With a rich amount of Indian cricket history, we need to ask: is cricket British or Indian in origin? The history of the game of cricket extends from the 16th century to the present day, with international matches played after 1844, although officially international Test cricket began in 1877 when India was already well versed with cricket since the Parsis of India formed the ‘Oriental Club’ in 1848 and in the year 1850, the ‘Young Zoroastrian Club’ was made just two years later. Here’s the story of the origins of cricket.
Is Cricket British Or Indian? Let’s See How It Originated In The Past!
1800: Bengalis and Parsis in Mumbai
India played its first test match against England in 1932, but the page of Indian cricket history says something else. Actually, the Indians who played cricket for the first time were not professional players but people from the Parsi community and Bengalis.
The first match of first- class cricket played in India was played in Madras vs Calcutta in 1864. Not many records exist from the match, however, it is known that the man of the match was Praveen Chauhan who was from Panipat but played for Calcutta. Also, the best fielder was Ashwini Sharma. Like Chauhan, he too was from Panipat.
A team of Parsis often played cricket on the Bombay ground and during this time, the most interesting thing was that they used sun and rain umbrellas instead of bats.
In the year 1848, the Parsis of India formed the ‘Oriental Club’ and in 1850, the ‘Young Zoroastrian Club’ was formed by them just 2 years later. He then started challenging British cricketers playing in the then famous Bombay Gymkhana Club. But the British did not like to win or take interest in this game before them. In this sequence an incident happened in 1876.
The Parsis won a match in 2012 and the spectators on the field started celebrating it. The British government did not digest this and the British soldiers beat the spectators sitting on the field with belts and tortured them. Despite all these incidents, Parsi players kept themselves attached to cricket. While improving his game, he strengthened himself so much that he made up his mind to tour England on his own. He appointed Surrey’s Robert Henderson as the coach and in 1886 he moved to England, paying out of his pocket.
During the year 1886, India’s Parsi cricket team left for England under the leadership of Dhanjisha ‘DH Patel’. Although during this time he won only one match against ‘Normanhurst’, 8 matches were drawn and 19 were lost. But then one good thing was that Shapoorji Bhedwar remained in the headlines for getting a hat-trick from the Parsi team. However, the Parsi cricket team did not stop here and they once again toured England in the year 1888. Then Parsi Gymkhana took care of the entire team. The hero of this tour was Dr. Mehlasha ‘ME’ Pavri. He is also called the first great cricketer of India.
1918
The entire history of cricket in India and the entire continent has been based on the existence and development of the British Raj through the East India Company.
1918 to 1945
In June 1932, India became a member of an ‘elite club’ of Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and the West Indies. India played their first match against England at Lord’s, which was witnessed by a huge crowd of 24,000 as well as the King of the United Kingdom.
1945 to 1960
The partition of India in 1947 after complete independence from the British Raj was the major and defining event in the history of Indian cricket during this period.
Change began with the Bombay Quadrangular Tournament, which had been the centerpiece of Indian cricket for more than 50 years. New India had no place for teams on the basis of ethnicity. As a result, the Ranji Trophy emerged as a national championship. The last Bombay Pentangular, was conquered by Hindus in 1945-46.
In 1952 India registered its first Test victory by defeating England by an innings at Madras.
Final Verdict:
In conclusion, we know that Cricket moved out of England when the sport first shifted to North America through the English colonies in the 17th century, probably before the north of England.
The spread of cricket then reached other parts of the world in the 18th century and as we mentioned above, the sport of cricket was introduced by the Colonists to the West Indies and India at the same time. During the beginning of the colonization of Australia in 1788, coincided with the first half of the 18th century by British East India Company sailors who brought cricket to the Indian country. Within the next century, cricket reached New Zealand and South Africa in the early years of the 19th century.
