India
Cricket is played in every corner of India, on city streets, in village fields, and on maidans—open playing fields, the largest of which (such as the Azad, Cross, and Oval maidans in South Mumbai can host dozens of overlapping matches. Historically, Indian cricketers have displayed a good eye and strong wrists, and Indian batsmen, most notably Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, have been some of the most productive and stylish in the history of cricket. The dry flat pitches of the subcontinent have also traditionally produced high-class spin bowlers.
The origins of the game in India date to the 18th century. A touring team led by the English gentleman cricketer Lord Hawke played a match against the “All India” team in January 1893. India played its first Test in 1932 and waited 20 years for its first Test victory, against England in Madras (now Chennai). The game developed so fast in India, however, that by the end of the 20th century India was one of the world’s foremost cricketing countries. With the growth of the Indian Premier League in the early 21st century, it became the undisputed home of Twenty20 cricket and the financial hub of the international game, though the popularity of Test cricket has declined dramatically in India. India’s prominence in one-day cricket was further confirmed when it won the Cricket World Cup in 2011.
New Zealand
Cricket has always taken second place to rugby in the sports priorities of New Zealanders, but, as in Australia, the game has a strong national structure in New Zealand. The long history of domestic cricket in the country is often dated from the first representative interprovincial match, between Auckland and Wellington, in 1860, though there is evidence that unofficial matches between provinces were played in New Zealand decades earlier. The NZ Cricket Council was formed in 1894 and was admitted to full membership of the ICC in 1926. With only a small base of players on which to draw, New Zealand has always struggled to compete with England and Australia in Test cricket. As in most cricketing countries, the one-day game has proved more popular in New Zealand. In Richard Hadlee, who was knighted in 1990, the country produced one of the greatest cricketers of any era.
Pakistan
The development of cricket in Pakistan has been chaotic, quixotic, and exotic in roughly equal measure. Under the leadership of Imran Khan, Pakistan won the 1992 World Cup, but often its cricket was blighted by political interference and scandal. A low point was reached in 2010: To begin with, the national team was in virtual exile, unable to persuade other countries to play in Pakistan for fear of terrorist attacks in the wake of an assault in Lahore on the visiting Sri Lankan team bus in March 2009 that left six policemen dead and several players injured. Moreover, three members of the Pakistani team touring England were involved in allegations of “spot fixing”—that is, fixing the results of certain bowls in return for money—and were banned by the ICC. Huge profits could be made in illegal betting markets in Asia by predicting the results of individual bowls. Only a few years earlier several Pakistan players also had been banned as a result of investigations over match fixing. Yet Pakistan has also produced a host of talented cricketers such as Khan, Wasim Akram, Abdul Qadir, and Inzamam-ul-Haq and has proved itself adept at Twenty20 cricket, winning the T20 World Cup in 2009.
South Africa
South Africa played its first Test, against England in Port Elizabeth, as early as in 1889. Cricket has been at the heart of the country’s sporting culture ever since. When South Africa was banned from the ICC from 1970 to 1991 because of its apartheid policies, cricket administrators worked quietly to integrate nonwhite players into the system, which was based largely on traditional all-white schools and state teams. When apartheid was abolished, cricket was far more prepared to cope with the social and political changes than was rugby union. Makhaya Ntini, a world-class fast bowler, who made his international debut for South Africa in 1998 and played in more than 100 Tests, served as a role model for the new generation of black cricketers. On the other hand, in 2000 Hansie Cronje, the captain of South Africa, was banned for match fixing in a scandal that brought into question the integrity of South African cricket. It was not until 2003, when South Africa hosted a successful World Cup, that the rehabilitation of country’s cricketing reputation was complete. South Africa has always been a great exporter of cricketers, mainly to England. Allan Lamb and Robin Smith were prominent members of the England team in the 1980s and ’90s; Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott were mainstays of the Ashes-winning side of 2010.
Sri Lanka
Even before Test status was awarded to Sri Lanka in 1981, the island country was a popular destination for touring teams, particularly for English teams on the way to Australia by boat. Given the disadvantages of its relatively small population and of the civil war that disrupted life on the island for three decades, Sri Lanka developed into a top cricketing country with surprising speed. In 1996 it won the World Cup, beating Australia in the final by playing aggressive, innovative cricket under the inspired leadership of Arjuna Ranatunga. The victory instilled belief in a new generation of players that included Sanath Jayasuriya; Mahela Jayawardene, an elegant and aggressive batsmen; and Muttiah Muralitharan, who in 2010 became the first bowler to take 800 Test wickets. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 devastated the cricket-playing regions of southern Sri Lanka, including the Test match ground at Galle, and took the lives of many promising young players. Nonetheless, Sri Lanka recovered to reach the World Cup final again in 2007. Calamity struck again in 2009, when the Sri Lankan team’s bus was attacked by terrorists on the way to the ground for the second Test against Pakistan in Lahore.
West Indies
Cricket has been a unifying force in the Caribbean since the West Indies became the fourth Test-playing side in 1928. The islands have generally played other sports as independent countries, but British colonial influence contributed to the formation of a united regional team. For a time in the 1970s and ’80s, when the West Indian team featured a quartet of fast bowlers—led by Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts, and Joel Garner—and batsmen of the destructive capacity of Sir Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd, the West Indies were virtually unbeatable. Blessed with an abundance of talented players and true pitches, Caribbean cricket has always been played with an unorthodox flourish, seen most clearly in the batsmanship of Sir Garfield Sobers, Richards, and Brian Lara.
In the 21st century cricket declined in popularity in the West Indies, a result of a lack of strong administrative leadership and because of the increasing appeal of potentially more lucrative sports such as athletics (track and field), football (soccer) and basketball. After playing in the finals of the first three World Cups (1975, 1979, and 1983) and winning the first two, the West Indian team failed—with the exception of 1996—to reach even the knockout stage of subsequent World Cups, including in 2007, as the host of the event.
Zimbabwe
Until Test status was granted to Zimbabwe in 1992, the country’s best cricketers, such as Colin Bland, played for South Africa. Indeed, the history of the cricket in the two countries has been inextricably linked. Long before the newly independent and renamed Zimbabwe became an associate member of the ICC in 1980, teams representing its Rhodesian forerunner states had participated in the Currie Cup, the South African domestic first-class tournament (first in 1904–05, then in the early 1930s, and again after World War II). Competing in its first World Cup in 1983, Zimbabwe surprised the world by beating Australia, yet Graeme Hick, arguably the country’s best batsman, left shortly thereafter to play for England.
Zimbabwean cricket in the early 21st century has been marked by chaotic administration and political interference. In 2004 Heath Streak was sacked as captain of the national team, precipitating a crisis from which Zimbabwe took years to emerge, including an exile from Test cricket that began in 2006 and ended in 2011. The country’s political volatility during this period had much to do with the situation. In the 2003 World Cup, for example, England forfeited its match in Zimbabwe, citing security concerns. During the same tournament, two Zimbabwe players, Andy Flower and Henry Olonga, wore black armbands to “mourn the death of democracy” in their country.
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