Cricket: The Religion taught by the English

India is a cradle of religions. Religious diversity makes India a unique nation with umpteen problems surrounding religions. This is because Indians are passionate about the religion they belong. It gives each one his/her own identity. Cricket is a unifying factor for India. Everyone adores cricket. Cricket makes people overlook their religious disparities. The only one thing that can unite Indians is Cricket, because it crosses the boundaries of religion, caste, creed, nationality, and colour.

Origins of Cricket go back to the Dark Ages, after Roman Empire and before the Normans invaded England. Game was played from an old and uncomplicated pastime entertainment by which one player served a wooden piece or a ball and the other player hit with a club. We have no apposite evidence for this. But during the time of the Tudors, cricket evolved far enough from club-ball to be recognisable game as it’s played today and was played in many parts of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. There are a few smidgens of Cricket being mentioned in Florio’s Italian-English dictionary in 1598. In 1676 British residents in Aleppo, Syria appeared to have played cricket first time abroad. After which cricket became a leisure time sport for the English. Therefore, world owes England for its foundations.

India should be ever indebted to English for introducing cricket through the British Raj. Cricket came to India through the “British East India Company”. The company founded the city of Madras in 1661, an important passage for the British merchants. In 1661, the company acquired Portuguese territory, including Bombay. In 1690 Anglo-Mughal treaty allowed English Merchants to establish business in Calcutta. These above places became major cricket centres and the interest for cricket grew among the native people. Calcutta Cricket and Football club is seemed to have existed since then.

 

English Sailors from the company appeared to have chronicled in 1737 that the First class cricket was played in Cambay, near Baroda in 1721 for the first time. Officially in the year 1893 Indian cricket was given the first class status. In 1889-90, the first ever-foreign team to play in India was the English team led by George Vernon. And in 1892-93, two seasons of first class cricket was played between Europeans Versus Parsees in Bombay. In the same season Lord Hawke led the English team to play four first class matches in Poona.

It is needless to say that the cricket in India has grown leaps and bounds in the last century and India has been added with laurel in the form of World Cup in 1983. More importantly, cricket marries the hearts and minds of Indians, irrespective of their religions. This has impacted colossally on religious tolerance. Ruptured India apparently unites under one religion called “Cricket.” Hence, we Indians are incredibly grateful to the English for leaving the legacy of cricket. Thank you Britain. Let the power of sports unite the minds and heart of people to make this world a better place without any discrimination.