Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of, a 20-metre pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striking the ball bowled at the wicket with the bat, while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this and dismiss each player. Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, by the fielding side catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground; when ten players have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The game is adjudicated by two umpires, aided by a third umpire and match referee in international matches, they communicate with two off-field scorers. There are various formats ranging from Twenty20, played over a few hours with each team batting for a single innings of 20 overs, to Test matches, played over five days with unlimited overs and the teams each batting for two innings of unlimited length.
Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the basic kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball, a hard, solid spheroid made of compressed leather with a raised sewn seam enclosing a cork core, layered with wound string. Cricket's origins are uncertain and the earliest definite reference is in south-east England in the middle of the 16th century, it spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, leading to the first international matches in the second half of the 19th century. The game's governing body is the International Cricket Council, which has over 100 members, twelve of which are full members who play Test matches; the game's rules are held in a code called the Laws of Cricket, owned and maintained by Marylebone Cricket Club in London. The sport is followed in the Indian subcontinent, the United Kingdom, southern Africa and the West Indies, its globalisation occurring during the expansion of the British Empire and remaining popular into the 21st century.
Women's cricket, organised and played separately, has achieved international standard. The most successful side playing international cricket is Australia, having won seven One Day International trophies, including five World Cups, more than any other country, having been the top-rated Test side more than any other country. Cricket is one of many games in the "club ball" sphere that involve hitting a ball with a hand-held implement. In cricket's case, a key difference is the existence of a solid target structure, the wicket, that the batsman must defend; the cricket historian Harry Altham identified three "groups" of "club ball" games: the "hockey group", in which the ball is driven to and fro between two targets. It is believed that cricket originated as a children's game in the south-eastern counties of England, sometime during the medieval period. Although there are claims for prior dates, the earliest definite reference to cricket being played comes from evidence given at a court case in Guildford on Monday, 17 January 1597.
The case concerned ownership of a certain plot of land and the court heard the testimony of a 59-year-old coroner, John Derrick, who gave witness that: "Being a scholler in the ffree schoole of Guldeford hee and diverse of his fellows did runne and play there at creckett and other plaies". Given Derrick's age, it was about half a century earlier when he was at school and so it is certain that cricket was being played c. 1550 by boys in Surrey. The view that it was a children's game is reinforced by Randle Cotgrave's 1611 English-French dictionary in which he defined the noun "crosse" as "the crooked staff wherewith boys play at cricket" and the verb form "crosser" as "to play at cricket". One possible source for the sport's name is the Old English word "cryce" meaning a staff. In Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, he derived cricket from "cryce, Saxon, a stick". In Old French, the word "criquet" seems to have meant a kind of stick. Given the strong medieval trade connections between south-east England and the County of Flanders when the latter belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy, the name may have been derived from the Middle Dutch "krick", meaning a stick.
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 phrase for hockey, met de sen. Gillmeister has suggested that not only the name but the sport itself may be of Flemish origin. Although the main object of the game has always been to score the most runs, the early form of cricket differed from the modern game in certain key technical aspects; the ball was bowled underarm by the bowler and all along the ground towards a batsman armed with a bat that, in shape, resembled a hockey stick.
Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt
Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt is the Germany national football team doctor and current club doctor of Bayern Munich. He was a club doctor for the club between 1 April 1977 and 16 April 2015, again since November 2017, he resigned after the medical staff was blamed after a 3–1 loss to Porto in a UEFA Champions League match, rejoined after the reappointment of Jupp Heynckes as coach. Many of the German doctor's treatments are controversial, including using injections of a substance called Hyalart, extracted from the crest of cockerels, claimed to help lubricate knee injuries and take away the pain, he has injected Myo-Melcain, the painkiller Procaine in a honey solution, or Actovegin into patients muscles. Müller-Wohlfahrt's use of homeopathic medicine to treat players is controversial, he has treated many footballers and athletes including Jürgen Klinsmann and Jonathan Woodgate, Kelly Holmes, Maurice Greene and Usain Bolt. He helped cure Michael Owen's hamstring problems in time to play at the Euro 2000 tournament and has helped Owen's Liverpool and England colleague, Steven Gerrard and Harry Kewell.
