Times and cricket

Times and cricket,

By the 17th century, ‘cricket' was quite popular as a crude rural pastime. But in the following century, the sport suddenly saw kudos and was taken up particularly by Sussex, Kent and London. An organized match was held at the Artillery Grounds, Finsbury, London, in 1730.

The first and most influential cricket club in the land was formed at Hambledon, Hampshire, in the 1760s. This Club established certain rules which still hold today. Hambledon claims a page in history books as the "Birthplace of Cricket".

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was created by Thomas Lord, and had its headquarters at Lord's ground. MCC gave cricket its first formal laws in 1835 which still stand largely intact.

The mid-18th century witnessed cricket being played at every social level. Roger Fenton took the earliest known cricket photographs in 1857 at the Artillery Ground.