The prehistory of cricket

Although there is something to be said for the theory that cricket was invented by the first man (or woman) who hit a stone with a stick for the fun of it, British historians take the view that the sport came into existence in south-east England around 1600. According to French historians cricket is really a French game, adopted by the English during the Hundred Years’ War. Flemish authorities have established that cricket is already being played in the paintings of Breugel.

There is a similar confusion over the origin of the word ‘cricket’. It is derived either from ‘cricce’ – the Anglo-Saxon word for a shepherd’s crook – or from ‘krikstoel’, the name in the medieval Low Countries for a bench in a church. The French claim that the word ‘cricket’ comes from ‘guichet’ (a little gate or window). In the earlies forms of cricket wickets were used which did indeed somewhat resemble a low wicket-gate.

Cricket in its modern form – with upright wickets – comes from a later period and is unquestionably English.

Lord's en de MCC

The oldest surviving cricket bat from 1729

In 1811 Lord moved his ground near Regents Park and in 1814 to its present location in St John's Wood, where it quickly gained the nickname The Home of Cricket .

The first mowing machine made its entrance to Lord’s in 1864  -- before that time the ground was maintained by grazing sheep.

The Ashes

The first serious match between the national teams of England and Australia took place in England in 1880. The MCC had toured Australia several times in the years before this, but the matches were comparatively informal. The best English players had little interest at that time in a long sea voyage to play against ‘a few insignificant colonials’. It even took a good deal of persuasion for the Australians to convince the arrogant English to play a ‘Test match’ on English soil.

The match was eventually played at the Kennington Oval in London. Thanks to a disastrous second innings England only won with the greatest difficulty. It was in the end WG Grace who made the difference: England won by a margin of 5 wickets, but the Australians had made their mark.

That the sport had become deeply linked to English national pride became apparent when Australia succeeded in beating England in 1882. With a certain sense of melodrama the Sporting Times published a few days after the end of the match a death notice for English cricket. This announced that the ashes of the cremated body would be sent to Australia.

The sequel to this comedy came a year later, when an England team won the return match in Australia: the chairman of the MCC received the gift of an urn from the Australians, containing the ashes of a bail (the small piece of wood which sits on top of the stumps), to take back to England. Test matches between England and Australia have ever since been referred to as a contest for ‘the Ashes’.  The Ashes are these days usually won by Australia.  In 2005 England achieved their first series victory since 1987 at the end of a hard-fought five-match series. Two matches were won, one lost and two drawn. But the English were not able to enjoy their triumph for long, since a year later they were overwhelmed 5-0 in Australia. England won the next three series, at home in 2009 and 2013 and in Australia in 2010/11, but in 2013/14 the Australians again dominated on their own soil, repeating their 2006/07 5-0 whitewash.

The other countries which play Test cricket are
India, Pakistan, Nieuw-Zeeland, Zuid-Afrika, Sri Lanka, Brits West-Indië, Zimbabwe en Bangladesh

World Cup

The Cricket World Cup is held every four years.  West-Indies won the first tournament in 1975.

Up to 2011 there have been ten World Cup events. Australia has won four times  (1987,1999, 2003 and 2007), West-Indies (1975 en 1979) and India (1983 and 2011) twice each, while Pakistan (1992) and Sri Lanka (1996) have each won once. Notably, England has not yet won the 50-over World Cup.

Year	Host	Winner
1975	England	West-Indies
1979	England	West-Indies
1983	England	India
1987	India and Pakistan	Australia
1992	Australia and New Zealand	Pakistan
1996	India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka
1999	England	Australia
2003	South Africa and Zimbabwe	Australia
2007	West-Indies	Australia
2011	Bangladesh, India, Pakistan en Sri Lanka.	India
2015	Australia and New Zealand

In 1999 a World Cup match between Kenya and South Africa was also played in Amsterdam.

The Netherlands took part for the fourth time in 2011. They first qualified in 1996, and repeated the achievement in 2003 and 2007, winning matches against Namibia and Scotland respectively. The 2011 side did not win a match, although Ryan ten Doeschate posted two centuries during the tournament.

Since 2007 the ICC has also organised world championships in the shorter Twenty20 format. The first tournament, held in South Africa, was won by India, who beat Pakistan by 5 runs in a closely-fought final. The Netherlands qualified for the second event, held in England in 2009, and produced a sensation by beating the hosts at Lord’s in the opening match of the tournament. They were not able to repeat this form in their second match, however, losing to Pakistan who went on to win the final against Sri Lanka.

England won in the West Indies in 2010 and the West Indies in Sri Lanka in 2012. The Netherlands has qualified for the fifth such tournament, to be held in Bangladesh in March-April 2014.

For an extended history of cricket in the Netherlands click on the link to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_cricket_team