Its really interesting and fascinating to know how this wonderful game began.

The Origin of Cricket is obscure and there are several theories how the game started. Some theories say that sheep heads were the first ones to play the game. One would stand in front of a wicket gate facing the sheepfold and the other would bowl a stone or something similar at him and the sheepheard at the wicket gate would hit it with his crook. This is how the game came to be known as Cricket .

If the game of cricket was to be explained to a layman we would say that there are three stumps at either end on a piece of land which we call a pitch. The rest of the land is covered with grass and there is also a rope acround the field and this rope is called the boundary rope. A person who stands in front of the three stumps with a wooden log at one end of the pitch is called the Batsman and the wooden log is called a Bat. At the other end there is a person who throws the ball and he is called a Bowler. A bowler bowls the ball with a legal action that reaches the stumps. It is this ball that the batsmen at the other end has to hit. For every run taken by the batsmen between the two ends of the wickets after he has hit the ball and before it is fielded and thrown back to the bowler or wicketkeeper, he scores a run. A batsmen scores a four when the ball crosses the boundary rope indirectly it is signaled to be Boundary or 4 runs. But when it crosses the rope directly it is signaled as Sixer i.e. 6 runs. There are two people in white clothes that officiate the game they are called Umpires .

The first match of cricket was played in 1300 and it was between Prince Edward Vs Persis Gavestone .

The first recorded match was between the English County sides Surrey Vs Kent and it was played on 29 June 1707.

Many people say the first ever recorded international match was played between Australia Vs England. The two countries later on created history by playing the
Ashes which is still played today with a lot of passion ..

The Father of modern day cricket was Dr. W.G .Grace. He was an elegant gentleman with a long beard and he was said to be the best batsmen cricket has ever seen or will see. He could never been seen on T.V. but extracts show that he had an awesome record.

A hilarious incident happened on the field when the the father of modern day cricket W.G.Grace was batting - he got out on the first ball that he faced in that particular match, so W.G.Grace went back to the wickets and put the stumps back on and told the bowler that the crowd had come to see him bat and they had not come to see him bowl, that was the aura of the Doctor W.G.Grace .

He was the first all rounder in cricket and in the generation. He played 22 Tests for England and scored 1098 runs at an 32.29 average and he picked up 9 wickets and his best bowling figures in a match were 2 wicket for 12 runs, and his highest score in an innings was 170. He scored 20-100's and 5-50's in his Test career and he also took 39 catches.

His record for England was very mediocre compared to his first class career.

In his First class career he played a staggering 880- first class matches he scored a staggering 54,896 runs at an average of about 33.95. He scored 126-100's and 254-50's and his Highest Score was - 344.

Cricket is played in three formats - Test Cricket which is played over 5 days in white kits and it is said be the hardest and best form of cricket and it is the place where the real talent of a player is showcased. Then comes 50-50 Cricket or modern day One Day Cricket which is played in coloured kits and was the most entertaining form of cricket for some time. TAnd last but not the least the new baby of them all Twenty- Twenty Cricket. It is the fastest form of cricket and the most entertaining form of cricket appealing to all age groups.

The First Test was played between arch rivals England Vs Australia. These matches were hard fought and they gave us the Bodyline Series between Douglas Jardien's England and Sir Don Bradman's Australia in 1922/1923. England's Captain Douglas Jardien used a leg side theory to stop Sir Donald Bradman from scoring. He asked his bowlers to bowl at the bodies of the Australian batsman so that they could not score. It was not a series to be proud of. Australia lost the series.

Sir Donald Bradman was said to be the best batsmen and the world had seen him play on television. He is the only man to have an average of 99.94. He could have had a perfect average of 100, if he had scored 6 runs in his last game. But that was not possible because he got out for a duck in his last test match when he was dismissed by Erick Holmes. He was the second man to score 300 runs in an inning after the Doctor W.G Grace. Sir Don's highest single innings score was 334 and he had hit 29 - centuries. He was an awesome batsmen.

Talking about Test Cricket it has seen many rivalries. One between Australia and England stands out and it is known the "Ashes". The "Ashes" is an urn which consisted of ashes of cricket equipment and bails it is presented to the team that wins the ashes. It is with Australia at this point of time.

Some great players to grace the game of test cricket were Sunil Gavskar of India and Allan Border of Australia. They held the records for highest number of runs in a career and Muttiah Murlidharan has the world record for highest number of wickets in Test Cricket -756 wickets and he is still playing.

Test cricket is where the real Cricketer takes birth and it gave birth to one of the Best Batsmen that world of cricket has ever seen. His name is Brian Charles Lara; he has scored 375 runs and it was the highest score a batsmen had scored in a single innings. It was a world record that he had achieved against England. Few years down the road a guy called Matthew Hayden broke his recorded by scoring 380 runs in a single test innings against Zimbabwe. Brain Lara was eager to get his world record back and he broke Matthew Hayden's record by scoring a swashbuckling 400 runs - it was sheer coincidence that that the record was achieved against England. This is the story about Test Cricket .

