Cricket
...rehand underarm had only been allowed. The first ever cricket game played between teams representing their nations was between the USA and Canada in 1844, it was played in America in New Jersey. The first match played between England and Australia was played on March the 15th 1877 in Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Australia won by 45 runs. This started the continuing rivalry between England and Australia in cricket, this is also where the ashes were created. In the 1900 Olympics, cricket made its first and only appearance, only two teams competed, England and France, England won the gold medal game. In 1914 at the start of World War 1, international cricket was suspended, first class matches were still played though. In between the two world wars three more teams acquired test status, they were New Zealand, West Indies, and India. During a tour of Australia by England in 1932-1933 the so called bodyline series, England adopted a tactic of bowling fast short pitched balls at Australia’s batsmen, to make them lose their wicket cheaply. After this series the Laws of Cricket were changed to prevent any reoccurrence of the tactic. With the outbreak of World War 2 international cricket was again suspended. In the post war era Pakistan played in their first Test match on October 16th, 1952 in Delhi against India, this was the first International match played without England competing. In 1970 members of the international cricket council voted to suspend South Africa from international cricket due to its governments discrimination of the apartheid. In 1960 English County teams began playing a version of cricket with modified rules, which is now called One Day Cricket. Many supporters thought this game was a corruption of what they called real cricket. The first one day international was played in 1971 in Australia. One day cricket has since become the most popular form of the game. One day cricket in fact has proved so popular that the International Cricket Council organised the first cricket World Cup in 1975, held in England, Australia lost the final to the West Indies. This match was so exciting that it cemented one day cricket’s popularity and led to world cups being played every four years. Cricket underwent a huge upheaval in the years of 1977 to 1979 due to one man, Kerry Packer. The poor pay and conditions of International Cricket made it easy for Packer to sign some of the best players in the world to play cricket in a privately run cricket league, outside the structure of International Cricket. This was called World Series Cricket, Packer hired some of the banned South African team members to show their skill in an international forum against other world class players. Barry Richards performed particularly well and many fans realised what they were missing out on from the banned South African team. The introduction of World Series cricket brought higher player salaries, night matches and coloured uniforms into the mainstream. In the 1970’s and 1980’s the globalisation of cricket began. In the late 1970’s and 1980’s the dominance of the West Indies started. In 1982 on the 17th of February, Sri Lanka played its first test match against England in Colombo. Sri Lanka remained a relatively weak team until the 1996 World Cup where they unexpectedly won. This victory was built on a radical change in the game, up to this point teams scored slowly at the start of an innings and increased towards the end. Sri Lanka however attacked from the first bowl being bowled, since this all teams have adopted this strategy which has revolutionised one day cricket. Following the abolition of the apartheid in South Africa, the ICC officially reinstated South Africa as a full test nation in 1991. South Africa played its first official international game since 1970 against India on the 10th of November 1991, a one day game won by India. South Africa’s first Test match played since being banned was against the West Indies, on April the 18th, 1992, the West Indies won by fifty two runs. South Africa’s cricketing skills had slipped a little during its isolation period, but they were soon to prove they were a strong team. In the 1990’s two more cricket teams were includ...