Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Before we start today, we want to send a massive shout out to Daniel and Rowan in Gig Harbour, Washington.
SPEAKER_01We hear this is your favourite show to listen to in the car. Thanks so much for riding along with us, Daniel and Rowan.
SPEAKER_00And Finn, with our awesome listener Matthew, tuning in all the way from Australia, we thought today would be the absolute perfect time to explore the history of a sport that Australia is incredibly famous for. Cricket!
SPEAKER_01Cricket? Wait, like the little green bug that chirps outside my window at night.
SPEAKER_00No, definitely not the bug. The sport! Did you know cricket is actually the second most popular spectator sport on the entire Earth? Right behind soccer. Wait, really? How many people actually watch it? Over one billion people follow the sport today. That is like one out of every eight human beings on the planet.
SPEAKER_01A billion? That is enough people to fill a thousand giant stadiums. But if it's so huge, where did it even come from? Did somebody just invent it one day?
SPEAKER_00Well, to find the very beginning, we have to travel back in time hundreds of years, long before massive stadiums or television cameras. We are heading to the green, rolling pastures of southern England. Picture this. It's the 16th century, maybe even earlier, in the rural south-east of England, in places like Kent and Sussex. There are no cars, no big cities, just massive windswept fields filled with fluffy white sheep.
SPEAKER_01Wait, what do sheep have to do with a sport played by a billion people today?
SPEAKER_00Everything, Finn! The very first cricket players were likely children, specifically the young shepherds who were supposed to be watching those frocks of sheep.
SPEAKER_01So it was invented by kids? That is so cool! What did they use for equipment back then?
SPEAKER_00Well, they didn't have sporting goods stores, so they used exactly what was around them. A shepherd carries a long, curved wooden stick to guide the sheep, right? In the old Anglo-Saxon language, that crooked staff was called a cricket.
SPEAKER_01Oh, cricket! Cricket! That is where the name comes from.
SPEAKER_00Exactly! For a ball, they would use a small, heavy rock, or a tightly wound-up ball of sheep's wool.
SPEAKER_01Ouch! Hitting a solid rock with a stick sounds like a really bad idea for your hands.
SPEAKER_00True. One shepherd would throw, or bowl, this makeshift ball at a target. The target was usually the little wooden gate of the sheep pen, which was called a wicket.
SPEAKER_01Wait, wait! In modern cricket, they still call the wooden sticks they throw the ball at the wickets.
SPEAKER_00Spot on! If they weren't near a sheep pen, they would just aim at a tree stump. That is why the wooden sticks used in the game today are still called stumps.
SPEAKER_01That makes perfect sense. But it sounds kind of dangerous with flying rocks and heavy wooden sticks.
SPEAKER_00It actually was. In fact, we have a manuscript from over 400 years ago detailing a match in 1624, where a fielder named Jasper Vinyl tragically died after accidentally getting hit by a bat. Oh no!
SPEAKER_01That is terrible! They definitely needed to make some safety rules.
SPEAKER_00You are right, and eventually the grown-ups took over the kids' game. By the 1700s, cricket had become a massive spectator sport for the aristocrats and wealthy gentlemen in London.
SPEAKER_01So did they finally write down some official rules so nobody else would get clobbered?
SPEAKER_00They sure did. In the year 1744, a group of players gathered at the Star and Garter Public House in London to write the very first official laws of cricket. Wait, they called them laws, not rules. Yes, cricket is one of the few sports that uses the word laws instead of rules. They decided the pitch, which is the strip where they bowl the ball, had to be exactly 22 yards long.
SPEAKER_0122 yards? That is almost as long as a basketball court.
SPEAKER_00Right, and the stumps had to be exactly 22 inches high, with a small piece of wood called a bale resting on top. They also ruled that the leather ball had to weigh between 5 and 6 ounces. What about the bats? Did they have to be a certain size? Surprisingly, there were absolutely no limits on the shape or size of the bat. Some players walked out with massive pieces of wood that looked like giant curved field hockey sticks.
unknownHaha!
SPEAKER_01What? You could just bring a giant piece of wood the size of a door and block the whole wicket.
SPEAKER_00Basically, it wasn't until a player literally brought a bat as wide as the stumps that they finally added a rule about batwidth. The game was getting huge.
SPEAKER_01I bet they needed a massive stadium for all those rich people to watch.
SPEAKER_00They did. A smart businessman named Thomas Lord saw the opportunity. On May 31, 1787, backed by the Earl of Winchelsea, he opened a private cricket ground in Dorset Fields in London.
SPEAKER_01Wait, did Thomas Lord just name the stadium after himself?
SPEAKER_00He absolutely did. It became Lord's Cricket Ground, and the famous Marlebone Cricket Club was founded there that same year. Today, Lourdes is known around the entire world as the home of cricket. So, by the late 1700s, cricket is absolutely huge in England. But how does it get to the rest of the world? How does it reach Matthew in Australia?
SPEAKER_01Let me guess. Did the British pack their cricket bats onto their giant sailing ships?
