Who founded cricket game

The design of the bat reflected the type of bowling that was prevalent at the time—fast, underarm bowls rolled along the ground.

By the eighteenth century, the bat had developed into a heavier, longer, curved version of our modern bat—the handle and blade were carved out of a single piece of wood. The first recorded cricket match took place in Kent in , and by the late s, fines were actually handed out for those who missed church to play. Cricket was popular and widely documented in England during the s. In , William Goldwyn published the first description of the game.

He wrote that two teams were first seen carrying their curving bats to the venue, choosing a pitch and arguing over the rules. They had four-ball overs, the umpires leaned on their staves which the batsmen had to touch to complete a run , and the scorers sat on a mound making notches. The stumps must be twenty-two inches high and the bail across them six inches.

The ball must be between five and six ounces, and the two sets of stumps twenty-two yards apart. It appears that 40 notches was viewed as a very big score, probably due to the bowlers bowling quickly at shins unprotected by pads. During the s and s, it became common to pitch the ball through the air rather than roll it along the ground.

This innovation gave bowlers the weapons of deception through the air, length, plus increased pace. It also opened new possibilities for spin and swerve. In response, batsmen had to master shot selection and timing.

One immediate consequence of this was the replacement of the curving bat with the straight one. All of this raised the premium on skill and lessened the influence of rough ground and brute force. It was in the s that the modern game began to take shape. The weight of the ball was limited to between five and a half and five and three-fourth ounces, and the width of the bat to four inches. In , the first leg before law was published. Also around this time, a third stump became commonplace. By , three days had become the duration of a big match, and that year also saw the creation of the first six-seam cricket ball.

The MCC became the supreme authority on the complex rules of the game and its base, Lords named after a founder member of the club, Thomas Lord in St. Johns Wood, London , remains the spiritual home of the game. For anyone visiting England during the long hot summer months: remember that to fully appreciate your trip to our shores, please do not rush about from one tourist site to the next, simply find a local cricket match, sit back, relax a little and enjoy!

In order to assist your enjoyment and appreciation of the game, particularly when you are sharing those magical video moments with others back home, we have attempted to simply and condense the complex rules of the game, as formalised by the MCC, as follows:. If you have any questions concerning the details of these rules please remember, like many things in England, pints are not compulsory but may assist with your enjoyment.

One or two will most certainly help when explaining the intricacies and finer points of the game! Related articles Traditional British Sport Here you will find grouped together articles and features about British sport, and stars of British sport.

The game had become massively popular, and large crowds would gather to watch games at the Artillery Ground in Finsbury, London. Single wicket games were the most popular. Bowling a ball instead of skimming or rolling it towards the batsman did not come into effect until When that change happened, alterations to the bat design occurred, and it became recognised as the type of cricket bat used today.

Before then, cricket bats were shaped more like hockey sticks. Also, practices like using three-stump wicket and leg before wicket were not included until the latter half of the century. The eighteenth-century also saw the formation of the famous Hambledon Club , which was the most prominent club until the Marylebone Cricket Club was formed two decades later. The MCC has since gone on to become one of the most prominent organisations in world cricket.

Until the late eighteenth century, professional cricket was restricted to the aristocratic classes of England. In , the first international cricket match was played between Canada and the United States.

The nineteenth-century also saw new developments in how the game was played. For instance, underarm bowling was replaced, first by roundarm bowling, and then by overarm bowling.