Class 9 History Question Answers - History and Sport: The Story of Cricket (Deducted from CBSE 2021-22 examination)

Q.1. What role did religion and politics play in the development of cricket in India?
 OR
 'Cricket in colonial India was organised on the principle of race and religion.' Justify the statement. [2011 (T-2)]

Ans. Cricket in colonial India was organised on the principle of race and religion. The origin of Indian cricket is to be found in Bombay and the first community to start playing it were the Zoroastrians, the Parsis. Other religious communities soon followed. By the 1890s, Hindus and Muslims were busy raising funds for a Hindu and a Muslim gymkhana. The British did not consider colonial India as a nation. They saw it as a collection of castes, races and religions. The history of gymkhana cricket led to first-class cricket being organised on communal and racial lines. These teams did not represent regions (as teams in today’s Ranji Trophy do) but religious communities.

The tournament was initially called the Quadrangular because it was played by four teams : the Europeans, the Parsis, the Hindus and the Muslims. Later it became Pentangular when a fifth team “The Rest’’ was added. It comprised all the communities leftover such as the Indian Christians.

Q.2. What part does nationalism play in the present-day cricket?

Ans. The teams that play cricket at national and International level today do not represent religions and races but regions and nationalities like in today’s Ranji Trophy the Pentangular in colonial India was replaced by a rival tournament, the ‘National Cricket Championship’ later named the Ranji Trophy.

Cricket fans know that watching a match involves taking sides. In a Ranji Trophy match when Delhi plays Mumbai, the loyalty of spectators watching the match depends on which city they came from or support. When India plays Australia, the spectators watching the match on TV in Bhopal or Chennai feel involved as Indians, they are moved by nationalist loyalties. Earlier teams were not organised on geographical principles. It was not till 1932 that a national team was given the right to represent India in Test match.

Q.3. How is cricket played in our subcontinent, West Indies and Africa, different from the way it is played in England?

Ans. The cricket played in our subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh), West Indies, and South Africa is hugely different from the way it is played in England. All these countries were colonies of England and cricket was spread by our colonial masters. The game is very popular and is played with a lot of passion and enthusiasm not seen anywhere in the world. Cricket in these countries is synonymous with nationalism and patriotism. As these countries were under colonialism, there is a passion to show national supremacy via the game of cricket. The aggressiveness shown in these countries is not to be seen in English game which exhibits professionalism and indifference.

Q.4. Give your own reasons for the popularity of cricket in the world and specially India.

Ans. Television coverage changed cricket. It expanded the audience for the game by beaming cricket into small towns and villages. It also broadened the cricket’s social base. Children who had, never previously had a chance to watch International cricket because they lived outside big cities, where top-level cricket was played could now watch it. The technology of satellite television and the worldwide reach of multinational television
companies created a global market for cricket. India has the largest viewership among the cricket-playing nations and the largest market in the cricketing world. The game’s centre of gravity has shifted to South Asia, symbolised by shifting of ICC headquarters from London to tax-free Dubai. Innovations in cricket technique in recent years have mainly come from subcontinental teams in countries like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Pakistan pioneered two great advances in bowling: the doosra, and the “reverse swing”. Today the global market has made Indian players the best paid, most famous cricketers in the game, men for whom the world is a stage.

Q.5. Describe how cricket’s connection with a rural past can be seen in the length of a Test match and vagueness about the size of a cricket ground.

Ans. Crickets connection with a rural past can be seen in the length of a Test match. Originally, cricket matches had no time limit. The game went on for as long as it took to bowl out a side twice. The rhythm of village life was slower and cricket’s rules were made before the Industrial
Revolution.
In the same way, vagueness about the size of a cricket ground is a result of its village origin. Cricket was originally played on country commons, unfenced land that was public property. The size of the commons varied from one village to another, so there were no designated boundaries or boundary hits. When the ball went into the crowd, the crowd cleared a way for the fieldsman to retrieve it.

