CRICKET

Cricket was initially known as a bat and ball game where two opposing teams play by defending and attacking their opponent to win with points. Although baseball is also identified as a safe haven game, it is different from cricket in various instances, like rules as well as the structure of the game (Connor, Sinclair, Leicht, and Doma, 2019). Dating in as early as the 13^th century, the bat-and-ball game has majority of its roots from England. The game is believed to have been a children’s game before adopted by adults who played on grazing land.The rules and structure of cricket have its origin from south England, whereby it became a national sport in the early 18^th century, and by 19^th and 20^th, it spread globally (Gemmell, 2018). Notably, international cricket matches have been recorded since 1844. Worldwide, cricket is the second popular game after football.

The spread of the game to the various nation did not affect the basic rules like bat and ball, wicket, and pitch dimension, among other vital aspects of the game. However, a common feature that revolutionized the game was the article of the agreement. The rules in cricket have been noted to be more than other games. A team of each side consists of 11 players where their main objective is to score runs, at-bat, and to dismiss opposing batsmen. The test cricket varies depending on the format of the game, for instance, Twenty20 and 50 over matches (Wilkins, Mann, Dain, Hayward, and Allen, 2019). Among the common rules of the game include bowled, which is given out once it batsman’s wickets, caught is done by the fielders, and stumped where a batsman is given out. Other rules involve leg before wicket (L.B.W.), Run Out, Hit wicket, handling the ball, time out, and hit the ball twice.

Since its introduction, cricket has grown to be a worldwide sport that is played by both men and women. Besides, it has developed various standards, including international, domestic, under 19, and women cricket (Wagner, 2016). The main difference between foreign and domestic cricket games is the level of matches where one is against country representatives. At the same time, the other is a local game against local teams. On the other hand, both the women’s and under 19 matches are either international matches or local for men and women..

International Cricket

The international games are played by qualified teams in the national category and are facing other countries on world-recognized grounds. Governed by the International Cricket Council (I.C.C.), the games are organized and played between national teams. Conversely, the I.C.C. is mandated to oversee regulations and playing conditions. The primary forms of games at the international level include Test, twenty20, and One-day matches, which also form the main competitions that include I.C.C. World Test Championship, T20 World Cup, and the world Cup (Sacheti, Paton, and Gregory‐Smith, 2016). It is essential that these games, in most cases, take the form of tours whereby a country travels to a host and plays cricket.The Crickets world cup which takes place after four years involves Test games involving nations as well as qualifiers. On the other hand, T20 matches are in every two years, and it is played by 10 I.C.C. members and six world T20 qualifiers.

The international ranking for the test series is based on a mathematical formula for the two opposing teams. To receive a rating, the I.C.C. adds the total points and then divides by the total number of matches (Gregory-Smith, Paton, &Sacheti, 2019). For the one day games or the One Day International cricket games, the ranking is done similar to Test matches. Here, the team is valued using a formula where the total earned per group is divided by a number of games. The same method is used to rank T20 on an international standard. Other international competitions involving associate members of the I.C.C. include I.C.C. intercontinental cup, world cricket league, World, Twenty20 qualifiers, and Under-19s championships.

Domestic Cricket

This group includes all the professional playing clubs, institutions, and local leagues in a country. Besides, the matches and tournaments organized within a country also fall under domestic cricket. Further, it is essential to note that the household level plays a fundamental role in producing players for national and international standards (Gupta, 2017). Schools especially have facilities and resources for learning cricket and developing interested people to a professional level. According toBrewster, and Brewster (2019),local crickets involves organization of matches and competition between clubs and schools. The domestic cricket also follows the guidelines set by the I.C.C. to maintain the guidance and regulation of the game. It also involves both men and women teams as well as under 19 units (Condon, 2018). These teams while competing are rated by international standards whereby their overall points are divided by the number of events. However, some of the local groups may face teams from other countries. Notably, matches against other nations’ local organizations may be viewed as a friendly game that elevates skills and confidence among the players. As stated by Ryan (2016), domestic cricket has continued supporting women to join the game and participates in the tournament and national championship for senior and junior levels. Domestic cricket is the help create the national team through the collection of talented people from different institutions around the country.

Under 19 Cricket

According to I.C.C., the under 19 regulation for player eligibility indicates that for a player to represent their country or club, one must be below 19 years on August thirty-first preceding the first match in the relevant competition that is due (Hall and Amore, 2019). Here, the age of a player is determined on September first just before the world cup tournaments. Therefore a player can be 19 years and participate. A full member country has a maximum age of 19 to participate in a tournament. As a result, age fraud is a vital aspect of this level.

