India & World Cricket

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Cricket is one of the most popular sports today. Although cricket originated in England in 1598, but the first Test in cricketing history was played in 1876-77 in Australia. Increasingly dominated by the Asian countries, the game today has spread across the globe, and is played with much interest even in America, Israel, France, Fiji and Gulf countries. From a leather ball with a stuffing of hair as its core to the modern cork core with stitches at its seam, from a crooked bat to the modern flat one, from five-day Tests to One-day matches, from whites to coloured sports wear-cricket has come a long way.

This book looks at the history of cricket, its development over the years, the Test playing Nations and other countries, including cricketing controversies, World Cups, as well as India's contribution to the game. The book also lists popular cricket grounds, major records and other firsts of the game. A must-read for all cricket buffs.

Prof. Suryaprakash Chaturvedi has been writing on cricket in various newspapers and magazines for the last three decades. Besides, he has also hosted various programmes on All India Radio, Doordarshan, and UGC. His books on cricket include C K Nayudu, Hamare Aaj Ke Cricket Sitare and Azad Bharat Mein Cricket.

Shri Sandeep Sinha is the Chief Copy Editor with the Hindustan Times. He has reviewed, edited and penned many articles and reports for several newspapers and magazines.

I have tried to record the gradual development of cricket in this book, by evaluating when and how the game began to be played in different countries. It is interesting to learn when cricket was first played in England, and then reached the Commonwealth countries and the other nations. It is not just played in African countries, even nations like Egypt, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Shanghai, France and Thailand have adopted it. Its popularity is unparalleled in the world. After the one-day version of the game came its day-night variety. Now matches are being played with white balls in floodlights. 'Indoor' cricket has also started. Because of this, there is a possibility that in places where cricket can not be played due to unfavourable weather, it will now be possible to play it indoors. .

It was a difficult and challenging job to present the one hundred and fifty-year-old history of world cricket in the form of a book. In Hindi, there is no book on the history of this popular game. This is the English translation of the original Hindi book. I have tried to describe cricket-related activities in all countries. I have also tried to remove misconceptions which seek to portray it as a game that is played by slave countries, is limited to a few countries and indulged in only by the privileged. It was not easy to gather the necessary facts from different places, collect photographs and present the whole thing in a book form.