The history of cricket to 1725 traces the sport's development from its perceived origins to the stage where it had become a major sport in England and had been introduced to other countries.

The earliest definite reference to cricket occurs in 1597 and makes clear that the sport was being played c.1550, but its true origin is a mystery. All that can be said with a fair degree of certainty is that its beginning was earlier than 1550, somewhere in south-east England within the counties of Kent, Sussex and Surrey, most probably in the region known as the Weald. Unlike other games with batsmen, bowlers and fielders, such as stool ball and rounders, cricket can only be played on relatively short grass, especially as the ball was delivered along the ground until the 1760s. Therefore, forest clearings and land where sheep had grazed would have been suitable places to play.

The sparse information available about cricket's early years suggests that it was originally a children's game. Then, at the beginning of the 17th century, it was taken up by working men. During the reign of Charles I, the gentry took an increased interest as patrons and occasionally as players. A big attraction for them was the opportunity that the game offered for gambling and this escalated in the years following the Restoration. By the time of the Hanoverian succession, investment in cricket had created the professional player and the first major clubs, thus establishing the sport as a popular social activity in London and the south of England. Meanwhile, English colonists had introduced cricket to North America and the West Indies; and the sailors and traders of the East India Company had taken it to India.

The most widely accepted theory about the origin of cricket is that it developed in early medieval times among the farming and metalworking communities of the Weald, which lies across part of Kent and Sussex. These counties and neighboring Surrey were the earliest centres of excellence and that it was from there that the game quickly reached London, where its lasting popularity was ensured, and other southern counties like Berkshire, Essex, Hampshire and Middlesex.

A number of words in common use at the time are thought to be possible sources for the name "cricket". In the earliest known reference to the sport in 1597, it is called “creckett”. Given the strong medieval trade connections between south-east England and the County of Flanders when the latter belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy, the name may have been derived from the Old Flemish krick, meaning a stick; or the Olde English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff. In Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755), he derived cricket from “cryce” Saxon, a stick". In Old French, the word criquet seems to have meant a kind of club or stick, though this may have been the origin of croquet. Another possible source is the Old Flemish word krickstoel, meaning a long low stool used for kneeling in church, the shape of which resembled the two stump wicket used in early cricket.

Cricket was probably devised by children and survived for many generations as essentially a children's game. Possibly it was derived from bowls, assuming bowls is the older sport, by the intervention of a batsman trying to stop the ball reaching its target by hitting it away. Playing on sheep-grazed land or in clearings, the original implements may have been a matted lump of sheep's wool (or even a stone or a small lump of wood) as the ball; a stick or a crook or another farm tool as the bat; and a gate (e.g., a wicket gate), a stool or a tree stump as the wicket. The invention of the game could have happened in Norman or Plantagenet times anytime before 1300; or even in Saxon times before 1066.

Cricket fundamentally belongs to the same family of bat-and-ball games as stool ball, rounders and baseball but whether it evolved from any of these, or vice-versa, cannot be determined. There is a 1523 reference to stool ball at a chosen field in Oxfordshire; this may be a generic term for any game in which a ball is somehow hit with a bat or stick. 18th century references to stool ball in conjunction with cricket clearly indicate that it was a separate activity. Earlier References

The earliest definite reference to cricket being played anywhere is in evidence given at a 1597 court case which confirms that it was played on a certain plot of land in Guildford, Surrey, around 1550. The case concerned a dispute over a school's ownership of the plot of land in question. The court in Guildford heard on Monday 17 January 1597 (Julian date) from a 59-year old coroner, John Derrick, who testified that he and his school friends had played creckett on the site fifty years earlier. The school was the Royal Grammar School, Guildford.

In 1598, there was a reference to cricket in an Italian-English dictionary by Giovanni Florio. His definition of the word “sgillare” was: "to make a noise as a cricket (insect), to play cricket-a-wicket, and be merry". Florio is the first writer known to have defined "cricket" in terms of both an insect and a game. The phrase "to play cricket-a-wicket" could be a euphemism for sexual activity, as in rock and roll. In a later edition of his dictionary in 1611, Florio refers to frittfritt, defined: "as we say cricket a wicket, or gigaioggie"; and in the same work of 1611, Florio includes dibatticare, defined: "to thrum a wench lustily till the bed cry giggaioggie".

