ICC At Risk

The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) new chief executive Haroon Lorgat has stressed that the future of international cricket is at risk after the Sri Lanka Cricket Board surrendered to its players' pressure to skip their England tour next season for the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL).

"If this kind of situation is not managed properly in the future, the lifeblood of all member countries could be threatened. International cricket generates revenue that is essential to our survival," he said.

"Sri Lanka should sort out the situation accordingly. To satisfy players financially by relying on their payments from IPL is not sustainable. Players have short careers and they want immediate rewards but we have to educate them about the development of the game. All of us, players included, must be responsible during this time of enormous opportunity," he added.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has guaranteed that international cricket will take precedence though the IPL committee, will contend that the league cannot be answerable for the market forces that have been behind the decision by Sri Lanka Cricket's interim committee.

"To BCCI’s credit, they have respected the priority of nation versus nation cricket," the ICC chief said.

For Watson Itz Elementry To Go To Pakistan

The thought of going to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy is giving jitters to his teammates but Australian all-rounder Shane Watson says he is so desperate to keep his place in the side that he would not mind ignoring security concerns to play in the troubled country.

Watson, whose history of injury breakdowns came in the way of his cementing a slot in the Aussie team in the past, has blossomed into a consistent match winner of late, pulling off series winning performances in the recent Indian Premier League (IPL) and the ODI series against West Indies.

And the 27-year-old is no mood to halt his remarkable run by pulling out of the mini World Cup due to security concerns.

"I'd go anywhere, I'd play anywhere," he was quoted as saying in The Australian.

"I just want to play for my country, that's what I've worked so hard for. I've been through some up-and-down times over the last year, so I'd do anything to play for my country, so wherever I have to go I'll go," he added.

Watson said he has been left amazed by his recent form as only a few months ago, the only future he could visualise for himself at this time of the year was a county stint in England.

"It's just been so great to be part of the Australian team again. It's been an interesting last year and to be able to be here now, to be part of a winning team and to play a big role in it is something I wasn't expecting at all. I was expecting to be in England playing county cricket," Watson said.

The lanky all-rounder said his stint in the IPL helped him raise his fitness level and get back in the groove after a prolonged injury lay-off.

"We played a lot of cricket in six weeks, so physically it gave me a lot of confidence to know that I could get through a pretty tiring schedule," Watson said, "I think it brought my whole game, every aspect, batting and bowling, to another level. It was a great time and my cricket improved a lot and that was my aim at the start of the tournament.

"It's been great, especially the last three or four months playing in the IPL and the West Indies series to be physically able to get through it," he added.

Shoaib Fine Delays Pakistan Squad Announcement

Although the Pakistan Cricket Board had announced the inclusion of controversial fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif in their 30-man probables, they held back the official announcement on Friday.

Pakistan have exceeded the July 11 deadline of submitting the list to the International Cricket Council because of an ongoing dispute with Shoaib over the payment of a fine, Reuters has learnt.

"The squad will be announced by July 15 now as the board has sent a notice to Shoaib Akhtar asking him to pay the fine by July 14," a PCB spokesman told Reuters.

Shoaib was fined Rs 7 million after he was banned for five years by the PCB for repeated misconduct and indiscipline. Although the fast bowler's ban was reduced to 18 months by an appellate tribunal, the decision on the fine remained intact.

Shoaib filed a petition against the reduced ban as well as the fine to the Lahore High Court which then stayed the ban, but refused to waive the fine imposed on him until the case resumes in September.

The spokesman added that the PCB had been granted permission to hold back the announcement of the probables till July 15. "Shoaib's name would only be considered for selection if he clears the fine first," he said.

Shoaib's lawyer, Abid Hasan Minto, has however dismissed the PCB's claims saying Shoaib was never asked to pay a fine until recently.

Mohammad Asif's availability also remains in doubt despite figuring in the probables list. A PCB-appointed tribunal is yet to start proceedings of a hearing against the embattled pacer, after he was detained in Dubai with drugs in June. He was let off, but the PCB will take up his case once it gets details from the Dubai authorities.

ICL Threatens To Sue ICC

New Delhi: The rebel Indian Cricket League has threatened to take the International Cricket Council to court as the league seeks to overturn bans imposed on its players by national boards.

