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Cricket
has been an organized adult game since the seventeenth century
when it first took the fancy of English gentlemen lying low in
their country estates at the time of the Civil War. It became
fashionable after the restoration under the sponsorship of
powerful aristocratic patrons.
By the later eighteenth century
control of this fashionable and profitable new leisure activity
was in the hands of a number of gentlemen’s clubs. By
the nineteenth century these had evolved into county
organisations, which, led by Marylebone Cricket Club,
subsequently dominated English cricket. Their influence
spread throughout the British Empire and survived the transition
to the Commonwealth.
In England, the emerging public schools,
believing that cricket fostered qualities of manliness and
leadership, proclaimed it to be more than a game, in fact an
institution. Poets and parsons praised its ethical
qualities. By the turn of the century cricket had come to assume
profound political significance, especially for imperialists. An
Indian prince declared it to be the finest flower of
Empire, and in Australia cricket captains played a leading part in
welding together the separate colonies into a nation.
After the First World War, the dream world began to crumble. At
home the golden age gave way to unromantic but remarkably
effective professionalism. The Test matches survived bodyline and
grew in importance.
The Second World War was no more than a
temporary interruption of play. After
the War was over, despite the world's having changed for worse
again, the spiritual significance of cricket was reasserted with
undiminished enthusiasm. A well-loved
Australian Prime Minister described it as a fine art as
well as a game. A great British
Prime Minister, and a socialist told of his childhood
indoctrination with the belief that cricket were a religion
and W.G. next to the Almighty.
For
a few summers the public, starved of entertainment during the war
years, showed their appreciation of cricket's return by crowding
through the turnstiles. But it was not to last, and soon
perceptive critics were solemnly linking the Welfare State and
slow play as cause and effect. The county pattern had lost much of
its meaning, and the games had become largely inaccessible to
those who had to work during the week. So the authorities turned
for support to commercial sponsors who introduced a growing range
of mini-cricket matches with gimmicky rules. Televised cricket
matches publicised the wares of cigarette manufacturers who were
barred from conventional advertising. The counties had also
imported a growing number of overseas stars that made the
turnstiles click.
Then in 1977 a new patron arose, an Australian magnate who decided
to stage his own brand of super-cricket. In a matter of months,
following his failure to secure exclusive television rights for a
test series, Mr. Kerry Packer had set up an
organisation which lured some fifty of the world's best cricketers
away from their traditional allegiances to play for fat salaries
and spectacular prizes as a rival attraction to the official Tests
between Australia and India. The West Indians turned out -
initially, at least - to be the best Super Cricketers.
What began, as a concept to attract crowds to the English county
cricket grounds became a revolution? The Test
and County cricket Board introduced the Gillette Cup (65 overs
a side, later curtailed to 60) and the Sunday League (40 overs a
side) for enthusiasts who wanted both drama and excitement packed
in a day’s game. In the early 60s and 70s, England was
the only country where competitive limited overs cricket was being
played. Not surprising that England hosted the inaugural World
Cup. The inaugural World Cup was a financial
hit. Crowds flocked to see the matches,
1,20,000
for the 12 preliminary contests and further 28,000 packing the
final. Limited overs match has come a
long way since then. It is more sophisticated now and given
rise to a new thinking on tactics to the extent that countries now
have specialist one-day players.
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