Development of village Cricket (1611–1660)

The first definite mention of cricket in Sussex was also in 1611 and relates to ecclesiastical court records stating that two parishioners of Sidle sham in West Sussex failed to attend church on Easter Sunday because they were playing cricket. They were fined 12d each and made to do penance. Then a 1613 court case recorded that someone was assaulted with a "cricket staff" at wan borough, near Guildford.

Also in this period, the first definite mention of cricket in Kent is deduced from a 1640 court case which recorded a "cricketing" of "Weald and Upland" versus "Chalkhill" at Chevening "about thirty years since" (1610). This is the earliest known village cricket match and these contests became popular in the first half of the 17th century. The case concerned the land on which the game was played.

In 1617, the 18-year old Oliver Cromwell played cricket and football in London.
In 1624, a fatality occurred at Horsted Keynes in East Sussex when a fielder called Jasper Vinall was struck on the head by the batsman, Edward Tye, who was trying to hit the ball a second time to avoid being caught. Mr. Vinall is thus the earliest recorded cricketing fatality. The matter was recorded in a coroner's court, which returned a verdict of misadventure. The tragedy was repeated in 1647 when another fatality was recorded at Selsey in West Sussex, a player called Henry Brand being hit on the head by a batsman trying to hit the ball a second time. When the first Laws of Cricket were encoded in 1744, it was illegal to hit the ball twice and a batsman breaking the rule was to be given out.

Village cricket continued to flourish in the 18th century. In 1717, Thomas Marchant, a farmer from Hurstpierpoint in Sussex, first mentioned cricket in his diary. He made numerous references to the game, particularly concerning his local club, until 1727. His son Will played for "our parish", as he often called the Hurstpierpoint team.

Beginning of Amateur Cricket

The beginnings of cricket's social division between amateurs and professionals, from which the annual Gentlemen v Players contest ultimately evolved, can be traced to the the reign of Charles. In 1629, Henry Cuffin, a curate at Ruckinge in Kent, was prosecuted by an Archdeacon's Court for playing cricket on Sunday evening after prayers. He claimed that several of his fellow players were "persons of repute and fashion". This statement is the first evidence of cricket achieving popularity among the gentry.
It was the gentry who introduced large-scale gambling into cricket and some of these gamblers subsequently became customers by forming select teams that would improve their chances of winning. During the Commonwealth, gambling was, of political necessity, low key. The earliest reference to gambling on a cricket match is in the records of a 1646 court case concerning non-payment of a wager that was made on a game at Coxheath in Kent on 29 May that year. Curiously, the wager was for twelve candles, but the participants included members of the local gentry.

Cricket has long been recognized as a sport that bridged the class divide but, in time, the cricketing gentlemen came to be called "amateurs" to emphasise the distinction between themselves and the professionals who belonged to the lower social classes, mostly to the working class. The amateur was not merely someone who played cricket in his spare time but a particular type of first-class cricketer who existed officially until 1962, when the distinction between amateur and professional was abolished and all first-class players became nominally professional. In terms of remuneration, amateurs claimed expenses for playing while professionals were paid a salary or fee. Amateur cricket was an extension of the game played in schools, universities and other centres of education, both as a curricular and extra-curricular activity. The schools and universities formed the "production line" that created nearly all the first-class amateur players.

In 1647, a Latin poem contains a probable reference to cricket being played at Winchester College; this is the earliest known mention of cricket in Hampshire.

Cricket was being played at Eton College during the first quarter of the 18th century. The earliest reference to cricket being played at Cambridge University was in 1710 and both of these establishments were attended by William Goldwin who in 1706 wrote a Latin poem of 95 lines on a rural cricket match. It was called In Certamen Pilae (On a Ball Game) and it was published in his Musae Juveniles. Cricket must have begun at Oxford University around the same time, although the earliest mention of it is dated 1729, when Samuel Johnson says he played cricket there.

Development of Major Cricket (1660–1700)

The Restoration was effectively completed during the spring of 1660 and, in the general elation which both accompanied and followed these historic events, gambling on cricket and other sports were freely pursued. The large amounts at stake led some investors to try and improve their chances of winning by forming teams that were stronger than the typical parish XI. This was the beginning of the patronage that sustained and controlled cricket through the 18th century. The first teams representing several parishes and even whole counties were formed in the 1660s and the period saw the first "great matches" as the sport evolved from village cricket to major cricket.

