1. A sport for women was not designed as vigorous competitive exercise. Croquet was a slow paced elegant game considered suitable for women, especially of the upper class.
The players flowing gowns, frills and hats shows the character of women sports- form illustrated London News 20 July 1872. Read the above passage and answer the following:
(A) What type of sports was designed for women?
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(B) Why croquet was suitable especially for the upper class women?
(A) Croquet
(B) The players flowing gowns, frills and hats were hindrances in playing. So croquet was suitable because it was slow paced elegant game.
2. The revision of the laws by MCC in the latter half of the 18th century brought in what changes in the game of cricket?
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(i) It was decided to pitch the ball in the air instead rolling it along the ground.
(ii) The curved bat was replaced by the straight one.
(iii) The weight of the ball was limited to 5 to 5 ounces while the width of bat was limited to four inches.
(iv) In 1774, the first leg before law was published.
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(v) Third stump became common.
(vi) By 1780, three days had become the length of major matches
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3. ‘The laws of cricket always give the benefit of the doubt to the batsman”.
(i) To which section of society did batsmen in Victorian England belong?
(ii) Give three differences between amateurs and professionals.
(iii) Name the first professional to lead the English Test team.
(i) To the aristocratic and rich sections.
(ii) (a) Amateurs were called Gentlemen while professionals were called Players.
(b) They entered from different entrances.
(c) The Amateurs were generally batsmen while Professionals were bowlers.
(d) Amateurs played for pleasure. Professionals for money
(iii) The Yorkshire batsman, Len Hutton.
4. Explain any three ways where cricket has changed with the time. Also mention any two areas where no change has taken place since the game started in rural England.
Cricket has changed with the time:
(i) Shorter game-day and night matches.
(ii) Televised game-wider audiences.
(iii) Domination by sub-continental teams. 3 Remained true to its roots:
(i) Size of grounds still unspecified – dates back to origin in village commons.
(ii) Equipment still uses natural material
5. “The origins of Indian cricket, that is, cricket played by Indians are to be found in Bombay.”
(i) Which was the first Indian community to start playing cricket?
(ii) Give reasons why they adopted this game.
(iii) Over which issue did they quarrel with the Bombay Gymkhana?
(i) the Parsis/ Zoroastrians
(ii) (a) They came into contact with the British because of their interest in trade,
(b) They became westernized and wanted to play the British game.
(iii) Over the use of a public park. They complained that the polo ponies of the Bombay Gymkhana left the public park unfit for the Parsis to play cricket since the surface was dug up.
6. “The discipline and reliance on one another which it teachers is so valuable, I think, “went on the master-, “it ought to be such an unselfish game. It merges the individual in eleven; he doesn’t play that he may win, but that his side may.” “Extract from Tom Brown’s School days”:
(a) Which game is being referred to?
(b) Which values were believed to be taught by this game?
(c) Give two reasons which British Public Schools taught team sports?
(a) Cricket
(b) The values of discipline, reliance on one another.
(c) (i) Team sport were taught to instill qualities of leadership, hierarchy and codes of honour that would help the English public school boys trained for careers in the military, the civil service and the church to build and run the British empire.
(ii) Team sports like Cricket also confirmed the self image of the Victorian Empire builders as unselfish people trying to civilize a backward people by introducing British law and Western Knowledge since cricket was played not for victory or profit but for its own sake in the spirit of fair play.
7. The 1970s were the decade in which cricket was transformed. It was a time when a traditional game evolved for fit a changing world.”
Give four reasons why the decade of 1970 is the significant in the history of cricket:
(i) Exclusion of South Africa from international cricket.
(ii) First one day international between India and Australia at Melbourne
(iii) First World Cup successfully staged in 1975.
(iv) 100 years of test matches was celebrated in 1977.
8. How are the peculiarities of the Test Cricket shaped by its historic beginning as a village game?
The different rules of the cricket have evolved through the times but this game maintained its continuity with the past when it was a village game:
(i) Its connection with the rural past can be seen it the length of a Test Match. Originally when the game started its journey from the rural past, the cricket matches had no time limit.
(ii) The cricket match continued as long as it took to bowl out a side twice. The village life was quite slower and cricket’s rules were made to conform to these situations.
(iii) After the Industrial Revolution, the life become somewhat quicker, the timings of the Test Match were fixed to three days and then to five days.
(iv) This game was played outside the village on country’s common land which had no limits, no fences and no boundary walls. Even when the boundaries were written into the laws of the cricket game, the distance from the wicket was not specified.
(v) If we see the game’s equipment, it reminds us of the rural impact. All the tools of cricket like bat, stumps and bails are made of wood which is natural and of pre-industrial material. Likewise, both bat and ball are hand-made and not industrially manufactured.
9. Explain why cricket became popular in India and the West Indies. Can you give reason why it did not become popular in countries of South America?
(i) it is strange coincidence that while English team games like hockey and football became international, cricket remained a colonial game, limited to countries which had once been the part of the British Empire
(ii) It took roots in countries which the British once conquered and ruled.
(iii) It was established as a popular sport in West Indies by white settlers. But in India, it was adopted and promoted by local elite or rich people who wanted to copy the habits of their colonial masters.
Why could not Cricket become Popular in South America:
As already said, cricket remained limited to countries which once had been the part of the British Empire. Most of the countries of South America remained under the colonial rule of Europeans powers other than England.
They were under the rule of Spain, Portugal, and France of Holland. So they did not come in contact with England so Cricket (an English game) did not become popular in different countries of South America.