The under-19 World Cup is the most known tournament around the globe. This tournament is organized by the I.C.C. involving the country’s under-19 teams. This group of cricket has grown in popularity over the ages and has a leading role in fishing out the national team after exceeding the age limit (Baker, 2019).India is leading has the record for winning the most number of tournament in the world cup, followed by Australia, and Pakistan. Other countries that have won at least once include South Africa, England, and Bangladesh. The under-19 teams involving women is not popular but it has a planned tournament to be held in Bangladesh in 2021 (Dumnar, P.T. and Jadhav, M.Y.P., 2020). The men under-19 cricket is popular, a factor that has supported the growth of men tournament on the international level. Further, the under-19 matches have a higher ranking because of how the sports recognize players that did the final, made most runs and made most wickets.

Women Cricket

Dating back to 1973, women started participating in the game, and the first world-cup took place in England of the same year. England won against Australia for the first time. By 1976, the women participated in a One-day International tournament (Petersen, 2017). Interestingly, the Austrian women’s team has the highest number of victories in the World Cup. Further, it is notable that women hold more titles than their counter-part. Since the inauguration of women’s Test match the international games for the women has grown in participation as more country joined the competition. Under the women tournament, the One Day International become the most contested international cricket.

The World Cup for the women has been held nine consecutive times, and England, Australia, and New Zealand have shared the titles. The women’s T20 International had a breakthrough in 2004 after the format was introduced and had rapid growth in the subsequent years. The women have also formed clubs and leagues that form premier leagues. In particular, the Women’s County Championship is significant competition, and the super four creates the elite player in both domestic and international tournaments (Sharma, 2018). Also, under the I.C.C., the women cricket committee was introduced to handle issues related to women. Under the One-day cricket competition, the women are ahead of men, a factor that has put the women’s team on the fore-front and recognized in the cricket.

References

Baker, M., 2019. Why cricket is the greatest of all games. docx.

Brewster, C., & Brewster, K., 2019. ‘A lesson in football wisdom’? Coverage of the unofficial women’s World Cup of 1971 in the Mexican press. Sport in History, 39(2), 147-165.

Condon, A., 2018. The Positioning of Indigenous People in Australian History: A Historiography of the 1868 Aboriginal Cricket Tour of England. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 35(5), pp.411-430.

Connor, J.D., Sinclair, W.H., Leicht, A.S., and Doma, K., 2019. Analysis of Cricket Ball Type and Innings on State Level Cricket Batter’s Performance. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, p.2347.

Dumnar, P.T., and Jadhav, M.Y.P., 2020. A Comparative Study of Aggression in Female Tribal & Non-Tribal Cricket Players of Nasik District. Our Heritage, 68(14), pp.457-460.

Gemmell, J., 2018. The Noble Sport: The Role of the Aristocracy in the Early History of Cricket. In Cricket’s Changing Ethos (pp. 7-27). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Gregory-Smith, I., Paton, D., &Sacheti, A. 2019. The Economics of Cricket. The SAGE Handbook of Sports Economics, 256.

Gupta, A., 2017. Cricket: The Indianization of an Imperial Game. The Oxford Handbook of Sports History, p.213.

Hall, C.M., and Amore, A., 2019. The 2015 Cricket World Cup in Christchurch. Journal of Place Management and Development.

Petersen, C. J., 2017. Comparison of performance at the 2007 and 2015 Cricket World Cups. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 12(3), 404-410.

Ryan, G., 2016. ‘They Came to Sneer, and Remained to Cheer’: Interpreting the 1934–35 England Women’s Cricket Tour to Australia and New Zealand. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 33(17), pp.2123-2138.

Sacheti, A., Paton, D., & Gregory‐Smith, I. 2016. An economic analysis of attendance demand for one-day international cricket. Economic Record, 92(296), 121-136.

Sharma, V. 2018. Cricket a gender-biased game? India in relation to the world.

Wagner, C., 2016. Cricket and Empire: the 1932-33 bodyline tour of Australia.

Wilkins, L., Mann, D., Dain, S., Hayward, T., and Allen, P., 2019. Out with the old, in with the new: how changes in cricket helmet regulations affect the vision of batters—Journal of sports sciences, 37(1), pp.13-19.