Players playing in the ICL have been banned for national selection and the league has been denied access to stadiums in India because it is considered to be "unauthorised" cricket by cricket's governing body.

According to reports, the ICL has only one year of viable operations and has told the International Cricket Council that it is preparing a legal case which could lead to the world governing body being sued in London's high court.

A separate petition has also been filed by the ICL in the Delhi high court, challenging the position of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which banned the Essel group's league since its inception.

England v South Africa 1st Test

Ashwell Prince struck a determined 101, but South Africa were made to follow-on and closed day three of the first Test at Lord's 333 behind England on 13-0.

Prince battled for 68 overs, sharing 78 with AB de Villiers after three wickets had fallen in the first 90 minutes.

They held out for much of the second session, but Monty Panesar (4-74) was dominant as six wickets fell after tea.

Prince was ninth out, edging the new ball, before the South Africa openers held out against spin in fading light.

It was just reward for England, who matched the discipline shown by their batsmen with a channelled display of bowling and fielding.

Few are likely to tell their grandchildren about Prince's innings, but without it, he might well have been batting for a second time before the day was out.

Graeme Smith was, having to bizarrely face Panesar and Kevin Pietersen with the new ball in questionable light in the follow-on having earlier fallen in the third over of the day.

James Anderson found some extra life on the line of off-stump, the skipper looped a simple catch to gully after the lifting ball caught the shoulder of his bat.

That variation in bounce may have unsettled the minds of the batsmen, but in truth there were no gremlins in the surface.

England bowled with focus and, with the exception of Prince, the South Africans surprisingly showed a lack of customary grit.

Hashim Amla, fresh from scores of 172 and 161 in the two warm-up matches, made a scratchy six from 32 balls before feathering a catch off Stuart Broad.

Still there was little assistance in the pitch for the bowlers, and yet half an hour before lunch it was 47-3 and Jacques Kallis, who has scored five of his 30 Test centuries against England, was the next man to go.

Kallis had got off the mark in fortuitous fashion with a flat-footed thick edge through the slips from a ball he appeared not to see too well, and his feet failed to move much at all throughout his short innings.

Ryan Sidebottom found no real swing until the new ball was taken late in the day, and generally looked far from his probing best, but he angled one across Kallis and Andrew Strauss held an excellent low catch at first slip.

Neil McKenzie and Prince, the two most adhesive batsmen, took their side through to lunch, but in the second over after the interval England struck again.

Having bisected first and second slip with an edge, McKenzie, full of eccentric mannerisms, saw his methodical display of resistance ended by a stunning delivery from Panesar.

Flighting the ball beautifully, Panesar turned one from leg stump to bowl him round his legs as he pushed forward, a dismissal more often associated with the magical leg spin of Shane Warne.

The one partnership of note followed, De Villiers reining in his natural attacking instincts, to provide an admirable foil for the gritty Prince.

With the wicket flat it needed something special to break through, and it came from Anderson, who took off to his right at mid-on and snared a spectacular two-handed catch as De Villiers fatally tried to break the shackles driving at Panesar.

Mark Boucher, so often a stubborn thorn from the late middle order, got an inside edge onto his stumps from the first ball of Broad's new spell, while Morne Morkel was bowled by a classic from Panesar that turned out of the rough and crashed into the timbers.

By that stage Prince had decided to play some shots, no doubt aware he could not rely on his partners to get him to three figures, and after 138 balls without a boundary he reverse swept Panesar for four then mowed him over mid-wicket for the ony six of the day.

He soon lost Paul Harris, who followed his largely ineffective display with the ball with an unconvincing batting performance, miscuing his rather more accomplished spin counterpart Panesar to mid-on where Anderson took another good catch, low diving forward.

After an eighth Test century of application and fine shot selection, Prince drove in tired fashion as Sidebottom had more success with the new ball, and Pietersen's magical influence continued when he was brought on in murky light to take the final wicket when Dale Steyn swiped agriculturally to mid-off.

Pietersen could not dismiss his arch-rival Smith, despite a frenetic appeal for a bat and pad catch with the final ball of the day, but it is quite clear who will be the happier of the two at this stage of the match.

Kumble Cautioned For Remarks To Newspaper

Anil Kumble, India's Test captain, has been cautioned by the BCCI for divulging details of the Sri Lanka tour selection meeting to a newspaper.

