The primitive bat was no doubt a shaped branch of a tree, resembling a modern hockey stick but considerably longer and heavier. The change to a straight bat was made to defend against length bowling, which had evolved with cricketers in Hambledon, a small village in southern England. The bat was shortened in the handle and straightened and broadened in the blade, which led to forward play, driving, and cutting. As bowling technique was not very advanced during this period, batting dominated bowling through the 18th century. Sources suggest that cricket was limited to the southern counties of England during the early 18th century, but its popularity grew and eventually spread to London, notably to the Artillery Ground, Finsbury, which saw a famous match between Kent and All-England in 1744.
The aforementioned Hambledon Club, playing in Hampshire on Broadhalfpenny
Down, was the predominant cricket force in the second half of the 18th century before the rise of the
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in London. Formed from a cricket club that played at White
Conduit Fields, the club moved to
Lord’s Cricket Ground in
St. Marylebone borough in 1787 and became the MCC and in the following year published its first revised code of laws. Lord’s,
which was named after its founder, Thomas Lord, has had three locations over its history. Moving to the current ground in
St.John’s Wood in 1814, Lord’s became the headquarters of world cricket.
In 1846 the All-England XI, founded by William Clarke of Nottingham, began touring the country, and from 1852, when some of the leading professionals (including John Wisden, who later compiled the first of the famous Wisden almanacs on cricketing) seceded to form the United All-England XI, these two teams monopolized the best cricket talent until the rise of county cricket. They supplied the players for the first English touring team overseas in 1859.
IN INDIA
The origins of cricket in India can be traced back almost three centuries ago to 1721, when the British East India Trading Company were at their peak. Notably cricket in India came with the formation of the Calcutta Cricket Club in 1792 by British expatriates from the East India Company. en years later, the Calcutta Cricket Club competed against the OId Etonians, with Old Entonian Robert Vansittart scoring a hundred - the first recorded century on Indian soil. In 1848, the Parsis formed what is widely known to be the first indian community based cricket club, the Oriental Cricket Club. While the Oriental Cricket Club was short lived, it opened the door for other Indian cricket clubs to form, with the Young Zoroastrians Club opening in 1850 followed by the Hindu Gymkhana, created by the Hindu’s in 1866.
By the late 1800’s the game had begun to grow increasingly popular across the subcontinent, this was boosted by the rise of one of cricket’s most influential figures and arguably one of the greatest batsmen of all time, Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji Jadeja, or better known as Ranji. Ranji was considered a very unorthodox batsmen at the time and he brought a whole new style of batting to the game. His success in England and peculiar style led to him becoming one of the most popular players in the British Empire and was a major contributing factor to the rise of Indian cricket in the 20th century.
In 1928, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was established and at 1932 Indian team had the opportunity to play their first test match against England. This historical meeting took place at Lord’s in a one off Test match with the visitors, led by CK Nayudu, unfortunately losing by 158 runs. It would be 20 years before India got a taste of Test match victory, this came in the fifth test of the 1951-52 series against England in Chennai, a year later India celebrated their first ever series win against neighbours Pakistan, with a 2-1 lead in November 1952. In 1971, India won their first Test series against England in England. The team, led by Ajit Wadekar, won the three-match series 1-0.