The History Of Indian Cricket

Cricket is religion in India. How many times have we heard that in the news, read that in newspaper, quoted in conversations? Though the National game of India is Hockey but it is cricket that has the Indian public’s heart. People follow this game like a religion. People in India might not be aware of Indian Hockey team’s captain but they are aware of cricketers playing for the first time in national colours. Corporate houses, politicians, even the media wants to get associated with cricket in one form or the other. This wasn’t always the case with cricket. There was a time when cricket was a game only for the royals and the privileged and the common man had no or very little access to it.

As far as the beginning of First class Cricket in India is concerned, it was marked by a match played between Madras and Calcutta in the year 1864. In the year 1877, the Bombay Presidency Match was played for the first time. Later, it first changed into the Bombay Triangular and then the Bombay Quadrangular. In the year 1892-93 it was awarded with the First class status.

In the year 1889-90 an English team arrived at India. The captain of this team was George Vernon, which eventually was the first foreign Cricket team to arrive India, although the matches that it played over here are not considered to be First class Cricket matches.In the year 1892-93 two matches had been played between Europeans team and Parsees team at Bombay (now Mumbai) and Poona (now Pune). This is considered to be the regular beginning of First class Cricket in the country. After this, four First class matches were played between an English team led by Lord Hawke and an All India team between 26th and 28th of January 1893.

As far as the presence of Indian team in the international Cricket arena is concerned, the team played the MCC tour since October 1926 till February 1927. Within the tour, the Indian team played 26 First class matches in India and 4 First class Matches in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Captain of the team was Arthur Gilligan, which included Andy Sandham, Arthur Dolphin, Bob Wyatt, George Geary, Ewart Astill, George Brown and Maurice Leyland as the other players.The Indian team started playing Test Cricket in the English Season of the year 1932. The team played against the English team at Lords Cricket Ground. The English team defeated the Indian team in the match by 158 runs.Continuing its presence in the International Cricket arena, Maharaj Kumar of Vizianagaram (real name Lt. Col. Sir Vijayananda Gajapathi Raju) formed his own team of accomplished Cricket players including Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe. The team visited Ceylon and played some matches in India too during 1930-31.

After gaining independence, India made its first ever Test Series victory against the arch rival Cricket team of Pakistan in the year 1952. The victory gave a great boost to the game in the nation, as some of the All Time Gems of the Indian Cricket showed their remarkable skills during this Test Series. These players included Vijay Manjarekar, S.M.Gupte and Polly Umrigar.

he Cricket team of India continued to show its brilliant performance in the new millennium, and the new youthful squad has seen some new faces and remarkable victories.