The origin of cricket is still ill-defined. It is conceived that today’s cricket is a modified version of an old bat-and-ball game played as a time pass by some English shepherds. They used stones as balls and their crooks as bats. There are references to cricket being played as a competitive sport in England in the early 14th century.

• The first match ever recorded was played in 1646 in Kent. English county cricket matches started in 1709 with a match between Surrey and Kent.
• The length of the cricket pitch was formalized to 22 yards in 1744.
• The first women’s county cricket match was played in 1811 between Hampshire and Surrey.
• The first ever official international cricket match was played in 1844 between the United States and Canada.
• The first test match was played in 1877 between Australia and England in which Australia came out as the victors.
• The Ashes was coined by Sporting Times in 1882.
• An over was formalized to 6 balls in 1900.
• The notorious bodyline series between Australia and England was played in 1932-33.
• South Africa was excluded from international cricket due to the government’s apartheid policy in 1970.
• The first ever one day international cricket match was played in 1971. The teams were Australia and England.
• South Africa returned to international cricket in 1991.
• International Cricket Council (ICC) became and independent body in 1993.
• The shortest version of the game, Twenty20 cricket was established in 2003.