Who's the real inventor of cricket

11 October, 2008

The bitter facts about the realities hidden in the history of cricket needs to be revealed. Its said that cricket was invented in England but is it really true when it comes to playing the game in its true spirit?

THE ASHES is one of the oldest and is considered as the greatest rivalry in the history of international cricket. This series was first played in the year 1877 between two great cricketing nations Australia and England and the game was won by the invincible Aussies by a margin of 45 runs. Likewise, a number of Ashes Cup were played over the years and a number of great players who registered their name in the list of heroes fought for their nation and got recognised.

By the coming of the 21st century, the Aussies had set a huge dominance over the game and it became really difficult to defeat them in any of the departments be it balling, batting or fielding. The sheer determination, positiveness and brilliant game plan led to their rule over modern cricket.

Dominance of the Aussies over the game was felt by every other cricketing nation. They are being compared to machines, because they never seem to give up. The secret of winning and winning all the time has its own ingredients in it, which are well possessed by the Kangaroos. When it comes to the England cricket team, they have never been consistent in their performance. There have been a lot of ups and downs in the history of England cricket team.

When they are in good form, they do perform but when its about their time, they don’t try hard to back up and try and get themselves out of the bad form. To my knowledge, I have seen no team as consistent as the Aussies, because they always try hard and make it difficult for the opposition, even when the game is totally out of their hand. The rivalry of Ashes has been considered as the greatest but in my opinion it isn’t; as I consider England nowhere in comparison to Aussies.

There was a time when the Ashes was played in its true spirit, but now its not fair to compare England with the ’Kangaroos’. Its been accepted that the game is invented by England but they themselves have lost their way and have not even won a single one day international (ODI) world cup despite reaching the finals three times.

The England team has its own history and its own story to tell. They always seem to stick to their old orthodox way of playing the game. I never saw the team changing its phase with the coming time. They had lost to the Aussies many a times, but still the rivalry between them is considered the biggest one. Not only in the regular ODI’s but also in the recent Ashes, which had been played between them proves the fact that the Australians are far ahead than the ’Barmy Armies’. The Ashes, which took place in England was won by them, 2-1 and that series was totally dedicated to one player that is ’Andrew Flintoff’. He was at his best in that series and he outplayed the Aussies in every department of the game . The Aussies never felt such humiliation after the defeat in Indian series 2-1. It was a pleasure to watch, as Flintoff was at his peak and was looking really dangerous with his home crowd support cheering for him.

The Barmy Army celebrated that win in a huge fashion. They held rally all over Britain stating the defeat of Aussies as it doesn’t happen so often and also to the fact that defeating them in The Ashes is something really special, but soon after that Ashes series in the two years time another Ashes series took place and that was in Australia. Each Australian player was in a pressure to perform under the home crowd and eventually they did perform , as they won the five match test series 5-0, making a clean sweep It’s evident, without an iota of doubt, that the Ashes are the best cricketing team in the world.