Q.6. ‘It’s often said that the Battle of Waterloo was on won the playing fields of Eton.’ Explain. [2011 (T-2)]
 OR
 Why is it said that the Battle of Watertoo was on won the playing fields of Eton? (CBSE 2010)

Ans. This saying is based on the argument that the values taught to schoolboys in its public schools resulted in Britain’s military success. Eton was the most famous of these schools. These schools trained English boys for careers in the Military, the Civil Service and the Church — the three great institutions of Imperial England. In actual fact the Napoleonic wars were won because of the economic contribution of the iron works of Scotland and Wales, the mills of Lancashire and the financial houses of the city of London. It was the English lead in trade and industry that made Britain the world’s greatest power.

Q.7. ‘Despite the exclusiveness of the White cricket elite in the West Indies, the game became hugely popular in the Caribbean.’ Explain how and why?

Ans. Despite the exclusiveness of the White cricket elite in the West Indies, the game became hugely popular in the Caribbean. Success at cricket became a measure of racial equality and political progress. At the time of their independence, many of the political leaders of Caribbean countries like Forbes Burnham and Eric Willian saw in the game a chance for self-respect and international standing. When the West Indies won its first Test series against England in 1950, it was celebrated as a national achievement, as a way of demonstrating that West Indians were the equals of white Englishmen.

Q.8. ‘Cricket in colonial India was organised on the principle of race and religion.’ Explain.
 OR
 The history of Gymkhana cricket led to first class cricket being organised on communal lines. (CBSE 2010)

Ans. Cricket in colonial India was organised on the principle of race and religion. The origin of Indian cricket is to be found in Bombay. The Indian community to start playing the game was the small community of Zoroastrians, the Parsis. The establishment of the Parsi Gymkhana became a precedent for other Indians who in turn established clubs based on the idea of a religious community. By the 1890s, the Hindus and Muslims were working to establish a Hindu Gymkhana and a Muslim Gymkhana. Thus, it led to the first-class cricket being organised on communal and racial lines in India. The teams that played the colonial India’s greatest and most famous first-class cricket tournament did not represent regions but religions. The Quadrangular and Pentangular are two such examples. The Pentangular had a fifth team, called the 'Rest'. It comprised all the communities leftover, such as Indian Christians. Journalists like S.A. Barelvi (Bombay Chronicle), Radio commentator AFS Talyarkhan and Mahatma Gandhi condemned the communal nature of competitive cricket in India.

Q.9. Summarise the views of Mahatma Gandhi on sports in general, and on cricket in particular.

Ans. Mahatma Gandhi believed that sport was essential for creating a balance between the body and the mind. But he often emphasised that games like cricket and hockey were imported into India by the British and were replacing traditional games. Games like cricket and hockey were for the privileged; they showed a colonial mindset. Mahatma Gandhi wanted that India should revive old games which are just as interesting and exciting as cricket or football, further they are inexpensive because the cost is practically next to nothing.

Q.10. Describe the influence of commerce, media and technology on modern cricket.
 OR
 Write how media nad technology have affected the game of cricket. [2011 (T-2)]

Ans. Kerry Packer, an Australian television tycoon, who saw the money-making potential of cricket as a televised sport, signed up fifty-one of the world’s leading cricketers aganist the wishes of the national cricket boards and for about two years staged unofficial Tests and One-Day Internationals under the name of World Series Cricket. Coloured dress, protective helmets, field restrictions, cricket under lights became a standard
part of the post-Packer game. Crucially, Packer drove home the lesson that cricket was a marketable game, which could generate huge revenues. Cricket boards became rich by selling television rights to television companies. Television channels made money by selling television sports to companies who were happy to pay large sums of money to air commercials for their products to cricket’s captive television audience. Continuous television coverage made cricketers celebrities who, besides being paid better by their cricket boards now, made even larger sums of money by making commercials for a wide range of products. The techonology of satellite television and the worldwide reach of multinational televisionmcompanies created a global market for cricket.

Q.11. 'A sound body means one which bends itself to the spirit and is always a ready instrument at its service. Such bodies are not made, in my opinion, on the football field. They are made on corn fields and farms. I would urge you to think this over and you will find innumerable illustrations to prove my statement. Our colonial-born Indians are carried away with this football and cricket mania. These games may have their place in certain circumstances... Why do we not take the simple fact into consideration that the vast majority of mankind who are vigorous in body and mind are simple agriculturists, that they are strangers to these games, and they are the salt of the earth?'
 The collected works of Mahatma Gandhi

(CBSE 2010)

Read the above paragraph and answer the following questions :
 (a) What, according to Gandhiji, is a sound body?
 (b) Where, according to Gandhiji, is a sound body made?
 (c) Which games are manias amongst colonial-born Indians?
 (d) Whom does Gandhiji refer to as the salt of the earth?

