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| Sunday, 23 January 2005 |
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The changing face of cricket by A. C. de Silva Cricket is a game that is deep in the vaults of history and two primitives have been credited with being definite forerunners of the game that is loved and cherished by many fans the world over.
It is on record that at the end of the 17th century in Scotland they played "Cat and Dog" which involved a player throwing a block of wood towards a hole in the ground, whilst another player, using a wooden club, did his best to keep it out. Earlier in the North of England, girls were known to have played a game called "Stoolball", using a stool as a wicket, and involving a bowler and batsman (who used her hand to hit the ball). One of the earliest incidents of note in the long history of cricket was in 1666, the year of the Great Fire of London. Forced to move out of London because of the flames, King Charles II and his Court are said to have been kept amused by cricket being played at St. Albans. In 1744 the first set of rules were established in the game, including the use of only two stumps as a wicket. The third, or middle stump was added only in 1776. The stumps were 22 inches in height, the pitch was 22 yards long. The overs consisted of only four deliveries (although in those early days some amateur teams played a six-ball over). Regarding the laws of the game, many that concern the dismissal of a batsman were the same as today: bowled, caught, run out, hit the ball twice, handled the ball. The Leg Before Wicket rule came into being in 1774 because of the cheating of some batsmen, meaning deliberate obstruction of the wicket. In those early days, boundaries did not exist and each run was recorded as a score which the two scorers would record on their scoring sticks cutting a deeper mark for every tenth run. Individual scores were only recorded in the more important games. The bat used up-to this time were curled like today's hockey sticks, designed so that it could cope with the underarm bowling on the crudely made pitches. However, it is on record that when the middle stump was added, and the height of the stumps raised the old style shape of bat became useless. In its place came a square faced bat that coped better with the bounce of the ball. From those early days the ball itself has undergone little change. It weighed between five and six ounces and was just a little larger than today's version. It was made of a cork centre, with a leather casing and was white rather than present-day red in colour. Of course these days the white ball is used for night games. The players' clothing were rather elegant in those early days, as was the umpired. The umpire would wear a three-cornered hat, a velvet embroidered coat with lace wrist bands, knee breeches, silk stockings and buckled shoes. The umpire would also stand with a bat, the batsman having to touch this bat to complete a run. The cricketers generally turned out in a loose fitting white shirt, dark knee breeches, silk stockings and buckled shoes. |
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