Figure 1.--Cricket is played in all white uniforms. Long white flannel trousers were the standard. Younger boys in prep school sometimes play in white shorts with white knee socks. |
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British colonial rule brought cricket to countries around the world. No sport is more associated with England than cricket. The proper uniform for cricket is a long sleeved white shirt and long white trousers--initially flannels. Everything had to be white. Crickt boots were also always white. Immaculate cricket whites may seem
an unpractical sport uniform, but British uniforms were not always notable for practicality. The only exception to the white motif during the match (game) was the cap. After the match (game), boys would put on their colored school blazers. Boys who wore their colors could wear the colored school cap. Generally long white flannels were used for cricket. Some boys wore white shorts instead of the long pants. The boys wearing shorts are usually the younger prep school boys where the uniform use to be mostly short pants.
No one has any idea when or where cricket originated, other thn it is English. Given the importnce of the sport, the origin has been the subject of considerable speculation. Some researchers believe that its origins lay in medieval times with Anglo-Saxon children living in the Weald--an area of dense woodlands and clearings in southeast England crossing Kent and Sussex. Others believe it was a Norman creation, but that would not explain why there is no trace of the game in Normandy itself. It is believed to have been a children game for centuruies, perhaps explaining why there are no early written records. We note pupils at early grammar schools playing 'creckett' (16th century). Gradually adults began to take an interest in competing (early-17th century). We begin to read about village matches. Unlike several sports, it does not seem to have developed out of the public schools. Cricket was played by a wide range of society. Some sports historians think that cricket is related to bowls which is generally thought to be older of the two. This is because the player throwing the ball is called a bowler. And you can have bowls without a batsman, but you can not have cricket without a bowler. It seems reasonable tht at some point a bright soul came up with the idea of adding a batsman trying to interfere with the ball. Englan had plenty of sheep pastures or other clearings were cricket could be played. And of course there was the village green. The players probbly used a matted mass of sheep’s wool, a stone, or bit of wood for the ball. A stick or wooden crook could be used as a bat. As adults got interested, more refinement was possible. A stool or tree stump or gate could serve as the target. The term wicket presumably comes from a wicket gate. Modern cricket dates from the 1780s, when the Laws of Cricket which still rule the sport today were first formalized in England. Note tht this was contemperaneous with capitalism and the industrial revolution. Affluence is commonly associated with sport. An affkuent population is more prone todeveloping diversions like sport.
Cricket is one of the few team sports that has no set time period or number of rounds/innings. A cricket match can in fact go on for days.
Cricket developed in England. British colonial rule brought cricket to countries around the world. No sport is more associated with England than cricket. During the 19th century the British carried soccer to the far reaches of their empire. Thus cricket today is a popular sport not only in England, but colonies including Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, the West Indies and other countries. There are numerous images on HBC of bots playing cricket, alhough we have few country cricket pages. America is one of the few English-speaking countries where cricet is not commonly played. The first cricket clubs in the United States were established in the 18th century, not long after the game began to become popular in England. It was intoduced to America by British Army officers. It was adopted by the local landed gentry predisposed to be Anglophiles. Cricket became a major recreation of American gentlemen of leisure. Several Founding Fathers of the United States appear to have been avid cricketers---John Adams among them, who stated in the U.S. Congress in the 1780s that if leaders of cricket clubs could be called "presidents", there was no reason why the leader of the new American Republic could not be called the same! Cricket was, however, never accepted by the American public. I'm not sure why cricket did not prove popular in America. Cricket declined in the the United States during the 19th century. It remained a strictly amateur elite sport at the same time that England, then Australia, were developing a professional system that allowed full-time players to participate. In the halcyon days of amateur cricket, talented North Americans could sometimes hold their own on the field with the best the world had to offer.
But as cricket standards improved elsewhere in the world by becoming semi-professional and then fully professional, many North American cricket clubs stayed stubbornly elitist--abandoning cricket, they converted their facilities to recreations like golf and
tennis. Perhaps it was too associated with England in the popular mind. Instead a game similar to cricket, baseball developed as America's most popular sport.