Ans.

(a) According to Gandhiji, a sound body means the one that can bend itself to the spirit and is always a ready instrument at its service. A trained body is healthy, vigorous and sewing.

(b) Sound bodies are not made on football field. They are made in the cornfields and farms. Vast majority of farmers have a strong body developed in the fields not on playing fields.

(c) Football and cricket are manias amongst colonial-born Indians.

(d) Gandhiji refers to simple farmers, the agriculturists as the salt of the earth. They are strangers to games liked by people affected by the colonial mindset.

Q.12. Sports for women was not designed as vigourous competitive exercise. Croquet was a slow paced elegant game considered suitable for women, especially of the upper class. The players flowing gowns, frills and hats shows the character of women sports — from Illustrated London News 20 July 1872. 

(CBSE 2010)

Read the above passage and answer the following :
 (a) What type of sports were designed for women?
 (b) Why croquet was suitable especially for the upper class women?

Ans.

(a) Sports designed for women were not vigorous. They were to exercise by only "Walking and Skipping" according to Dorothea Beale, the Principal of Cheltenham Ladies College from 1858-1906. Girls were not supposed to over-exert and become interested in atheletic rivalries.

(b) Croquet did not involve vigorous exercise. The upper class women could wear elegant flowing dresses, beautiful hats and gently pat the ball while walking on the field. They could show off their gowns, and not run around like boys who played cricket etc. The rich women had leisure and money to play a game like croquet., They could exercise without acting like boys, be admired as genteel dignified ladies.

Q.13. "The origins of Indian cricket, that is, cricket played by Indians are to be found in Bombay."
 (a) Which was the first Indian community to start playing cricket?
 (b) Give reasons why they adopted this game.
 (c) Over which issue did they quarrel with the Bombay Gymkhana?
 OR
 ‘The Parsees were the first to play cricket in India.’ Explain. Why did they quarrel with Bombay gymkhana. (CBSE 2010)

Ans. The first Indian community to start playing the game of cricket was the small community of Zoroastrians, the Parsis. Brought into close contact with the British because of their interest in trade and being the first Indian community to westernise, the Parsis founded the first Indian cricket club, the Oriental Cricket Club, in Bombay in 1848. Parsi clubs were funded and sponsored by Parsi businessmen like the Tatas and the Wadias. They fought with the all. White Bombay Gymkhana over the use of a public park. It was left unfit by the Polo ponies of the Gymkhana Club, who dug up the surface. The colonial authorities favoured the Whites, so the Parsis built their own Gymkhana to play cricket. They became the pioneers of Indian cricket\ and beat the Bombay Gymkhana in 1889.

Q.14. "The 1970s were the decade in which cricket was transformed: it was a time when atraditional game evolved to fit a changing world." 

(CBSE 2010)

(a) Give four reasons why the decade of the 1970s is the significant in the history of cricket.
 (b) In what ways did the innovations introduced by Kerry Packer transform the traditions of cricket forever?

Ans.

(a) The 1970s are a landmark in the history of cricket.

(i) First of all, in 1970, South Africa was excluded from international cricket because of its policy of apartheid.
(ii) In 1971, the first one-day international was played between England and Australia at Melbourne.
(iii) The great popularity of this shortened version of the game led to the First World Cup successfully staged in 1955.
(iv) Then in 1977, as cricket celebrated 100 years of Test matches, the nature of the game was changed dramatically by not a player or an administrator but by a businessman.

(b) Kerry Packer, a television tycoon, saw cricket as a money-making game. He signed up fifty-one of the world's leading cricketers and for two years staged unofficial Tests and One-Day Test Series under the name of World Series Cricket. He introduced coloured dress, helmets, cricket under lights. Cricket Boards sold television rights and became rich; television channels made money by selling television rights, continuous television coverage turned players into celebrities. Television expanded the audience. Cricket became a big money spinner and earned a global market for itself