Kumble told Mumbai Mirror that he had asked the selectors to pick two specialist wicketkeepers for the three-Test series. "As captain I am aware that there could be problems if the specialist were to pull a muscle or have a runny stomach on the morning of a Test," Kumble said. "There was a suggestion that Rahul [Dravid] be the second wicketkeeper, but I persuaded the [selection] committee to view things from Indian cricket's point of view and advantage."

Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, censured Kumble for his remarks. "I have been informed by the chairman [Dilip Vengsarkar] that Mumbai Mirror, a newspaper in Mumbai, has published some story about the selection meeting which is attributed to you.

"You are aware that proceedings of the selection committee are not supposed to be divulged and are certainly not meant for public discussion. As a senior player, you should have restrained from such interviews."

India had included wicketkeepers Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel in the Test squad for Sri Lanka after Mahendra Singh Dhoni opted out of the series.

Wasim Akram Critisises Maliks Captaincy

Wasim Akram, the former Pakistan captain, has criticised Shoaib Malik for his captaincy and for not bowling his offspin regularly, and called for the inclusion of Mohammad Aamer, the 16-year-old left-arm seamer, into the national team.

"In the beginning I thought he [Malik] had the skills; now I have my doubts," Akram told Cricinfo in a wide-ranging interview. "Against Zimbabwe he bowled ten overs in almost every match, against Bangladesh he bowled a little less. But in big matches he is not bowling. Do you think nobody notices? People do.

"Most of all, players notice how the leader is doing. Shoaib Malik has to learn that," he said. "[Abdur] Rauf gets three wickets in one match, but doesn't get to play in the next. This is the captain's fault, not the selectors."

He also picked out the issues related to the selection of the XI. "Now he says the XI is given by selectors, but I know that in Pakistan if you are a strong captain there is no way the selectors can do that to you," Akram said. "We have all been through this: me, Inzamam, Imran [Khan], [Javed] Miandad, we all did that but we always had our XIs. Maybe in the 14-15 you can have a compromise."

Akram picked out Aamer, the promising Pakistan Under-19 and Rawalpindi bowler, for special mention - "he is quite talented" - and said that he would have drafted him into the national set-up right away. He had earmarked Aamer as a future talent during a fast bowlers' camp in May 2007.

While changing focus to the fast bowling scene in world cricket, Akram rated Brett Lee as the best and had some words of advice for Ishant Sharma. "He [Ishant] has to learn quickly. He has been very average in the Asia Cup," he said. "His length has to change in one-day cricket. He is a wicket-taking bowler, and he has to get the new ball. You can't have your third seamer bowling with the new ball."

Origin

No one knows when or where cricket began but there is a body of evidence, much of it circumstantial, that strongly suggests the game was devised during Saxon or Norman times by children living in the Weald, an area of dense woodlands and clearings in south-east England that lies across Kent and Sussex. In medieval times, the Weald was populated by small farming and metal-working communities. It is generally believed that cricket survived as a children's game for many centuries before it was increasingly taken up by adults around the beginning of the 17th century.
It is quite likely that cricket was devised by children and survived for many generations as essentially a children’s game. Adult participation is unknown before the early 17th century. Possibly cricket was derived from bowls, assuming bowls is the older sport, by the intervention of a batsman trying to stop the ball reaching its target by hitting it away. Playing on sheep-grazed land or in clearings, the original implements may have been a matted lump of sheep’s wool (or even a stone or a small lump of wood) as the ball; a stick or a crook or another farm tool as the bat; and a stool or a tree stump or a gate (e.g., a wicket gate) as the wicket [1].

Derivation of the name of "cricket"

A number of words are thought to be possible sources for the term cricket, which could refer to the bat or the wicket. In old French, the word criquet meant a kind of club which probably gave its name to croquet. Some believe that cricket and croquet have a common origin. In Flemish, krick(e) means a stick, and, in Old English, cricc or cryce means a crutch or staff (though the hard "k" sound suggests the North or Northeast midlands, rather than the Southeast, where cricket seems to have begun).
Alternatively, the French criquet apparently comes from the Flemish word krickstoel, which is a long low stool on which one kneels in church. It may appear similar to the long low wicket with two stumps used in early cricket, or the early stool in stoolball. The word stool is old dialect for a tree stump in a forest, but in stoolball it may well refer to the milking-stools which are believed to have been used as wickets in early times.
Stoolball is an ancient sport similar to cricket, still played in southern counties of England, especially Sussex, and is considered a precursor to cricket, rounders and baseball.

