The game that changed with time !
Cricket is one game that everyone has played at least once in his life, either in his childhood or when in school or college, such is the craze of this game, that everybody wants to become Sachin Tendulkar. The biggest craze for this game can be seen in India, where you will find a game played in every lane you cross or every ground that you pass by. The game was first played in England in the 16th century. Initially, it was called the 'Game of Childrens' where a young boy would roll the ball underarm towards the batman, it was not a popular sport at that time. The game gained popularity in the 18th century when a number of clubs were formed in England and played against each other, by the 19th century, cricket was played in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, West Indies, Canada and The United States of America. As it was gaining its popularity, England decided to tour Australia in the year 1876, this tour was just considered as a promotional tour and the first match played between England and Australia at Melbourne was entered in the records books as the first ever test in the history of cricket. As the series progressed the rivalry between the two teams was seen on the field as well as off the field, which resulted in "The Ashes". Every series played after this between England and Australia was known as the Ashes Series.
Several matches and county games were played and only the teams those performed well at this level were qualified for test status. But two teams that made an impact in the world were Australia and England and man that made the difference was the "Sir Don Bradman".
In the mid 19th-century test matches were being played all over the world, Cricket was making its mark as one of the most prominent sport. The five-day tests were played in front of packed stadiums, as West Indies made its mark in the test arena, cricket became more interesting because of the attacking mode the West Indies played in.
Until 1970's only five-day cricket was played, but with the arrival of Kerry Packer on the scene, one-day cricket was introduced, the color clothing, the white ball, floodlights and colored sight screen came into existence. Many big names in cricket joined Kerry Packer's tour, but unfortunately, as it was not recognized by the cricket board it was dubbed as "unofficial matches". The boards of different countries were not ready to adapt to the changes that Kerry Packer introduced. But one thing was for sure that, it gave rise to the one-day format of the game. Slowly the one-day game was being played more and more all over the world - but with white colored clothes and red ball. people loved this format of the game all over, local one-day competitions were played more and more. In the year 1975, the first ever one-day cricket world cup was played in England where West Indies impressed everyone with their style of playing and went on to win the title of 'World Champions'. With the changes in the format attracting crowds and more money coming into the game, Kerry Packer's idea of cricket under lights was also back - but this time with the backing of all the cricket boards, Australia and New Zealand were the first teams to play one-day international under floodlights at Sydney Cricket Ground in Australia in 1979.
One day format of the game had taken over test cricket, people were getting more and more attracted towards this format of the game. The money began to pour in, big sponsorers were getting attached with the shorter version of the game which resulted in big prize money and big fees for the players. Test cricket was losing it audience, players preferred to play 50-over game rather than the traditional five-day cricket. As all the efforts were put in to make test cricket more interesting, the 20-20 format of the game was introduced, which washed away every little interest that was left in test cricket.
20-20 format of the game became a crowd puller, franchises, for the first time were seen in cricket, cheerleaders were seen dancing on the ground, music being played in the stadium. The colorful atmosphere of this format of the game became the top priority for all countries and with the introduction of Indian Premier League (IPL), leave aside a five-day game (test match) even 50 overs game is slowly losing its audience. The change in time has changed the entire face of cricket.