| Many films about England, which occur in the 1700's | | | | penalties for breaking the laws. The laws were |
| and 1800's, often, have a scene which involves the | | | | explicit on how long the pitch was meant to be from |
| game of Cricket. Although it looks a lot like American | | | | the pitcher to the hitter. They also detailed how far |
| baseball, it is different, seeing as cricket is baseball's | | | | the pitching crease was to be from the bowling |
| predecessor by at least 300 years. The game seems | | | | crease. The bowling crease was where the hitter |
| to be played by all people in all social status circles, | | | | was to stand and wait for the pitch. It addressed the |
| and is enjoyed by all people from the royal family to | | | | exact size of the wicket, along with the ball and how |
| the lowliest commoner. It was also played by all who | | | | much it should weigh. The way that the ball was |
| knew the rules and had the equipment to play the | | | | pitched was always underhand until 1864, when and |
| game. It was recently featured in the movie The | | | | over arm bowling was allowed to be used. This was |
| Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the | | | | the pitch that broke the window in the Narnia movie. |
| Wardrobe and it was because the ball hit and broke a | | | | The history of Cricket game play began before the |
| window that the children hid in the wardrobe and | | | | Civil War and was helpful in keeping the country's |
| ended up in Narnia with a great adventure on their | | | | mind off of the troubles brewing within the nation |
| hands. | | | | itself. The first international game of Cricket was |
| The history of Cricket is long and complex. In 1598, | | | | played in 1844. The teams who played were the |
| the first written record of the game of Cricket was | | | | United States and Canada. |
| recorded as being played. It became solely an adult | | | | As far as an Olympic standing went, Cricket's only |
| game in 1611 and was featured in a Shakespeare | | | | time in the Games was in 1900. This featured France |
| play, because it was so popular with the masses. | | | | and Britain in a game which lasted 5 days of play. |
| After nearly two centuries of being nearly outlawed | | | | This was the normal time period for a game until the |
| by the country's puritanical zealots because the game | | | | 1960's when the game was abbreviated to one day |
| caused people to bet on the games, riot for teams, | | | | of game play. Unfortunately, in 1981, the pitching by |
| get arrested for horrible behavior, or skip church on | | | | underarm bowling was not allowed after a game |
| Sundays to play, the London magistrate declared the | | | | between Australia and New Zealand. The incident |
| game was 'respectable' and could be played without | | | | involved the Australian captain ordering the pitcher of |
| fear of reprisal or jail time. Marylebone Cricket Club | | | | his team to utilize the underarm technique in an |
| wrote the 'Laws of Cricket' in 1788, which gave | | | | effort to stop the New Zealand team from scoring |
| some guidelines to the play of the game and | | | | any more runs. |