Cricket In India: Origin and Heroes

For more than 100 years it was accepted that cricket began in England. Although no conclusive proof was ever produced regarding the birth of cricket in England, the earliest evidence of the existence of cricket in England was available in the wardrobe accounts of King Charles in 1304. But now cricket anthropologist, Raju Mukherji, the former Bengal cricket captain and freelance journalist, has revealed convincing proof of the existence of cricket in India in the Vedic Age. By citing examples from the The Mahabharata and in association with cricket anthropology, he has discovered the evidence that cricket existed in India at least 2000 years ago. Since no earlier evidence of the presence of cricket is available yet, could it be that the sport of cricket actually originated in the Indian subcontinent? Cricket probably travelled to England through the trade routes of Iran and Iraq. In England the game received ready support from the rural people of the south, particularly Hampshire, Sussex and Kent. The game evolved from its rustic, oriental origins and prospered in England. For centuries the game of cricket did not progress in India. It remained static at the danda-guli stage and was restricted to rural India. However, with Britain planting the seed of the game wherever it went during its colonial rule, fortunately urban India was exposed to the updated version of cricket. Britain established the Calcutta Cricket Club in the 1770s (not in 1792, as is usually thought). In the 1840s the Parsees of Bombay were the first Indians to take to the game.