Many of our great team sports can trace their origins to England. Basketball is one of the few exceptions. Sport in America has always been seen has a leveler. Sport could be enjoyed and played by anyone despote their social back ground. There were some exceptions like golf and tennis, but most sports have been played by individuals of diverse backgrounds. What was important was the persons. The sports that developed in Britain was quite different. Sport was initially an upper class diversions as they could afford the spare time to persue the sport. The upper classes, however, had no desore to mingle with the great inwashed masses. Thus skills were developed at the country's public (exclusive private) schools were lower class boys had no realistic opportunity to attend. In addition, rules restricting the sport to amateurs were developed which created barriers for people without means to play the sport. These rules have become increasongly diffiocult to maintain in the modern world, but were used against atheletes from modest back grounds, like the graet olympic athelete Jim Thorpe.
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The proper uniform for cricket is a long sleeved white shirt and long white trousers--initially flannels. Everything had to be white. Crickt boots were also always white. Immaculate cricket whites may seem an unpractical sport uniform, but British uniforms were not always notable for practicality. The only exception to the white motif during the match (game) was the cap. After the match (game), boys would put on their colored school blazers. Boys who wore their colors could wear the colored school cap. Generally long white flannels were used for cricket. Some boys wore white shorts instead of the long pants. The boys wearing shorts are usually the younger prep school boys where the uniform use to be mostly short pants. Prep school boys often practice cricket with colored kneesocks, but almost always when the play an actual match will wear white kneesocks. Before or after the game boys might wrear their blazers with their cricket whites.
HBC has collected some older image of school crickt uniforms. The cricket outfits look remarkable similar over time. Caps are much more common in the older phoographs. The boys all wear long flannel trousers. Actually even in modern prep schools where the school uniform was short trousers the cricket uniform was long trousers. A few schools had white cricket shorts, but longs were more common. A good example of a old cricket photograph is Stoke House School in 1900.
Americans tend to dispariage cricket as an efete sport. Most Americans, however, have never held a cricket ball. It is hard, much harder than a baseball. The game is played without a glove. Bowlers throw at considerable speed and is very near the batter. One observer writes, Every cricketing nation, has multiple deaths, in double figures, every year. Mostly from being hit by the ball." I have never heard about these deaths.
The British love to explain cricket to foreigers, especially Amercans. The standard explanation goes like this, "Tere are two sides. One out in the field and one in. Each man who is in the side that is in goes out, and when he is out he comes in, and the next make goes in until he is out. When they areall out, the side that is out comes in and the side that has been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out. Sometimes you get men still in and noy out. When both have been in and out, including the not-outs: That is the end of the game. Howzat!"
Cricket is associated with no county more than England. It is generally seen as ye quinesencial English game. It certainly is a civilized game. The English even stop in the middle of a match to have tea! While most associated with England, cricket is played throughoutthe former British Empire. Cricket is especially popular in the Caribbean and South Asia. It was even played in fghanistan--with some local innovations. The one British Empire country where cricket did not prove popular is Canada. I am not sure why, presumavly the American influence. I do not know of any country where cricket is extensively played that was noit a British Empire county or at least influenced by the British. Cricket is virtually unknown in America. The Revolution occurred before cricket was firmly established as a standardizeed sport.
Most of the English people who are archieved in the various biography sections of HBC played cricket as boys. Quite a number were keen cricketers. One such boy was David Frost.
Two modern games have developed out oc cricket, baseball and rounders. Baseball is of course a major game in its own right. Rounders is a child's game played in English schools.
Baseball is primarily an American game, but it is played in a few other countries as well, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, Mexico, and the Spanish speaking Caribbean islands. The standard baseball uniform is a cap, jersey, knicker pants, and long socks. The knickers were at one time knee-length, but now often come to just above the ankles. There are some country differences. New Zeland boys, for example, sommonly wear shorts. Most other countries have followed the American knicker uniforms. Baseball as an organized youth game is, however, most common in America.
Rounders is now a childrn's game, mostly played in Britain. It is generally played for fun during primary or prep school physicl education classes during the summer term. Rounders are commonly played by British primary children in PE classes during the summer. British readers seem to think American children play rounders. Most American children have never heard of the game.
Sports often feature in mobvies. We notice one especially charming film about English cricket. "Wonderous Obsession" is a film about a Polish Jewish boy in England who loves cricket but is terrible at it.
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