Cricket is the game of high society in England. It has existed since ancient times and carefully preserves its traditions, not changing them even after many years.
Cricket has become as much a symbol of England as the fog or the monarchy. The game, preferred by gentlemen of high society, has always been popular among the common people. But official cricket clubs have always consisted only of the most noble individuals.
That is why membership of a cricket club served as a distinctive sign of an aristocrat. To this day, the queue for membership of the world’s finest cricket clubs can last for years. By the way, a lot of interesting information about this game can be found here cric-life.com.
Amateurs And Professionals
Cricket is truly a holy of holies for the English, the national game, which they regard as the mother not only of sport but also of morality. It is from cricket that the principles of sporting ethics, which have become for the
English the basis of proper behavior, the yardstick of decency, have their origins. When the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford says that his aim is to teach young people to play straight bat, the meaning of this phrase goes far beyond sport.
A foreign journalist working in London must know the terms and epithets used to describe cricket matches, as well as popular biblical expressions or Latin proverbs: without this you cannot understand a polemic in Parliament or a newspaper editorial.
Cricket was the first sport in which the division into amateurs and professionals was officially recorded in the rules. And the preference for the first of these categories is clearly expressed. The captains of the top teams, for example, until recently could only be amateurs.
Although this principle is no longer observed these days, the former gradation remains relevant in detail.
Amateur locker rooms are traditionally separated from professional locker rooms and differ from them in the same way that first-class ship cabins differ from second-class cabins. It is enough to take a program of any cricket match to see which of the players are amateurs and which are professionals: while the former are indicated by the first names and initials, the latter are usually listed only by last name.
In addition to amateurs and professionals, there are also parallel terms in cricket: gentlemen and players. This second contrast helps to understand why amateurism has come to be identified with belonging to a select class.
Gentlemanly status, like land ownership, was the pinnacle of human ambition. It was believed that the owner of a country estate, if he tried his hand in any field, it was not out of selfish motives, but out of a sense of duty to society or for his own pleasure.
Belonging to the regular labor force was considered a consequence of economic or social dependence. So even if a gentleman worked out of necessity, he still tried to pretend that he treated work as a side hobby, that is, he pretended to be an amateur.
Cricket gear and equipment
The cricket ball has a diameter of 23 cm and weighs 170.5 g. It is made of cork and covered with red leather. There is a slightly protruding double seam around the entire circumference of the ball which, when it hits the ground, helps the pitcher change its flight path.
Cricket bat looks like a paddle, 95 cm long and 6.5 cm wide at the “paddle” part. 6.5 cm.
Interesting facts about cricket
Why is an urn with ashes considered the sanctuary of cricket?
A small urn with ashes is the most famous trophy of world cricket. Two age-old rivals are fighting for it: England and Australia.
Australia defeated England for the first time in their stadium in a Test match in 1882, and the British press, mourning such disgrace, proclaimed the “death of English cricket”, followed by cremation and the sending of ashes to Australia. The England team soon followed, vowing to return the ashes to their homeland.
They got their revenge on the road, and an Australian fan gave the English captain a palm-sized terracotta bottle of perfume.
Legend has it that she filled a makeshift urn with the ashes of burnt bales, two small cylinders connecting the three wicket posts. When the wicket is knocked down, the baileys fly merrily in different directions, and the batsman walks dejectedly from the pitch to the pavilion, like a goalkeeper who missed a decisive penalty kick.
A year later the English captain returned to Australia and the heroes of the story were married.
Since then, the Test match series between Australia and England has been called The Ashes. The next one will begin Aug. 1 and run through mid-September. The English, buoyed by their World Cup victory, are hoping their home walls will help them bring back the trophy as well.
The winner is considered the owner of the Ashes, although the urn itself is always kept in the temple of cricket, the museum of the London Lords. So, Adams’ alien robots didn’t have to wander the Earth in search of the treasure.
Cricket matches are very long
Interestingly, cricket can be called one of the longest sports, as matches between teams can last more than a day. Therefore, spectators who come to cheer at the stadium take plenty of food with them. Some international matches may be played for five days. In the English championship, it takes about four days for athletes to decide the winner.
The most unusual cricket match
In the middle of the road between the Isle of Wight and Southampton in the central Solent is the sandbar Bramble. Its peculiarity is that it appears only once a year. It occurs in early spring at low tide, when the shoreline opens for no more than one hour before the water returns.
During these low tides, the two local cricket clubs hold regular matches. The friendly competition on the sandbank draws huge crowds of spectators and tourists, and has become a tradition for both teams.
