Dshss
Bachloers of engineering, BE mechanical engineering, A
2021 – 2024
Activities and Societies:
Cricket, Instagram, volleyball, football
History is not just about the dramatic events in the world. It is equally about the
small things in our lives. Everything around us has a history – the clothes we wear,
the food we eat, the music we hear, the medicines we use, the literature we read, the
games we play. All these have evolved over time. Since we relate to them in our daily
lives, their history escapes us. We never pause to think what things were like a
century ago; or how people in different societies see these everyday things – food
and clothing for instance – differently.
Chapter VII is on History and Sports. You will study this history through the story
of one game that in India has captured the imagination of the nation for some decades.
News of cricket today hits the headline of newspapers. Cricket matches are organised
to establish friendship between nations and cricketers are seen as ambassadors of the
country. The game has, in fact, come to represent the unity of India. But did you
know that this was not always so? This chapter will tell you about the long and
chequered history of the game.
At one time, a century and half ago, cricket was an English game. It had been invented
in England and became intimately linked to the culture of nineteenth century
Victorian society. The game was expected to represent all that the English valued –
fair play, discipline, gentlemanliness. It was introduced in schools as part of a wider
programme of physical training through which boys were to be moulded into ideal
citizens. Girls were not to play games meant for boys. With the British, cricket
spread to the colonies.