Tag: history

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was founded in 1787. In 1788, the MCC published its first revision of the laws and became the guardian of cricket’s regulations.

The length of the pitch is specified – 22 yards – but the size or shape of the ground is not.

Cricket’s most important tools are all made of natural, pre-industrial materials. The bat is made of wood as are the stumps and the bails. The ball is made with leather, twine and cork. Even today both bat and ball are handmade.

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was founded in 1787. In 1788, the MCC published its first revision of the laws and became the guardian of cricket’s regulations. The MCC’s revision of the laws brought in a series of changes in the game that occurred in the second half of the eighteenth century. 

It consists of two pieces, the blade which is made out of the wood of the willow tree and the handle which is made out of cane. Unlike golf and tennis, cricket has refused to remake its tools with industrial or man-made materials: plastic, fibreglass and metal have been firmly rejected.  Australian cricketer Dennis Lillee tried to play an innings with an aluminium bat, only to have it outlawed by the umpires. 

Cricket’s 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. In the same way, cricket’s vagueness about the size of a cricket ground is a result of its village origins. Cricket was originally played on country commons, unfenced land that was public property. 

Nearly 500 years ago, cricket developed in rural England out of several stick and ball games. Till the 18^th century, cricket bats were curved like hockey sticks. The game was originally played on unfenced land in English villages with no defined boundaries.

The MCC’s revision of the laws brought in a series of changes in the game that occurred in the second half of the eighteenth century. The weight of the ball was limited to between 5½  to 5¾ ounces, and the width of the bat to four inches. 

 The early history of Indian first class cricket, teams were not organised on geographical principles and it was not till 1932 that a national team was given the right to represent India in a Test match. Cricket in colonial India was organised on the principle of race and religion. 

 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.