CBSE Class 9 - HISTORY AND SPORT : THE STORY OF CRICKET

HISTORY AND SPORT : THE STORY OF CRICKET

History of Cricket Bats
credits: wikipedia

(MCQs, Q & A)
Note: MCQs from this chapter were asked in CBSE 2010 Term II examination only.
Q1(CBSE 2010): At which of the following places was the world's first cricket club formed?

(a) Marybone
(b) Hambledon
(c) Melbourne
(d) Adelaide

Answer: (b) Hambledon

Q2(CBSE 2011): Explain why cricket became popular in India and West Indies?



Answer: Cricket became popular in India and West Indies due to following reasons:

1. Being British colonies, cricket was established as popular sport among whites only.
2. Initially, in India and West India, the sport became of a symbol of higher social status among the elites who wanted to copy their colonial masters. Locals were discouraged to play this sport.
3. Later it became a became a measure of racial equality and political progress. e.g. In West Indies, many politicians saw this game a chance for self respect and international standing.

Q3(CBSE 2010): Cricket did not become popular in the countries in South America because :

(a) South American countries were not under American, Spanish and Portuguese influence
(b) Unlike other games like football and hockey, cricket remained a Britain colonial game
(c) It was a part of British colonial game
(d) It was limited to the countries that was not the part of British empire

Answer: (b) Unlike other games like football and hockey, cricket remained a Britain colonial game.

Q4(CBSE 2011):  Which was the first Indian Community to start playing Cricket? How did they contribute to the Cricket?

Answer: Parsis was the first Indian community to start playing the game. They were close contact with the British because of their interest in trade and the first Indian community to westernize. They founded the first Indian Cricket Club called Oriental Cricket Club in Bombay in 1848. The club was funded by Parsis businessmen like Tatas and Wadias. The white elite did not help the Parsis in promoting this game. In fact they obstructed in their way and were prejudiced. e.g. the Whites-only club put up a quarrel with the Parsis over the use of public park. It resulted into formation of their own Gymkhana by the Parsis. In 1889, the Parsis defeated the Bombay Gymkhana (White only club). It paved way to many other Indian communities to open their own cricket clubs but based on the idea of religious community.

Q5(CBSE 2010): The Parsis were the founders of which cricket club?

(a) Marylebone Cricket Club
(b) National Cricket Championship
(c) Oriental Cricket Club
(d) Indian Cricket Club

Answer: (c) Oriental Cricket Club

Q6: Why did the cricket bats were roughly the same shape as hockey sticks during eighteenth century?

Answer: During eighteenth century, in the game of cricket, the ball was bowled underarm,
along the ground and the curve at the end of the hockey-like bat gave the batsman the best chance of making contact. That's why the bats were looked like hockey sticks at that time.

Q7(CBSE 2010): When were the first written “Laws of Cricket” drawn up?

(a) 1703
(b) 1744
(c) 1750
(d) 1760

Answer: (b) 1744

Q8: Name the Australian player who tried to play with an Aluminium bat?

Answer: Dennis Lillee

Q9: When was the first Indian cricket established? What was its name?

Answer: The first Indian club, the Calcutta Cricket Club, was established in 1792.

Q10(NCERT): Test cricket is a unique game in many ways. Discuss some of the ways in which it is different from other team games. How are the peculiarities of Test cricket shaped by its historical beginnings as a village game?

Answer: Test cricket is a unique game in the following ways:

1. A test match can go on for five days and still ends in a draw. While the other sports like hockey, badminton, soccer have fixed duration matches.
2. Unlike other sports the dimensions of cricket playground are not well defined. the length of the
   pitch is specified – 22 yards – but the size or shape of the ground is not. A cricket ground may be oval or round etc.

The uniqueness about this game has historical connection with villages, since it started as a village game.

1. The rhythms of village life were slower and cricket’s rules were made before the Industrial Revolution. 
2. Originally cricket matches had no time limit. The game went on for as long as it took to bowl out a side twice.
3. Cricket was originally played on country commons, unfenced land that was public property.
   The size of the commons varied from one village to another, so there were no designated boundaries or boundary hits. 
4. When the ball went into the crowd, the crowd cleared a way for the fieldsman to retrieve it. Even after boundaries were written into the laws of cricket, their distance from the wicket was not specified. The laws simply lay down that ‘the umpire shall agree with both captains on the boundaries of the playing area’.