The roots of cricket lie some place in the Dark Ages - presumably after the Roman Empire, more likely than not before the Normans attacked England, and in all likelihood some place in Northern Europe. All exploration yields that the amusement got from an exceptionally old, across the board and uncomplicated leisure activity by which one player served up a protest, be it a little bit of wood or a ball, and another hit it with a reasonably molded club.
How and when this club-ball game formed into one where the hitter guarded an objective against the hurler is basically not known. Nor is there any confirmation in the matter of when focuses were granted ward upon how far the hitter could despatch the rocket; nor when partners joined the two-player challenge, therefore starting the advancement into a group amusement; nor when the characterizing idea of putting wickets at either end of the pitch was embraced.
Etymological grant has differently set the amusement in the Celtic, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon, Dutch and Norman-French customs; sociological history specialists have differently credited its medieval improvement to high-conceived nation landowners, emigré Flemish fabric laborers, shepherds on the short and tidy downland of south-east England and the affectionate groups of iron-and glass-specialists somewhere down in the Kentish Weald. The vast majority of these speculations have a strong scholastic premise, yet none is upheld with enough confirmation to set up a watertight case. The exploration goes on.
What is concurred is that by Tudor circumstances cricket had advanced sufficiently far from club-ball to be unmistakable as the amusement played today; that it was settled in many parts of Kent, Sussex and Surrey; that inside a couple of years it had turned into a component of recreation time at countless; and - a beyond any doubt indication of the wide acknowledgment of any diversion - that it had turned out to be sufficiently prevalent among young fellows to win the objection to nearby judges.
Dates in cricket history
1550 (approx) Evidence of cricket being played in Guildford, Surrey.
1598 Cricket said in Florio's Italian-English lexicon.
1610 Reference to "cricketing" amongst Weald and Upland close Chevening, Kent. 1611 Randle Cotgrave's French-English lexicon deciphers the French word "crosse" as a cricket staff.
Two young people fined for playing cricket at Sidlesham, Sussex.
1624 Jasper Vinall turns out to be first man known to be murdered playing cricket: hit by a bat while attempting to get the ball - at Horsted Green, Sussex.
1676 First reference to cricket being played abroad, by British occupants in Aleppo, Syria.
1694 Two shillings and sixpence paid for a "rear end" (bet) about a cricket coordinate at Lewes.
1697 First reference to "an incredible match" with 11 players a side for fifty guineas, in Sussex.
1700 Cricket coordinate declared on Clapham Common.
1709 First recorded between province coordinate: Kent v Surrey.
1710 First reference to cricket at Cambridge University.
1727 Articles of Agreement composed administering the lead of matches between the groups of the Duke of Richmond and Mr Brodrick of Peperharow, Surrey.
1729 Date of most punctual surviving bat, having a place with John Chitty, now in the structure at The Oval.
1730 First recorded match at the Artillery Ground, off City Road, focal London, still the cricketing home of the Honorable Artillery Company.
1744 Kent beat All England by one wicket at the Artillery Ground.
To start with known variant of the Laws of Cricket, issued by the London Club, formalizing the pitch as 22 yards in length.
1767 (approx) Foundation of the Hambledon Club in Hampshire, the main club in England for the following 30 years.
1769 First recorded century, by John Minshull for Duke of Dorset's XI v Wrotham.
1771 Width of bat constrained to 4 1/4 inches, where it has remained from that point onward.
1774 LBW law formulated.
1776 Earliest known scorecards, at the Vine Club, Sevenoaks, Kent.
1780 The initial six-seamed cricket ball, fabricated by Dukes of Penshurst, Kent.
1787 First match at Thomas Lord's first ground, Dorset Square, Marylebone - White Conduit Club v Middlesex.
Arrangement of Marylebone Cricket Club by individuals from the White Conduit Club.
1788 First amendment of the Laws of Cricket by MCC.
1794 First recorded between schools coordinate: Charterhouse v Westminster.
1795 First recorded instance of an expulsion "leg before wicket".
1806 First Gentlemen v Players coordinate at Lord's.
1807 First say of "straight-outfitted" (i.e. round-arm) knocking down some pins: by John Willes of Kent.
1809 Thomas Lord's second ground opened at North Bank, St John's Wood.
1811 First recorded ladies' district coordinate: Surrey v Hampshire at Ball's Pond, London.
1814 Lord's third ground opened on its present site, additionally in St John's Wood.
1827 First Oxford v Cambridge coordinate, at Lord's. A draw.
1828 MCC approve the bowler to raise his hand level with the elbow.
1833 John Nyren distributes his great Young Cricketer's Tutor and The Cricketers of My Time.
1836 First North v South match, for a long time viewed as the important apparatus of the season.
1836 (approx) Batting cushions designed.
1841 General Lord Hill, president of the British Army, arranges that a cricket ground be made an extra of each military sleeping quarters.
1844 First authority universal match: Canada v United States.
1845 First match played at The Oval.
1846 The All-England XI, sorted out by William Clarke, starts playing matches, regularly against chances, all through the nation.
