Origin of Cricket
The origins of cricket lie somewhere in the dark ages - probably after the roman empire,
almost certainly before the normans invaded england and almost certainly somewhere in
northern europe. no one knows when or where cricket began but there is a body of
evidence, much of it circumstantial, that strongly suggests the game was devised during
saxon or norman times by children living in the weald, an area of dense woodlands and
clearings in south-east england that lies across kent and sussex. it is generally believed
that cricket survived as a children's game for many generations before it was increasingly
taken up by adults around the beginning of the 17th century. all research concedes that the
game derived from a very old, widespread and uncomplicated pastime by which one player
served up an object, be it a small piece of wood or a ball, and another hit it with a suitably
fashioned club.
A number of words are thought to be possible sources for the term "cricket". In the earliest
known reference to the sport in 1598 (see below), it is called creckett. the name may have
been derived from the middle dutch krick(-e), meaning a stick; or the old english cricc or
cryce meaning a crutch or staff. another possible source is the middle dutch word
krickstoel, meaning a long low stool used for kneeling in church and which resembled the
long low wicket with two stumps used in early cricket.
According to Heiner Gillmeister, a european language expert of bonn university, "cricket"
derives from the middle dutch met de (krik ket)sen (i.e., "with the stick chase"), which also
suggests a dutch connection in the game's origin. it is more likely that the terminology of
cricket was based on words in use in south east England at the time and, given trade
connections with the county of flanders, especially in the 15th century when it belonged to
the duchy of burgundy, many middle dutch words found their way into southern english
dialects.
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