The History of Cricket

Date: 02/04/2006

Cricket's most likely birthplace is the Weald, an area of dense woodlands and clearings in southeast England that lies across Kent and Sussex. Children of the Weald’s farming and metalworking communities probably devised the game. There is evidence to suggest that it survived as a children's game for many centuries before adults around the beginning of the 17th century increasingly took it up. The game's origin seems to have been in Norman or perhaps Saxon times (i.e., before 1066).

Playing on sheep-grazed land or in clearings, the original implements may have been a matted lump of sheep’s wool as the ball; a crook or other farm tool as the bat; and a gate (i.e., a wicket gate) or a tree stump as the wicket. It is possible that the game was derived from the older sport of bowls by the introduction of a "batsman" to stop the ball reaching its target by hitting it away. There seems little doubt that the game had a rustic upbringing and it is significant that the Wealden counties and neighbouring Surrey were the earliest centres of excellence. Eventually, it spread north to London and west to Hampshire, the two places that cemented its popularity in the 18th century.

Early references are few, far between and sometimes spurious. Some manuscripts from the 12th and 13th centuries show diagrams, which have been interpreted as early forms of cricket, but there is no definite evidence to support these conjectures. In c.1183, Joseph of Exeter wrote an account of a community activity played by both sexes, which he called cricks, but there is nothing to prove that it was a form of cricket. The evidence is circumstantial only.

The first clue we have which is reasonably convincing comes from the Royal Wardrobe accounts of King Edward I (aka Edward Longshanks) for 1299-1300. This records that £6 was paid out for the 15-year old Prince Edward to play creag and other games at Newenden in Kent. Although there is no evidence that creag was a form of cricket, it does at least seem a likely suspect, especially given the location.

There are no other references until 1597, not even to indicate commercial interest in the game by innkeepers or other entrepreneurs. Cricket, if it was played at all, did not have sufficient popularity to be subjected to any kind of specific sanction, unlike some other games. For example, a statute of King Edward IV in 1477–8 (17 Edw.IV c.3) made the playing of handyn and handoute illegal because it interfered with the compulsory practice of archery.

In 1597 there was a dispute over a school's ownership of a plot of land in which a 59-year old coroner, John Derrick, testified that he and his school friends had played kreckett on the site fifty years earlier. This is generally considered to be the first definite mention of cricket in the English language - the school was the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, and Mr Derrick's account proves beyond reasonable doubt that the game was being played c.1550.

Until the 17th century, cricket may have developed primarily as a boy's game. The first reference to it being played as an adult sport was in 1611, when two men in Sussex were prosecuted for playing cricket instead of going to church. In the same year, another dictionary defines cricket as a boys' game and this suggests that adult participation was a recent development.

After the English Civil War, which ended in 1648, the new Puritan government clamped down on unlawful assemblies, in particular the more raucous sports such as football. Their laws also demanded a stricter observance of the Sabbath than there had been previously. As the Sabbath was the only free time available to the lower classes, cricket's popularity may have waned during the Commonwealth. Having said that, it did flourish in public fee-paying schools such as Winchester and St Paul's. There is no actual evidence that Cromwell's government banned cricket specifically and there are references to it during the interregnum that suggest it was acceptable to the authorities providing it did not cause any "breach of the Sabbath".

Cricket certainly thrived after the Restoration in 1660 and is believed to have attracted gamblers making large bets at this time. In 1664, the "Cavalier" Parliament passed a Gambling Act which limited stakes to £100, although that was a fortune at the time. Cricket had certainly become a significant gambling sport by the end of the 17th century. We know of a "great match" played in Sussex in 1697 which was 11-a-side and played for high stakes of 50 guineas a side.

The famous Hambledon Club first achieved prominence in 1756 and was the focal point of the game for the next thirty years until the formation of MCC and the opening of Lord's in 1787. MCC quickly became the game's premier club and the custodian of the Laws.

 

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