CRICKET

The game of cricket has a known history spanning from the 16th century to the present day, with international matches played since 1844, although the official history of international Test cricket began in 1877. During this time, the game developed. It is quite likely that cricket was devised by children and survived for many generations as essentially a children’s game. Adult participation is unknown before the early 17th century. Possibly cricket was derived from bowls, assuming bowls is the older sport, by the intervention of a batsman trying to stop the ball from 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 stool or a tree stump or a gate as the wicket.The basic rules of cricket such as bat and ball, the wicket, pitch dimensions, overs, how out, etc. have existed since time immemorial. In 1728, the Duke of Richmond and Alan Brod rick drew up "Articles of Agreement" to determine the code of practice in a particular game and this became a common feature, especially around payment of stake money and distributing the winnings given the importance of gambling. From its origins in England into a game which is now played professionally in different part of the world. 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 with a follow-up event in 2009 and now played in every 2 year period. 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.Since then a lot of global T20  competition has been organized such as Big Bash League in Australia, Ram Slam T20 in South Africa, NatWest T20 blast in England, Caribbean Premier League in West Indies, etc. in different cricket playing nation where players can make huge amount of money for playing just 6-8 weeks in a year.These league are organized every year.