Interesting Facts About CRICKET

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the runs scored by the batting team. Here are some interesting facts about this game :-

1. The game of cricket is the second most popular game in the world, second only to soccer. Cricket in its early days in England was considered a child's game, not to be played by serious adults.

2. The longest cricket match in history occurred in 1939 between England and South Africa. The match lasted for 14 days and finally ended in a tie

3. Finally in the year 1788 the "Laws of Cricket" were born. The Laws were written by the Marylebone Cricket Club.

4. Sachin Tendulkar is the first batsman to be dismissed (run out) by using the television replays by the third umpire, Jonty Rhodes was the fielder. Next day,in the same test match,Jonty Rhodes was given run out by the umpire.This time the fielder was none other than Sachin Tendulkar.!!

5. The ICC was formed in 1909. The Imperial Cricket Conference was formed to govern the laws of cricket. The ICC is known today as the International Cricket Conference.


6. A match between Barbados and British Guyana in 1946 saw an over with 14 balls in which there were no wides or no balls ! The 8 ball over was in force and the extra six deliveries were due to umpiring miscounting !!!

7. SHAHID AFRIDI used a bat borrowed from Waqar Younis to score the fastest century in a One-Day International.!!

8. The only law of Cricket that has not had any changes or modifications,is the length of the pitch.

9. Geoff.Boycott was the one who faced the first ball in One-Day cricket. Graham Mc-Kenzie was the bowler.

10. In the first ever Test in 1877, Australia beat England by 45 runs. 100 yrs later,in the Centenary Test ,the result was exactly the same.!!

11. The 6 balls over were first introduced in 1900.

12. Hassan Raza is the youngest player to play an International Test match as he was 14 years 227 days at that time!

13. Cricket has appeared in the Olympics only twice. The first time was in 1896 in Athens, however, when it came down to it there were not enough teams to compete so the competition did not occur. Then, in 1900 at the Paris Olympics, only two teams were able to compete: Great Britain and France. The winner, Great Britain, received the gold medal.

14. The first century in Test cricket was scored by Charlie Bannerman of Australia in 1877.

15. The first bowler to take 10 wickets in a Test innings was Jim Laker in 1956.