Cricket Culture

Everyday Life And Cricket

The influence of cricket on pop culture is noticeable not only in the Commonwealth of Nations, but also worldwide. It influenced the vocabulary of many countries, especially English-speaking ones. You have surely heard such expressions as “a sticky wicket” (in a difficult circumstance), “had good innings” (lived a long life) or “that’s not cricket” (that’s unfair) which originated from this game.

Pop Culture, Arts And Cricket

Such famous poets as Lord Byron and William Blake mentioned this game in their works. The best every written book about sport is “Beyond A Boundary (1963)” by C.L.R. James.

As to the visual arts, such prominent paintings as “Kent vs Lancashire at Canterbury” (1907) by Albert Chevallier Tayler and “The Cricketers” (1948) by Russell Drysdale are considered as the best examples of the 20th century painting. Other artists like a French impressionist Camille Pissarro and Francis Bacon dedicated their works to this sport. The latter, who was a real fan of this sport, even draw a batsman in motion. The works of a Caribbean artist Wendy Nanan can be found on a limited edition of “World of Invention” stamp issue by Royal Mail. This event was dedicated to the London Cricket Conference 2007, which was the preface to the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Cricket And Other Sports

Australian rules football and cricket are closely connected and many sportsmen even competed at high levels of these sports. A famous Australian cricket player Tom Wills proposed to form a “foot-ball club” with “a code of laws” in 1858 to help players in shape at the off-season. In 1859, the Melbourne Football Club appeared and Wills with his friends introduced the first laws of playing this game on modified fields.

In England, numerous association football clubs were founded by cricket players to help sportsmen keep fit. Derby County appeared as a branch of the Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1884, Aston Villa (1874) and Everton (1876) also appeared thanks to church cricket teams. Bramall Lane ground belonged to Sheffield United from 1854. This is the home of the Sheffield Cricket Club, and then of Yorkshire.

In the end of the 19th century, an ex-cricket player Henry Chadwick from New York is often called the “father of baseball” for his early reports and contributions to the game. Chadwick has become a player of cricket and other ball games. He began to cover this game for many local newspapers and faced the organized baseball for the first time in 1856 as a cricket reporter for the New York Times; he watched the match between the Eagles of New York and the Gothams. In 1857 he paid all his attention to baseball joining the New York Clipper, and then was invited to write for other New York papers. He edited the first baseball guide that was sold to the public. He was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.