The shortage of references in the latter part of the 17th century is due to the Licensing of the Press Act 1662 which imposed very stringent controls on the newspaper industry. Sport, including cricket, was not a subject to be reported and the few references found are in official records, such as court cases, or in private letters and diaries.
London CC was chiefly associated with the Artillery Ground in Finsbury. This venue was first mentioned in 1725 when the 7 May minutes of the Honourable Artillery Company referred to its being used for cricket. There is a note which concerns "the abuse done to the herbage of the ground by the cricket players". The Artillery Ground became the feature venue for major cricket in the mid-18th century.

In 1695, Parliament decided against a renewal of the 1662 Licensing Act and so cleared the way for a free press on the Act's expiry in 1696. Censorship had already been relaxed following the Bill of Rights in 1689. It was from this time that cricket matters could be reported in the newspapers, but it would be a very long time before the newspaper industry adapted sufficiently to provide frequent, let alone comprehensive, reports.

No other details were given but the report provides real evidence to support the view that top class cricket in the form of "great matches" played for high stakes was in vogue in the years following the Restoration. It was probably an inter-county matches Kent or Surrey and, as such, the earliest known first-class cricket match. Given the Sussex venue, Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond was almost certainly one of the patrons involved.

18th Century Cricket

In 1700, a series of matches to be held on Clapham Common was pre-announced on 30 March. The first was to take place on Easter Monday and prizes of £10 and £20 were at stake. No match reports could be found so the results and scores remain unknown. The advert says the teams would consist of ten "Gentlemen" per side but the invitation to attend was to "Gentlemen and others". This clearly implies that cricket had achieved both the patronage that underwrote it through the 18th century and the spectators who demonstrated its lasting popular appeal.

On 1 and 3 July 1707, Croydon played London twice, the first game played in Croydon, possibly at Duppas Hill, and the second at Lamb's Conduit Field in Holborn.

The earliest known match that definitely involved county teams was Kent v Surrey at Dartford Brent on Wed 29 June 1709. This was advertised in the Post Man the previous Saturday and played for a stake of £50. Dartford Brent was a popular Kent venue in the 18th century and was probably used for matches in the 17th century. It is likely that Dartford, as the foremost Kent club in this period, provided not only the venue but also the nucleus of the team, while the Surrey team would have been drawn from a number of Surrey parishes and subscribed by their patron.

One player who may well have taken part in the 1709 match was William Bedle (1680 - 1768), of Dartford, who is the earliest great player whose name has been recorded. He was reckoned to be "the most expert player in England" and must have been in his prime c.1700 to c.1725.

Other good players known to have been active in the 1720s were Edward Stead of Kent; Edmund Chapman and Stephen Dingate of Surrey; Tim Coleman of London; and Thomas Waymark of Sussex.

Growth of Cicket in England and Overseas

The earliest known mention of cricket being played outside England is dated Saturday 6 May 1676. A diarist called Henry Tonge, who was part of a British mission at Aleppo in Turkey (now in Syria), recorded that "at least forty of the English" left the city for recreational purposes and, having found a nice place to pitch a tent for dinner, they "had several pastimes and sports" including "krickett". At six they returned home in good order.

By this time, cricket had been introduced to India, North America and the West Indies but the first definite references occur in the 18th century.

In 1709, cricket was played by William Byrd of Westover on his James River estates in Virginia, then an English colony. This is the earliest reference to cricket being played in the New World.

In 1721, English sailors of the East India Company were reported to be playing cricket at Cambay, near Baroda, and this is the earliest reference to cricket being played in India. It was via the East India Company that cricket was introduced to and established in India; and consequently in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The other three countries now playing Test cricket had not received English colonists by 1725. Australia and New Zealand had been partly explored by Abel Tasman in the 1640 but still had only their Aboriginal and Maori inhabitants respectively. The first European settlement in South Africa was founded on Tuesday 6 April 1652 when the Dutch East India Company established Cape Colony on Table Bay, near present-day Cape Town.

It is probable that cricket was introduced to the Americas and India before it had spread throughout the British Isles. There is no record of cricket in Yorkshire, home of the English game's most successful club, until 1751. The earliest mentions of cricket in Ireland, Scotland and Wales occur even later in the 18th century.

