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Explain why cricket became popular in India and West Indies. Can you give reasons why it did not become popular in the countries of South America?


India and West Indies were colonies of England, where cricket was very popular. This game also originated in South England. The British officials and sahibs in India and West Indies played cricket to pass off their leisure time. In both the countries, initially, the game was adopted and promoted by the upper class to imitate the colonial masters. Thus, it became popular in both the countries.


Most of the countries of South America remained under the colonial rule of other European powers, but not England. South American countries were under the rule of Spain (Chile and Argentina), Portugal (Brazil), France (French Guinea). Therefore, as cricket was not popular in the mother countries it did not become popular in colonies.
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Describe one way in which the nineteenth-century technology brought about a change in equipment and give an example where no change in equipment took place.


One major equipment which primarily is because of technological development is the protective gear including helmets, pads and other protective coverings.

The helmet and the face protector are made of metal and synthetic light materials.

Except the helmet, all other cricketing equipments did not change much. Bat, stumps, bails and balls showed little or not change.

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The Parsis were the first Indian community to set up a cricket club in India.


The origins of Indian cricket is to be found in Bombay and the first Indian community which started playing the game were the Parsis.

(i) This was because they were first to come into close contact with the British because of their trading interests.

(ii) They were also the first Indian community to westernize.

(iii) The Parsis founded the first Indian cricket club called the Oriental Club Bombay in 1848. The Parsis club was sponsored by rich Parsi business men like the Tatas and the Wadias.

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Mahatma Gandhi condemned the Pentangular tournament.


The teams that played colonial India’s greatest first class cricket tournament were represented by different religious communities. The Pentangular tournament was played by five teams — the Europeans, the Parsis, the Hindus, the Muslims and the Rest (the rest comprise all the communities left over such as Christians).


Mahatma Gandhi condemned the Pentangular tournament as a communally divisive connection because it was played on communal basis. This concept was with the tune of the time when nationalists were trying to unite India.
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Test cricket is a unique game in many ways. Discuss some of the ways in which it is different from other team games. How are the peculiarities of the test cricket shaped by its historical beginnings as a village game?


No doubt the Test cricket is a unique game. Its uniqueness can be attributed in the socio-economic history of England in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.



(i) One of the peculiarities of Test cricket is that a match can continue for five days and still end in a draw. No other game (football, hockey or tennis) game take so much time to complete.


(ii) Another characteristic of cricket is that the length of the pitch is specified to be 22 yards, but the shape and size of the ground is not specified. Sports like hockey and football have fixed dimensions of playing area but cricket does not have. A cricket ground can be bigger or smaller, its shape can be oval, circular or semi-circular.

(iii) Its rules and regulations were laid down much before team games like soccer and hockey. The first written laws of cricket were drawn up in 1774.

Peculiarities of the test cricket shaped by its historical beginnings as a village game as follows:


(i) Cricket connections with a rural past can be seen in the length of a test match. Originally, cricket matches had no time limit. The game went for as long as it took to bowl out a side twice. The rhythms of a village life were slower and cricket’s rules were made before Industrial Revolution.


(ii) Cricket’s vagueness about the size of a cricket ground is a result of its village origins. It was originally played on country commons, unfenced land that was public property. The size of commons varied from one village to another, so there were no designated boundaries or boundary hits.


(iii) Cricket’s most important tools are all made of natural, pre-industrial materials. The bat is to be made of wood as are the stumps and the bails. The ball is made with leather, twine and cork. Even today both bat and ball are handmade, not industrially manufactured.



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