms of number of followers as well as in commercial aspects. And you can find many more cricketers in the recent days creating history…Well I hope this should continue like this. Cricket still remains the most popular sport in India.

Cricket World Cup Chart

1975	West Indies
1979	West Indies
1983	India
1987	Australia
1992	Pakistan
1996	Sri Lanka
1999	Australia
2003	Australia
2007	Australia
2011	India
2015	Australia

References –

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cricket