The new form of Cricket that emerged is called 50-50 over or One Day Internationals. In the begining they were 60-60 overs a side but was later reduced to 50-50 overs. ODI were played in colored clothing and it was the first time ever that cricket was not played in whites.

ODI gave birth to the greatest tournament in the world - World Cup of Cricket. The World Cup takes place ever 4 years and it is the single most important tournament in the cricketing calendar and it decides which is the best team in the world. There have been 9 editions of the prestigious World Cup since its inauguration in 1975. West Indies have won the world cup twice - in 1975 when it began and in 1979. In 1983 Kapil Dev's team stopped the formidable West Indies from winning the world cup when no one gave India a chance. Pakistan had won the world cup of 1992 under their influential and charismatic Captain Imran Khan. The Sri Lankans shocked the world when they defeated Australia to lift the World Cup in 1996 under the captaincy Of Aurjuna Ranatunga. Australia has won the world cup 4 times - 1977, 1999, 2003 and they are the reigning world champions.

ODI and World Cup have seen great rivalry between India and Pakistan in all editions of the world cup. India has never lost to Pakistan in the world cup. India and Pakistan have played 5 times in the world cup and India had never lost to Pakistan.

Sachin Tendulkar of India holds the record for highest number of Centuries in a One Day International ie 42 -100's and 89-50's. The total number of runs he has scored till date is 16,361 with his highest score being 183. Sir Don Bradman has compared Sachin Tendulkar to himself and that is praise indeed!

In the ODI format Cricket was played under flood lights or artificial lights for the first time. It was an instant success and transformed the game.

One particular match comes to mind - it was the first time a team had scored those may runs. This match was between Australia and South Africa. Australia scored 434 runs in 50 overs in the bull ring in Johannesburg. South Africa chanced it down and scored 438 runs to win with 4 balls to spare! It was a run fest which was started by Australian Captain Ricky Ponting when he scored 164 runs of 104 balls to help set the target . South Africa started their innings and out came to open (Mr Cool) Hershel Gibbs who scored 175 runs in 111 balls to turn the match in South Africa's favor and later on went on to win the match. The total runs scored in the day was 872 and Australian fast bowler Miki Lewis was the most expensive bowler - he gave away 113 runs in 10 overs .

ODI was the answer to test cricket but then was born the newest baby of world cricket called "Twenty Twenty". It was played and tested in county cricket in England. People took to 20-20 because it was less time consuming and it finished in 3 hours and they would not have to spend the whole day in the stadium. It's short duration and entertaing power has been very well received by people of all age groups and the whole family can watch it together.

After a few years of letting 20-20 get its feet off the ground the International Cricket Council proposed to hold a 20-20 World Championship.

These tournaments started on 11th September and ended on 29th September 2007. It had all the test playing nations. A lot of great and prominent players, mostly traditionalists and many a columnists wrote off 20-20. It would come as a new learning experience to everyone. Australia were tipped to win it as they were the world champions.

The ICC World 20-20 Championship had a round robin format where each team would play 2 matches and the two teams with maximum points would go to the super 8's and so on so forth to the semi-finals and finals.

The first match of the Championship was played between the hosts South Africa vs West Indies. It was an amazing opening encounter. The only century in 20- 20 history was hit and it was hit by Chris Gayle and then a great knock by Hershel Gibbs. Chris Gayle scored 117 runs with 10-6's and 5-4's and H.S.Gibbs scored 90 runs of 55 balls and they chased down.

The match of the tournament according to my view was the Indo-Pak Thriller. India stumbled to 141 all out and then India managed to somehow draw the match. So it went to a Bowl Out and India won comfortably in the bowl out. A bowl out is where the bowlers have to hit the stumps directly with the ball. There is much tension at this point but it is also fun and extremely exciting.

The Tournament saw the rise of of the youth in cricket and made them young superstars of the moment and the future. It also saw amazing bowling and fielding.

Then came the finals of the tournament on 24 Sept 2007. It was the final that has always been dreamt of by people of both countries. It was an India vs Pakistan Final and it was the first time they were playing each other in any world cup finals .

India batted first and managed 158 with Gautam Gambhir as the top scorer; he was also the highest run getter of the series. And then India did the unthinkable, they managed to defeat Pakistan and we became the FIRST WORLD CHAMPIONS OF THE T-20 WORLDCUP. It was a day of triumph and the total credit goes to Capt MS Dhoni and his boys. World Champions....... it feels awesome........even today....... The memories still linger in my mind........