The game of Cricket was originated in south-east England, but the beginning dates are unknown, first definite reference takes us to the town of Guilford in county of Surrey, England located 27 miles southwest of London. In a documented court case in Guilford in 1597 concerning an ownership dispute over a plot of common land, John Derrick, testified that he and his school friends had played creckett on the site fifty years earlier when they attended the Free School (now Royal Grammar School) placing the date to around year 1550.
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 Google Map – Guildford, England |
Cricket was introduced to North America via the English colonies in the 17th century based on recorded events in Canada & USA. According David Sentance book “Cricket in America, 1710-2000”, first recorded mention of cricket in the united states was on February 20, 1710 for the game of cricket played in the vicinity of James River in Virginia (recorded by William Bird). Manhattan, New York based St George’s Cricket Club founded in 1838 hosted the first international cricket match in 1844, between Canada and the United States and 2nd match in 1859.
 Cricket match played October 3-6 1859 Hoboken, NJ England vs USA |
The first definite reference to cricket being played anywhere in the Indian sub-continent is a report of English sailors of the East India Company written in 1737. It refers to cricket being played at Cambay, near Baroda in 1721. The Calcutta Cricket and Football Club was known to be in existence by 1792, but was possibly founded more than a decade earlier.
Cricket originally came to the West Indies via the British military.The first known reference to cricket in the West Indies is believed to be from June 1806, in the Barbados Mercury and Bridgetown Gazzette.
Cricket then spread through South Africa, established by the British, and the first tour by a side from England took place in 1888–89. On 5 January 1808, a match between two teams of English officers is the earliest definite reference to cricket in South Africa.
 First recorded year of Cricket played in the country or region. |
While the first recorded cricket match in Australia took place in Sydney in December 1803, a report in the Sydney Gazette on 8 January 1804 suggested that cricket was already well established in the British colony. By 1826, clubs including the Currency Cricket Club, the Military Cricket Club and the Australian Cricket Club had been formed and Hyde Park and the Racecourse were the venue for these organized matches. The reverend Henry Williams provided history with the first report of a game of cricket in New Zealand when he wrote in his diary in December 1832 about boys in and around Paihia on Horotutu Beach laying cricket.
As the cricket timeline shows, cricket spread to all continents in the span of 300 years. It is one of the popular sports in many former British ruled countries. The website topendsports.com indicates cricket is the second popular sport after soccer with an estimated 2.5billion fans.
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