The Story of Cricket (Overview) Video Lecture - Class 9

this module you will learn about the
development of cricket in England it's
rightly said that the one force that
truly unites all Indians is cricket it's
interesting how cricket a legacy of the
British colonial rule is followed
passionately in the Indian subcontinent
nearly 500 years ago cricket developed
in rural England out of several stick
and ball games till the 18th century
cricket bats were curved like hockey
sticks such bats helped in making
contact with the ball that was bowled
under arm at that time interestingly
cricket carries many peculiarities today
the reasons for which lie in the initial
years of its growth the game was
originally played on unfenced land in
English villages the size of grounds
varied from one village to another with
no defined boundaries the laws of
cricket were first written in 1700 and
44 however the distance of the
boundaries from the wicket was not
defined and was left to the empires and
the captains to be agreed upon the
tradition carried on till today the
length of the pitch is specified but not
the size and shape of the ground which
varies across the world another
peculiarity of cricket lies in the
length of a Test match compared to any
of the modern games that finish faster
a test match goes on for five days and
can still end in a draw the reason lies
in the early days of cricket when the
game was played leisurely it went on
till a side was brought out twice
completely these oddities occurred
because cricket was the first game to
lay down rules and regulations the laws
of 1744 specified the dimensions of the
stumps and the weight of the ball but
they said nothing about the shape and
the size of the bat the merry Lebon
cricket club which was formed in 1787
revised the laws which gradually made
cricket a more skillful game bowlers now
started bowling over arm instead of the
conventional underarm style this allowed
them to increase their pace and deceive
the batsman by varying their length and
swing such changes prompted the batsman
to master their timing and shot
selection were over the width of the bat
was limited to four inches while many
important rules were introduced and
changed in the 19th century cricket
matured during the industrial revolution
at this time people were paid on an
hourly weekly or daily basis therefore
timeless Test matches were replaced by
five-day Test matches while cricket has
evolved over the ages cricketing
equipment is still made by hand using
natural pre-industrial material the bat
stumps and bales are still made of wood
one the ball is made of leather twine
and
developed as a Victorian gentlemanly
game that embodied all Englishness the
hierarchies of English society were
evident in early cricket poor people
also called professionals or players
played cricket for a living won the rich
or amateurs played it for pleasure they
were also known as gentlemen the rules
of the game were lopsided and favored
the gentlemen who mostly batted cricket
was also introduced in public schools as
part of physical training for boys it
was used to teach them discipline and
the importance of hierarchy and to groom
them to run the British Empire in future
for a long time cricket remained a male
preserve women from the upper class
played a slow-paced game called Crockett
it was only by the end of the 19th
century that women began to participate
in vigorous games like cricket however
they were still discouraged from
participating in competitions you have
now reached the end of the module on
development of cricket in England
in this module you note that cricket
developed in rural England out of
several stick and ball games first laws
of cricket were written in 1744 the
merry Lebon cricket club revised the
cricket laws and published them in 1788
the cricketing equipment is still
handmade using natural pre-industrial
materials the hierarchies of English
society were evident in early cricket
professionals or players played cricket
for a living one the amateurs or
gentlemen played it for pleasure cricket
was also introduced to young schoolboys
to teach them discipline and the
importance of hierarchy
by the end of the 19th century women
began to play cricket but they were
still discouraged to participate in
competitions