History of Cricket

Early cricket was at some time or another
described as "a club striking a ball (like) the
ancient games of club-ball, stool-ball, trap-
ball, stob-ball". [3] Cricket can definitely be
traced back to Tudor times in early 16th-
century England. Written evidence exists of a
game known as creag being played by Prince
Edward , the son of Edward I (Longshanks) , at
Newenden, Kent in 1301 [4] and there has been
speculation, but no evidence, that this was a
form of cricket.
A number of other words have been suggested
as sources for the term "cricket". In the
earliest definite reference to the sport in 1598,
[5] it is called creckett . Given the strong
medieval trade connections between south-
east England and the County of Flanders when
the latter belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy ,
the name may have been derived from the
Middle Dutch [6] krick ( -e ), meaning a stick
(crook); or the Old English cricc or cryce
meaning a crutch or staff.[7] In Old French, the
word criquet seems to have meant a kind of
club or stick. [8] In Samuel Johnson 's
Dictionary , he derived cricket from " cryce ,
Saxon, a stick". [9] Another possible source is
the Middle Dutch word krickstoel , meaning a
long low stool used for kneeling in church and
which resembled the long low wicket with two
stumps used in early cricket. [10] According to
Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert
of Bonn University, "cricket" derives from the
Middle Dutch phrase for hockey, met de (krik
ket)sen (i.e., "with the stick chase"). [11] Dr
Gillmeister believes that not only the name but
the sport itself is of Flemish origin. [12]
The first English touring team on board
ship at Liverpool in 1859
The earliest definite reference to cricket being
played in England (and hence anywhere) is in
evidence given at a 1598 court case which
mentions that "creckett" was played on
common land in Guildford, Surrey, around
1550. The court in Guildford heard on Monday,
17 January 1597 (Julian date, equating to the
year 1598 in the Gregorian calendar) from a 59
year-old coroner, John Derrick , who gave
witness that when he was a scholar at the
"Free School at Guildford", fifty years earlier,
"hee and diverse of his fellows did runne and
play [on the common land] at creckett and
other plaies." [13][14] It is believed that it was
originally a children's game but references
around 1610 [14] indicate that adults had
started playing it and the earliest reference to
inter-parish or village cricket occurs soon
afterwards. In 1624, a player called Jasper
Vinall was killed when he was struck on the
head during a match between two parish
teams in Sussex. [15]