SPEAKER_00You nailed it! British sailors, soldiers, and settlers carried the game across the oceans. Let's travel to India first. The very first recorded reference to cricket in India happened way back in 1721. 1721? That is incredibly early. I know! British sailors from the East India Company parked their ships at the port of Kambat in Gujarat for weeks at a time. To pass the time, they started playing cricket on the coast, right in front of the local Indian villages. Did the locals join in and start playing too? They did, and over the centuries they became absolute masters of the game. Today, India is arguably the most powerful cricket nation on Earth. But wait, Finn, I have a trivia question for you.
SPEAKER_01Lay it on me, I am ready.
SPEAKER_00What two countries played in the very first international cricket match in history? This happened in 1844. Hmm.
SPEAKER_01It has to be England versus India, right? Or maybe England versus Australia.
SPEAKER_00Nope. Believe it or not, the first ever international match was played between the United States and Canada, right in New York City.
SPEAKER_01No way! America and Canada! I thought they only cared about baseball and ice hockey.
SPEAKER_00It's true, but the highest and most prestigious level of cricket, called a test match, officially began a bit later. The first ever men's test match started on March 15, 1877.
SPEAKER_01Who was playing? Please tell me it was Australia.
SPEAKER_00It was! The professional England team sailed down to face an Australian side, led by Captain Dave Gregory at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
SPEAKER_01Yes, shout out to Matthew's home country. Who won that historic first match?
SPEAKER_00Australia shocked the world and defeated the mighty English team by exactly 45 runs. It was a massive victory that cemented cricket's place in Australian history forever. From those early epic matches, cricket took incredibly deep root, not just in Australia and India, but in South Africa, the Caribbean and all across the globe.
SPEAKER_01But wait, how long does one of these test matches actually take? I heard a rumour that they never end.
SPEAKER_00Your rumour is almost true. The highest level of the sport, test cricket, takes up to five whole days to play. It is a gruelling test of endurance, which is exactly why it's called a test match. Five days? That is almost an entire week. Do they just play straight through the night? No, they stop when the sun goes down. They also take a break for lunch, and a very civilised afternoon tea break.
SPEAKER_01Phew! That sounds nice. But what if I don't have five days to sit in a stadium?
SPEAKER_00You are in luck. In modern times, they invented shorter, explosive versions of the game. The T20 format takes only about 90 minutes to three hours to play. It is super fast-paced, with batters smashing the ball high into the cheering crowds.
SPEAKER_01That sounds so awesome! The crowds must go absolutely wild. Are there any other weird facts about cricket history before we do the quiz? Oh definitely.
SPEAKER_00Have you ever heard someone say they are on a sticky wicket when they are in a tough situation?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like when I forgot to do my homework. Mum said I was on a sticky wicket.
SPEAKER_00Exactly! That phrase comes directly from cricket. The playing surface is called the wicket. In the old days, if it rained and the sun came out, the wet dirt would turn into sticky mud. When the bowler threw the ball onto a sticky wicket, it would bounce in terrifying, unpredictable directions, making it nearly impossible for the batter.
SPEAKER_01That is brilliant! I love learning where everyday words come from.
SPEAKER_00Isn't it wonderful? What started as a handful of shepherd kids hitting a rock with a crooked stick in the 1600s evolved into a spectacular event that unites a billion fans across the entire world. Alright, Thim, it's time for the quiz. Let's see how much you remember about the history of cricket.
SPEAKER_01Oh boy, I hope I wasn't caught on a sticky wicket while listening. I am ready.
SPEAKER_00First question. What was the original Old English name for the Shepherd's Crooked Star? Next one. In what year were the first written laws of cricket officially created? Question three. Who opened the famous home of cricket ground in London in 1787? Here's number four. What two countries played in the first ever international cricket match in 1844? Last question. What country hosted the first official men's test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1877? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is it was called a cricker spelled C R I C C E. For question two, the first rules were written down in 1744. Number three, the answer is it was opened by Thomas Lord and it is known as Lord's Cricket Ground. Question four. It was actually the United States and Canada. And the final answer is it was hosted in Australia. That was so fun! I can't believe a game with a billion fans was basically invented by bored kids watching sheep.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and next time I see a tree stump in the yard, I'm definitely going to try bowling a ball at it to see if I can hit it.
SPEAKER_00Just make sure you use a softball, not a heavy rock like they did in the 1600s. Hey, if you loved travelling back in time with us today to learn all about cricket, please scroll down right now and leave us a five-star review.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, just scroll down and tap the five stars on your podcast app. It really helps us out. And maybe we'll hit your review right over the boundary line for a massive six runs.
SPEAKER_00Oh, and don't forget to check out our site kidopoly.com. We've got tons of fun learning games, cool activities, and more awesome history stuff to explore there.
SPEAKER_01And if you want a shout out on the show like Daniel and Rowan, or if you want to request a topic just like Matthew did, send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com.
SPEAKER_00We love hearing from you. See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye everyone!