Cricket, an outdoor game that has its history dating back to the 14th century, is one of the most popular games in the world. Various countries have set out revenues just for the game making it one of the best games to get rewards as well.                                                             Cricket is a very popular game and is played at both national and international levels. This game originated in England. Cricket was introduced to the Indians by the British in the early 1700s. This game rules in everyone’s heart in India and so it can be called the “king of the games”. Millions of fans watch this game, and there is an air of excitement everywhere. It is enjoyed by the old and young. Over the years, this game has gathered a huge fan-base, who connects emotionally with it in our country.

History of Cricket

The game of cricket goes long back to British times. When it was introduced in India, very few people played this game. The Maharaja of Patiala, Bhupinder Singh brought this game into limelight. He was a great patron of sports. He played cricket and he had his own team. Cricket was his second love after his kingdom. He was the man behind the golden history of cricket due to his passion for the game. His team Patiala XI was the best team during that time and he was the captain of the Indian team. He himself sponsored his teams for the tours to England.

How is Cricket Played?

Cricket is a game played by two teams of eleven players each on a pitch with two sets of three stumps, which are called wickets. The bowler bowls the ball down the pitch to the batsman of the opposing team, who must defend the wickets in front of which he stands. The target of the game is to score as many runs as possible. 

Runs are scored by individual players by running on the playing strip (called pitch) between the wickets, or by hitting a ball that flies outside the boundary of the playground or which falls inside the boundary but bounces or rolls outside. When the balls go directly outside the boundary, the batsman scores six runs, and when the ball falls within the boundary but rolls outside then the batsman scores four runs. The opponent team will bowl and field and their objective is to take the wickets for each of the batsmen playing on the pitch. 

A batsman can be dismissed in one of several ways: by the bowler hitting the wicket with the ball, which is called, bowled; by a fielder catching the ball hit by the batsman before it touches the ground and it is called caught; by the wicket-keeper or another fielder breaking the stumps while the batsman attempts a run and is therefore out of his ground. This is called stumped or run out. A batsman can also be dismissed if the batsman breaks the wicket with his own bat or body and this is called a hit wicket; by a part of the batsman’s body being hit by a ball that would otherwise have hit the wicket is called leg before the wicket or “lbw”. 

A match consists of one or two innings, and each inning ends when the tenth batsman of the batting team is out, when a certain number of overs (an over: a series of six balls bowled) have been played or when the captain of the batting team declares ending the innings voluntarily. 

Forms of Cricket

There are three forms of cricket: Test matches, one-day internationals, and T20 internationals. 

Test matches are played for five days. To play this game, the players have to excel mentally and physically. This game is played in white tees and trousers. In this game, the players have to play for ninety overs each day. 

In one-day internationals, the players play an inning of fifty overs. This kind of cricket is played only for a day. It was introduced in the 1980s.

T20 is the latest format of this game. In a T20 match, they play an inning of only twenty overs. This game is pretty interesting and engaging. 

Achievements by the Indian Team

India won its first world cup in 1983 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev. It was a big win in the history of cricket. Next, they won the world cup in 2011 under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. India also won the T20 ICC World trophy and ICC Champions trophy in 2013 under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. Besides these prestigious trophies, India has acclaimed many other victories in world cricket.

Indian Cricket Team

Cricket is played by both men and women. The captain of the women’s national cricket team is Harmanpreet Kaur. Women’s national cricket team made its first debut in 1976. Mithali Raj was the captain during the debut. 

Rohit Sharma is the captain of the Indian cricket team (men's). We have some great players from the past who have established themselves internationally and taken India to a very high pedestal in the world of cricket and brought pride to the country. Some of them are Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri,Virat Kohli  and many more.