First definite reference

Despite many prior suggested references, the first definite reference to the game is found in a 1597 court case concerning dispute over a school's ownership of a plot of land. A 59-year old coroner, John Derrick, testified that he and his school friends had played kreckett on the site fifty years earlier. The school was the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, and Mr Derrick's account proves beyond reasonable doubt that the game was being played in Surrey c.1550.
The first reference to it being played as an adult sport was in 1611, when two men in Sussex were prosecuted for playing cricket on Sunday instead of going to church. In the same year, a dictionary defines cricket as a boys' game and this suggests that adult participation was a recent development.

Early seventeenth century

A number of references occur up to the English Civil War and these indicate that it had become an adult game contested by parish teams, but there is no evidence of county strength teams at this time. Equally, there is little evidence of the rampant gambling that characterised the game throughout the 18th century. It is generally believed, therefore, that "village cricket" had developed by the middle of the 17th century but that county cricket had not and that investment in the game had not begun.

The Commonwealth

After the Civil War 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 Oliver Cromwell's regime 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".

Gambling and press coverage

Cricket certainly thrived after the Restoration in 1660 and is believed to have first 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 still 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.
Our knowledge of this game came about because, for the first time, cricket could be reported in the newspapers with freedom of the press having been granted the previous year. But it was a long time before the newspaper industry adapted sufficiently to provide frequent, let alone comprehensive, coverage of the game. During the first half of the 18th century, press reports tended to focus on the betting rather than on the play!

Patronage and players

Gambling introduced the first patrons because some of the gamblers decided to strengthen their bets by forming their own teams and it is believed the first "county teams" were formed in the aftermath of the Restoration. The first game we know of in which the teams use county names is in 1709 but there can be little doubt that these sort of fixtures were being arranged long before that. The match in 1697 could well have been Sussex versus another county.
The most notable of the early patrons were a group of aristocrats and businessmen who were active from about 1725, which is the time that press coverage became more regular, perhaps as a result of the patrons' influence. These men included Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, Sir William Gage, 7th Baronet, Alan Brodrick and Edward Stead. For the first time, the press tells us something about individual players like Thomas Waymark.

Cricket moves out of England

Cricket was introduced to North America via the English colonies in the 17th century, probably before it had even reached the north of England. In the 18th century it arrived in other parts of the globe. It was introduced to the West Indies by colonists and to India by British East India Company mariners in the first half of the century. It arrived in Australia almost as soon as colonization began in 1788. New Zealand and South Africa followed in the early years of the 19th century

Development of the Laws

See also: Laws of Cricket

The basic rules of cricket such as bat and ball, the wicket, pitch dimensions, overs, how out, etc. have existed since time immemorial. In 1728, we first hear of "Articles of Agreement" to determine the code of practice in a particular game and this became a common feature, especially around payment of stake money and distributing the winnings given the importance of gambling. In 1744, the Laws of Cricket were codified for the first time and then amended in 1774, when innovations such as lbw, middle stump and maximum bat width were added. These laws stated that 'the principals shall choose from amongst the gentlemen present two umpires who shall absolutely decide all disputes.' The codes were drawn up by the so-called "Star and Garter Club" whose members ultimately founded MCC at Lord's in 1787. MCC immediately became the custodian of the Laws and has made periodic revisions and recodifications subsequently

See also: Laws of Cricket

The basic rules of cricket such as bat and ball, the wicket, pitch dimensions, overs, how out, etc. have existed since time immemorial. In 1728, we first hear of "Articles of Agreement" to determine the code of practice in a particular game and this became a common feature, especially around payment of stake money and distributing the winnings given the importance of gambling. In 1744, the Laws of Cricket were codified for the first time and then amended in 1774, when innovations such as lbw, middle stump and maximum bat width were added. These laws stated that 'the principals shall choose from amongst the gentlemen present two umpires who shall absolutely decide all disputes.' The codes were drawn up by the so-called "Star and Garter Club" whose members ultimately founded MCC at Lord's in 1787. MCC immediately became the custodian of the Laws and has made periodic revisions and recodifications subsequently.

