The game of cricket
Origins Main article: History of cricket to 1725 Cricket is one of many games in the "club ball" sphere that basically involve hitting a ball with a hand-held implement; others are baseball, golf, hockey,a tennis, squash, and table tennis.[2] In cricket's case, a key difference is the existence of a solid target structure, the wicket (originally, it is thought, a "wicket gate" through which sheep were herded), that the batsman must defend.[3] The cricket historian Harry Altham identified three "groups" of "club ball" games: the "hockey group", in which the ball is driven to and fro between two targets (the goals); the "golf group", in which the ball is driven towards an undefended target (the hole); and the "cricket group", in which "the ball is aimed at a mark (the wicket) and driven away from it".[4] It is generally believed that cricket originated as a children's game in the south-eastern countie...