Unknown Facts about Cricket
Cricket is often referred to as the gentleman’s sport. It maintains a pace and a set of rules that make the sport quite elite. Over the years, the sport has undergone many changes in its rules, and these modifications have brought some huge alterations to the game. As an interesting sport, cricket is full of many facts that appeal to the enthusiasts of the sport. These facts not only revolve around the rules of the game, but are also about the many players who have made huge contributions to the cricket. Today, cricket is very different from what it used to be when it was first started. The history of cricket is full of facts, some of which are almost buried now. So, let us look at 10 Unknown Facts about Cricket World.
10 Unknown Facts about Cricket World
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Origin of the word “Cricket”
The earliest definite reference to the word similar to Cricket can be traced way back in in 1598. The word “creckett” is regarded as the origin of the modern word “cricket”. “Creckett” is believed to be derived from a Middle Dutch word “krick” which stands for a stick or crook and is believed to be the origin as “the strong medieval trade connections between south-east England and the County of Flanders when the latter belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy.” Many other sports historians claimed that the word “Cricket” could have originated from cricc or cryce, which again stands for a crutch or staff. On a contrary, many historian also claims that it was originated from Old French word criquet which seems to have meant a kind of club or stick.
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The first Ever Cricket Match
The earliest definite reference of a cricket match in England hence anywhere in the world has found in a court case recorded way back in 1598. In that court case in England, it was recorded that a dispute happened because of cricket, as it stated that “creckett” was played on common land in Guildford, Surrey, around 1550. The court of England in Guildford on Julian date Monday, 17 January 1597 equating to the year 1598 in the Gregorian calendar heard from a 59-year-old coroner John Derrick. It was recorded that John Derrick gave witness and stated that he was a scholar fifty years earlier at the “Free School at Guildford” where “hee and diverse of his fellows did runne and play [on the common land] at creckett and other plaies.”
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The first ever Women’s Cricket
The very first Women’s cricket match was traced in 1745 as The Reading Mercury published a detailed report on 26 July 1745. The first ever match was played between eleven maids of Bramley and eleven of Hambledon near Guildford in Surrey. The match was played on Gosden Common near Guildford where all the female players were dressed in white, but the Bramley maids had blue ribbons, and the Hambledon maids had red ribbons on their heads. The Bramley team scored 119 runs, and the Hambledon girls scored 127 runs on that occasion. The match was viewed by large number of spectators and “The girls bowled, batted, ran and catch as well as most men could do in that game” as it reported by The Reading Mercury.
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The first Ever Cricket Team
The first definite organized Cricket Team is widely believed to be from The Hambledon Club, which was famous for its organization of 18th-century cricket matches. It was founded in 1765, and The Hambledon Club became the foremost cricket club in England by the late 1770s. It was based near Hambledon in rural Hampshire on a local parish cricket team which achieved prominence in 1756 when it played a series of three matches versus Dartford. The parish team was often referred to as “Squire Land’s Club” which again got its name from the main organizer of cricket teams in the village Squire Thomas Land. It was developed into a private club of noblemen and country gentry by the late 1770s and later produced many great players such as John Small, Richard Nyren, Thomas Brett and David Harris.
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Cricket in Olympics
The cricket was first included as an Olympic sport for the first time in 1896 in Athens, but there were not enough teams to compete hence the competition never occurred. In 1990 Paris Olympic, cricket was again included. Great Britain, France, Netherlands and Belgium were the first teams to play the cricket in an Olympic. But after Netherlands and Belgium withdrawn its team from the competition, only two teams Great Britain and France participated in the Olympic. The France national team made up of players from Paris-based club the Albion Cricket Club and the Standard Athletic Club. The Great Britain team made up of The Devon and Somerset Wanderers. The only cricket match in Olympic was played at the Vélodrome de Vincennes where Great Britain became the winner and received the gold medal.
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The First Ever Test Match
The first officially recognized Test match was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground between national sides of England and Australia on 15 March 1877. The tour was organized mainly by two immortal kins of cricket Fred Grace and James Lillywhite. The team of England organized by James Lillywhite visited New Zealand first and then Australia where they played two games against a Combined Australia XI. Lillywhite’s team was weak compared to the Australian side as it did not included the leading amateurs of those days W. G. Grace and again only specialist wicketkeeper Ted Pooley was left behind in New Zealand after facing a charge of assault. In the first ever test match, Australia beat England by 45 runs.
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First ICC World Cup
The Men’s Cricket World Cup was first held in 1975 in England. England that time was the only nation that was able to put forward the resources to stage an event of cricket by such magnitude where all the cricket playing nations could participate in the true sense. Eight teams participated in the first tournament which was Australia, England, West Indies, Pakistan, India, New Zealand Sri Lanka and a composite team from East Africa. West Indies won the first Cricket World Cup by defeating Australia by 17 runs in the final. The matches were 60 overs per team and played in traditional white uniform and red balls, and played exclusively during the availability of proper sunlight.
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First Face-Off in One Day
The first One Day was played when the officials decided to abandon the match after the first three days of the third Test between England, and Australia were washed out on 1971 Series. The first One Day International between Australia and England competed at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 5 January 1971. It was a one-day game consisting of 40 eight-ball overs per side. Australia won the toss and chose to field first. Geoff Boycott was the first cricketer to face a ball by Graham McKenzie on the first ever one day. JH Edrich played a marvelous innings for England and made 82 runs in 119 balls. Australia started their batting while chasing 190 runs made by England. IM Chappell and KD Walters played wonderful innings, and Australia won the game by 5 wickets.
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First decision by TV Replay
Television broadcasts with multiple camera angles started during World Series Cricket established by Kerry Packer in the late 1970s. That series included many modern features like colored uniforms, matches played at night under floodlights with a white ball and dark sight screens. The first match with colored uniforms and television broadcast was played at VFL Park in Melbourne on 17 January 1979 between WSC Australians in their wattle gold uniform and WSC West Indians in their coral pink uniform. Third empire began to consult TV replays in 1992, and Sachin Tendulkar became the first ever batsman to be run out by that first scenario when Jonty Rhodes was the fielder. In the next day of the same match, Jonty Rhodes was run out in the exact same way by Sachin Tendulkar.
10. Nelson
David Shepherd and many other umpires lift their heels from the ground or raise their legs a team or individual scores 111 or its multiples. It is because of the legendary cricket myth “Nelson”. It was named after British Royal Navy flag officer Lord Nelson or Horatio Nelson during the Napoleonic war. It is widely believed to be in accordance with Lord Nelson’s lost eye, an arm and a leg during battles. On the contrary, it was also thought that the number 111 appears as he lost “One Eye, One Arm, One Life” during his naval career where he sacrificed his life in a war. Another suggestion states that it was derived from Lord Nelson’s three great victories at Copenhagen, Nile and Trafalgar. David Shepherd is the pioneer person for whom the tale gets widely known.
It is likely that cricket will undergo many further changes over the years to come, and there will be many more players, coaches, managers, commentators, etc. who will be associated with the sport. Naturally, we can expect that cricket will not only have some new records and historic moments, but also alterations that will make for greatly memorable facts.