Continued growth in England

The game continued to spread throughout England and, in 1751, Yorkshire is first mentioned as a venue. The original form of bowling (i.e., rolling the ball along the ground as in bowls) was superseded sometime after 1760 when bowlers began to pitch the ball and study variations in line, length and pace. Scorecards began to be kept on a regular basis from 1772 and since then we have an increasingly clear picture of the sport's development.

An artwork depicting the history of the cricket bat. The first famous clubs were London and Dartford in the early 18th century. London played its matches on the famous Artillery Ground, which is still there. Others followed, particularly Slindon in Sussex which was backed by the Duke of Richmond and featured the star player Richard Newland. There were other prominent clubs at Maidenhead, Hornchurch, Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Bromley, Addington, Hadlow and Chertsey.
But far and away the most famous of the early clubs was Hambledon in Hampshire. It started as a parish organisation and first achieved prominence in 1756. The club itself was founded in the 1760s and was well patronised to the extent that it was the focal point of the game for about thirty years until the formation of MCC and the opening of Lord's Cricket Ground in 1787. Hambledon produced several outstanding players including the master batsman John Small and the first great fast bowler Thomas Brett. Their most notable opponent was the Chertsey and Surrey bowler Edward "Lumpy" Stevens, who is believed to have been the main proponent of the flighted delivery.
It was in answer to the flighted, or pitched, delivery that the straight bat was introduced. The old "hockey stick" style of bat was only really effective against the ball being trundled or skimmed along the ground.

Cricket & Crisis

Cricket faced its first real crisis during the 18th century when major matches virtually ceased during the Seven Years War. This was largely due to shortage of players and lack of investment. But the game survived and the "Hambledon Era" proper began in the mid-1760s.
Cricket faced another major crisis at the beginning of the 19th century when another cessation of major matches occurred during the culminating period of the Napoleonic Wars. Again, the causes were shortage of players and lack of investment. But, as in the 1760s, the game survived and a slow recovery began in 1815.
MCC was itself the centre of controversy in the Regency period, largely on account of the enmity between Lord Frederick Beauclerk and George Osbaldeston. In 1817, their intrigues and jealousies exploded into a match-fixing scandal with the top player William Lambert being banned for life. Gambling scandals in cricket have been going on since the 17th century.
In the 1820s, cricket faced a major crisis of its own making as the campaign to allow roundarm bowling gathered pace

Nineteenth century cricket

See also: Overview of English cricket from 1816 to 1863

A cricket match at Darnall, Sheffield in the 1820s.
The game also underwent a fundamental change of organisation with the formation for the first time of county clubs. All the modern county clubs, starting with Sussex, were founded during the 19th century.
No sooner had the first county clubs established themselves than they faced what amounted to "player action" as William Clarke created the travelling All-England Eleven in 1846. Though a commercial venture, this team did much to popularise the game in districts which had never previously been visited by high-class cricketers. Other similar teams were created and this vogue lasted for about thirty years. But the counties and MCC prevailed.
The growth of cricket in the mid and late 19th century was assisted by the development of the railway network. For the first time, teams from a long distance apart could play one other without a prohibitively time-consuming journey. Spectators could travel longer distances to matches, increasing the size of crowds.
In 1864, another bowling revolution resulted in the legalisation of cricket and in the same year Wisden Cricketers' Almanack was first published. The "Great Cricketer", W G Grace, made his first-class debut in 1865. His feats did much to increase the game's popularity.

International cricket begins

The first ever international cricket game was between the USA and Canada in 1844. The match was played at Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey
In 1859, a team of leading English professionals set off to North America on the first-ever overseas tour and, in 1862, the first English team toured Australia.
In 1877, an England touring team in Australia played two matches against full Australian XIs that are now regarded as the inaugural Test matches. The following year, the Australians toured England for the first time and were a spectacular success. No Tests were played on that tour but more soon followed and, at The Oval in 1882, arguably the most famous match of all time gave rise to The Ashes. South Africa became the third Test nation in 1889.