While England's seafaring and trading concerns ensured the spread of cricket overseas, at home it relied heavily on ease of transport and communications, most of these being waterborne as long journeys tended to be undertaken using coastal or river vessels. Road transport was slowly improving and, in 1706, Parliament established the first turnpike trusts that placed a length of road under the control of trustees drawn from local landowners and traders. The turnpike trusts borrowed capital for road maintenance against the security of tolls. This arrangement became the common method of road maintenance for the next 150 years and came in time to assist the spread of cricket throughout England.

19th Century Cricket

The first ever international cricket game was between the USA and Canada in 1844. The match was played at the grounds of the St George's Cricket Club in New York.

In 1859, a team of leading English professionals set off to North America on the first-ever overseas tour and, in 1862, the first English team toured Australia.

Between May and October 1868, a team of Australian Aborigines toured England in what was the first Australian cricket team to travel overseas.

In 1877, an England touring team in Australia played two matches against full Australian XIs that are now regarded as the inaugural Test matches. The following year, the Australians toured England for the first time and were a spectacular success. No Tests were played on that tour but more soon followed and, at The Oval in 1882, arguably the most famous match of all time gave rise to The Ashes. South Africa became the third Test nation in 1889.

A major watershed occurred in 1890 when the official County Championship was constituted in England. This organizational initiative has been repeated in other countries. Australia established the Sheffield Shield in 1892-93. Other national competitions to be established were the Currie Cup in South Africa, the Plunkett Shield in New Zealand and the Ranji Trophy in India.
The period from 1890 to the outbreak of the First World War has become an object of nostalgia, ostensibly because the teams played cricket according to "the spirit of the game", but more realistically because it was a peacetime period that was shattered by the First World War. The era has been called The Golden Age of cricket and it featured numerous great names such as Grace, Wilfred Rhodes, C B Fry, K S Ranjitsinhji and Victor Trumper.

In 1889 the immemorial four ball over was replaced by a five ball over and then this was changed to the current six balls an over in 1900. Subsequently, some countries experimented with eight balls an over. In 1922, the number of balls per over was changed from six to eight in Australia only. In 1924 the eight ball over was extended to New Zealand and in 1937 to South Africa. In England, the eight ball over was adopted experimentally for the 1939 season; the intention was to continue the experiment in 1940, but first-class cricket was suspended for the Second World War and when it resumed, English cricket reverted to the six ball over. The 1947 Laws of Cricket allowed six or eight balls depending on the conditions of play. Since the 1979/80 Australian and New Zealand seasons, the six ball over has been used worldwide and the most recent version of the Laws in 2000 only permits six ball overs.
National Championships

A major watershed occurred in 1890 when the official County Championship was constituted in England. This organizational initiative has been repeated in other countries. Australia established the Sheffield Shield in 1892-93. Other national competitions to be established were the Currie Cup in South Africa, the Plunkett Shield in New Zealand and the Ranji Trophy in India.

The period from 1890 to the outbreak of the First World War has become an object of nostalgia, ostensibly because the teams played cricket according to "the spirit of the game", but more realistically because it was a peacetime period that was shattered by the First World War. The era has been called The Golden Age of cricket and it featured numerous great names such as Grace, Wilfred Rhodes, C B Fry, K S Ranjitsinhji and Victor Trumper.

In 1889 the immemorial four ball over was replaced by a five ball over and then this was changed to the current six balls an over in 1900. Subsequently, some countries experimented with eight balls an over. In 1922, the number of balls per over was changed from six to eight in Australia only. In 1924 the eight ball over was extended to New Zealand and in 1937 to South Africa. In England, the eight ball over was adopted experimentally for the 1939 season; the intention was to continue the experiment in 1940, but first-class cricket was suspended for the Second World War and when it resumed, English cricket reverted to the six ball over. The 1947 Laws of Cricket allowed six or eight balls depending on the conditions of play. Since the 1979/80 Australian and New Zealand seasons, the six ball over has been used worldwide and the most recent version of the Laws in 2000 only permits six ball overs.