The County Championship

A major watershed occurred in 1890 when the County Cricket Championship was formally constituted for the first time. The period from 1890 to the outbreak of the First World War has become especially nostalgic, ostensibly because the teams played cricket according to "the spirit of the game".The era has been called "The Golden Age of cricket" and it featured numerous great names such as Grace, Wilfred Rhodes, C B Fry, K S Ranjitsinhji and Victor Trumper.

Balls per over

In 1889 the immemorial four ball over was replaced by a five ball over and then this was changed to the current six balls an over in 1900. Subsequently, some countries experimented with eight balls an over. In 1922, the number of balls per over was changed from six to eight in Australia only. In 1924 the eight ball over was extended to New Zealand and in 1937 to South Africa. In England, the eight ball over was adopted experimentally for the 1939 season; the intention was to continue the experiment in 1940, but first-class cricket was suspended for the Second World War and when it resumed, English cricket reverted to the six ball over. The 1947 Laws of Cricket allowed six or eight balls depending on the conditions of play. Since the 1979/80 Australian and New Zealand seasons, the six ball over has been used worldwide and the most recent version of the Laws in 2000 only permits six ball overs

Growth of Test cricket

When the Imperial Cricket Conference (as it was originally called) was founded in 1909, only England, Australia and South Africa were members. But that would soon change, and India, West Indies and New Zealand became Test nations before the Second World War and Pakistan soon afterwards. The international game grew with several "affiliate nations" getting involved and, in the closing years of the 20th century, three of those became Test nations also: Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
Test cricket remained the most popular form of the sport throughout the 20th century but it had its problems, never more so than in the infamous "Bodyline Series" of 1932/33 when Douglas Jardine's England used so-called "leg theory" to try and neutralise the run-scoring brilliance of Australia's Don Bradman.

Suspension of South Africa (1970-1991)

See also: International cricket in South Africa (1971 to 1981)

The greatest crisis to hit international cricket was brought about by apartheid, the South African policy of racial segregation. The situation began to crystallise after 1961 when South Africa left the Commonwealth of Nations and so, under the rules of the day, its cricket board had to leave the International Cricket Conference (ICC). Cricket's opposition to apartheid intensified in 1968 with the cancellation of England's tour to South Africa by the South African authorities, due to the inclusion of "coloured" cricketer Basil D'Oliveira in the England team. In 1970, the ICC members voted to suspend South Africa indefinitely from international cricket competition. Ironically, the South African team at that time was probably the strongest in the world.
Starved of top-level competition for its best players, the South African Cricket Board began funding so-called "rebel tours", offering large sums of money for international players to form teams and tour South Africa. The ICC's response was to blacklist any rebel players who agreed to tour South Africa, banning them from officially sanctioned international cricket. As players were poorly remunerated during the 1970s, several accepted the offer to tour South Africa, particularly players getting towards the end of their careers for whom a blacklisting would have little effect.
The rebel tours continued into the 1980s but then progress was made in South African politics and it became clear that apartheid was ending. South Africa, now a "Rainbow Nation" under Nelson Mandela, was welcomed back into international sport in 1991.

World Series Cricket

The money problems of top cricketers were also the root cause of another cricketing crisis that arose in 1977 when the Australian media magnate Kerry Packer fell out with the Australian Cricket Board over TV rights. Taking advantage of the low remuneration paid to players, Packer retaliated by signing several of the best players in the world to a privately run cricket league outside the structure of international cricket. World Series Cricket hired some of the banned South African players and allowed them to show off their skills in an international arena against other world-class players. The schism lasted only until 1979 and the "rebel" players were allowed back into established international cricket, though many found that their national teams had moved on without them. Long-term results of World Series Cricket have included the introduction of significantly higher player salaries and innovations such as coloured kit and night games.

See also:

World Series Cricket

Limited Overs Cricket

In the 1960s, English county teams began playing a version of cricket with games of only one innings each and a maximum number of overs per innings. Starting in 1963 as a knockout competition only, limited overs grew in popularity and in 1969 a national league was created which consequently caused a reduction in the number of matches in the County Championship.
Although many "traditional" cricket fans objected to the shorter form of the game, limited overs cricket did have the advantage of delivering a result to spectators within a single day; it did improve cricket's appeal to younger or busier people; and it did prove commercially successful.
The first limited overs international match took place at Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1971 as a time-filler after a Test match had been abandoned because of heavy rain on the opening days. It was tried simply as an experiment and to give the players some exercise, but turned out to be immensely popular. Limited overs internationals (LOIs or ODIs, after One-day Internationals) have since grown to become a massively popular form of the game, especially for busy people who want to be able to see a whole match. The International Cricket Council reacted to this development by organising the first Cricket World Cup in England in 1975, with all the Test playing nations taking part

21st Century Cricket

Cricket now is arguably the second most popular sport in the world.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

The Story So Far

In June 2001, the ICC introduced a "Test Championship Table" and, in October 2002 a "One-day International Championship Table". Australia has consistently topped both these tables (to the end of 2007).
Cricket remains a major world sport and is the most popular spectator sport in the Indian subcontinent. The ICC has expanded its Development Program with the goal of producing more national teams capable of competing at Test level. Development efforts are focused on African and Asian nations; and on the United States. In 2004, the ICC Intercontinental Cup brought first class cricket to 12 nations, mostly for the first time.
Cricket's newest innovation is Twenty20, essentially an evening entertainment. It has so far enjoyed enormous popularity and has attracted large attendances at matches as well as good TV audience ratings. The inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Cup tournament was held in 2007, India emerged as the first champions, after defeating Pakistan in a nail-biting match by 5 runs. The formation of Twenty20 leagues in India - the unofficial Indian Cricket League, which started in 2007, and the official Indian Premier League, starting in 2008 - raised much speculation in the cricketing press about their effect on the future of cricket [10] [11] [12][13]

The Future

The USA has long been seen as a promising market for cricket, but it has been difficult to make any impression on a public largely ignorant of the sport. The establishment of the Pro Cricket professional league in America in 2004 did little to broach this last frontier, though the game continues to grow through immigrant groups. For example, cricket is a recently added league sport in the New York City school system, with over 600 high school players in 14 teams playing in a 12 week competition.[14] China may also be a source of future cricket development, with the Chinese government announcing plans in 2004 to develop the sport, which is almost unknown in China, with the ambitious goals of qualifying for the World Cup by 2019 and becoming a Test Nation.
Despite the disproportionate publicity (in the cricket press at least) given to developments in the USA, the next major cricket nation is likely to be from South Asia. The game is already very popular in Nepal and Afghanistan, and results in competitions such as the under 18 world cup and the ACC trophy suggest these teams are not short of natural talent.
Secondly, the ICC is conducting ongoing reviews of the interpretation of Law 24.3 of the Laws of Cricket: Definition of fair delivery – the arm, in the wake of biomechanical findings that Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan violates the guidelines for arm extension when bowling his doosra. The reporting of Muralitharan for a suspect arm action by match referee Chris Broad and the subsequent study has precipitated a crisis by finding that the current interpretive guidelines may be inadequate and ultimately unenforceable. What this means for the Laws of Cricket remains to be seen.
Finally, it remains to be seen how Twenty20 will develop. Already there are calls for it to be extended into a season-long competition as cricket's answer to American baseball, which is also essentially an evening entertainment.

References

1. ^ Derek Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999
   
2. ^ Cricket's a Major Sport. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
   
3. ^ The history of cricket. essortment.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
   
4. ^ It's Cricket in the valley. Dana Bartholomew. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
   
5. ^ Cricket Game. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
   
6. ^ Passion for cricket. Bob San. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
   
7. ^ bowls over the competition. Vikas Kotagal. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
   
8. ^ MODERN CRICKET. seattlecricket.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
   
9. ^ Signor Passione. asiancricket.org. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
   
10. ^ How will the IPL change cricket? BBC News 17th April 2008
    
11. ^ Cricket's new order BBC News 29 February 2008
    
12. ^ Stars come out as the eyes of the cricket world switch to Bangalore The Guardian April 18, 2008
    
13. ^ Test nations must act or lose players The Australian April 18, 2008
    
14. ^ "Playing a sport with balls and bat but no pitcher", The New York Times, April 3, 2008

External sources

• CricInfo
  
• CricketArchive
  
• From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787
  
• Wisden Online archives

Further reading

• A History of Cricket (to 1914) by Harry Altham
  
• A Social History of English Cricket by Derek Birley
  
• Cricket: History of its Growth and Development by Rowland Bowen
  
• Wisden Cricketers Almanack (annual): various editions