20th Century Cricket

Growth of Test cricket: When the Imperial Cricket Conference (as it was originally called) was founded in 1909, only England, Australia and South Africa were members. India, West Indies and New Zealand became Test nations before the Second World War and Pakistan soon afterwards. The international game grew with several "affiliate nations" getting involved and, in the closing years of the 20th century, three of those became Test nations also: Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

Test cricket remained the sport's highest level of standard throughout the 20th century but it had its problems, notably in the infamous "Bodyline Series" of 1932-33 when Douglas Jardine's England used so-called "leg theory" to try and neutralize the run-scoring brilliance of Australia's Don Bradman.

Suspension of South Africa (1970-1991)

The greatest crisis to hit international cricket was brought about by apartheid, the South African policy of racial segregation. The situation began to crystallize after 1961 when South Africa left the Commonwealth of Nations and so, under the rules of the day, its cricket board had to leave the International Cricket Conference (ICC). Cricket's opposition to apartheid intensified in 1968 with the cancellation of England's tour to South Africa by the South African authorities, due to the inclusion of "colored" cricketer Basil D'Oliveira in the England team. In 1970, the ICC members voted to suspend South Africa indefinitely from international cricket competition. Ironically, the South African team at that time was probably the strongest in the world.
Starved of top-level competition for its best players, the South African Cricket Board began funding so-called "rebel tours", offering large sums of money for international players to form teams and tour South Africa. The ICC's response was to blacklist any rebel players who agreed to tour South Africa, banning them from officially sanctioned international cricket. As players were poorly remunerated during the 1970s, several accepted the offer to tour South Africa, particularly players getting towards the end of their careers for which a blacklisting would have little effect.

The rebel tours continued into the 1980s but then progress was made in South African politics and it became clear that apartheid was ending. South Africa, now a "Rainbow Nation" under Nelson Mandela, was welcomed back into international sport in 1991.
World Series Cricket

The money problems of top cricketers were also the root cause of another cricketing crisis that arose in 1977 when the Australian media magnate Kerry Packer fell out with the Australian Cricket Board over TV rights. Taking advantage of the low remuneration paid to players, Packer retaliated by signing several of the best players in the world to a privately run cricket league outside the structure of international cricket. World Series Cricket hired some of the banned South African players and allowed them to show off their skills in an international arena against other world-class players. The schism lasted only until 1979 and the "rebel" players were allowed back into established international cricket, though many found that their national teams had moved on without them. Long-term results of World Series Cricket have included the introduction of significantly higher player salaries and innovations such as colored kit and night games.

In the 1960s, English county teams began playing a version of cricket with games of only one innings each and a maximum number of overs per innings. Starting in 1963 as a knockout competition only, limited overs grew in popularity and in 1969 a national league was created which consequently caused a reduction in the number of matches in the County Championship.
Although many "traditional" cricket fans objected to the shorter form of the game, limited overs cricket did have the advantage of delivering a result to spectators within a single day; it did improve cricket's appeal to younger or busier people; and it did prove commercially successful.

The first limited overs international match took place at Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1971 as a time-filler after a Test match had been abandoned because of heavy rain on the opening days. It was tried simply as an experiment and to give the players some exercise, but turned out to be immensely popular. Limited overs internationals (LOIs or ODIs, after one-day Internationals) have since grown to become a massively popular form of the game, especially for busy people who want to be able to see a whole match. The International Cricket Council reacted to this development by organising the first Cricket World Cup in England in 1975, with all the Test playing nations taking part.

21st Century Cricket

Cricket remains a major world sport in terms of participants, spectators and media interest.
The ICC has expanded its Development Program with the goal of producing more national teams capable of competing at Test level. Development efforts are focused on African and Asian nations; and on the United States. In 2004, the ICC Intercontinental Cup brought first-class cricket to 12 nations, mostly for the first time.

In June 2001, the ICC introduced a "Test Championship Table" and, in October 2002 a "One-day International Championship Table". Australia has consistently topped both these tables in the 2000s.

Cricket's newest innovation is Twenty20, essentially an evening entertainment. It has so far enjoyed enormous popularity and has attracted large attendances at matches as well as good TV audience ratings. The inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Cup tournament was held in 2007. The formation of Twenty20 leagues in India - the unofficial Indian Cricket League, which started in 2007, and the official Indian Premier League, starting in 2008 - raised much speculation in the cricketing press about their effect on the future of cricket.