Darren Gough and Alex Tudor, Essex cricketers, have benefited from the German doctor's pioneering treatments. On 6 May 2009 it was announced that he was helping Akpo Sodje recover from a longstanding hamstring problem José María Olazábal, the 1994 US Masters golf champion was suffering from the crippling effects of rheumatoid arthritis when he visited Müller-Wohlfahrt but was able to win at Augusta again in 1999. Rugby World Cup winner Will Greenwood is another who has benefited from the doctor's treatment after 8 months with a groin problem. Weeks he was staking a claim to a recall to the England team. International sportsmen as far away as Australia have sought treatment from Müller-Wohlfahrt – Australian rules footballers Ben Reid, Max Rooke and Mark Coughlan were treated for chronic soft tissue injuries, he has treated professional cyclists including Stephen Roche. One of his more unusual treatments was when St Johnstone F. C. striker Peter MacDonald was prescribed goat's blood injections in a bid to cure a recurring hamstring problem.
In 2010, he treated Usain Bolt for severe back injury. In 2012, he was given the job of repairing the hamstring of Dylan Grimes of the AFL club the Richmond Tigers. In 2016 Usain Bolt devoted his 100 m sprint gold medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio to Müller-Wohlfahrt, at the stadium, after having received treatments from him for a previous calf injury. Mensch, beweg dich!, Zabert Sandmann, ISBN 978-3-423-34093-9 So schützen Sie Ihre Gesundheit, Zabert Sandmann, ISBN 3-932023-52-8 So gewinnen Sie mehr Lebenskraft, Zabert Sandmann, ISBN 3-89883-037-3 Verletzt, was tun?, with Hans-Jürgen Montag, ISBN 3-9806973-1-2 Besser trainieren!, Zabert Sandmann, ISBN 978-3-89883-170-3 Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt in the German National Library catalogue
Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year
The Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year is an annual cricket award, presented to the young player, adjudged to have been the best of the year in English county cricket. The award has been presented since the 1950 season and the winner is chosen by a vote amongst the members of the Cricket Writers' Club. Only players that are qualified to represent the England cricket team, are aged under 23 on 1 May of the awarding year, are eligible for the prize. With the exception of 1986, when a joint award was made, the accolade has been presented to one individual each season; the award has been described by the England and Wales Cricket Board as "prestigious". Although not a firm rule, once a player has won the award, they are considered ineligible to receive it in the future. Archie Ledbrooke, a sports reporter for the Daily Mirror and the first treasurer of the Cricket Writers' Club, came up with the idea for the award, it was first presented in 1950. In 1986, the vote was tied, the award was made jointly to Ashley Metcalfe of Nottinghamshire and James Whitaker of Leicestershire.
The 1995 winner, Andrew Symonds, went on to make over 200 international appearances for Australia, but at the time of his award was eligible to play for England, as he was born in Birmingham. As of 2015, representatives of seventeen of the eighteen first-class cricket counties have won the award. Yorkshire players have collected the award most doing so on eleven occasions. Only eight winners have not gone on to play international cricket. On ten occasions, the Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year has been named one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for that season. Since 1990, 15 of the 26 winners have collected the PCA Young Player of the Year award, selected by members of the players' trade union, the Professional Cricketers' Association. * Player still active Number in parentheses indicates number of international appearances as captain. Statistics correct as of the end of the West Indies' tour of England. Tests -- indicates. ODIs – indicates how many appearances the player made in One Day International cricket during their career.
T20Is – indicates how many appearances the player made in Twenty20 International cricket during their career. Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year for best young Australian cricketer "Cricket Writers' Club Awards". Cricket Writers' Club. Retrieved 29 April 2015
Stumped
Stumped is a method of dismissal in cricket. The action of stumping can only be performed by a wicket-keeper and, according to the Laws of Cricket, a batsman can be given out stumped if: the wicket-keeper puts down the wicket, while the batsman is: out of his ground. Being "out of his ground" is defined as not having any part of the batsman's body or his bat touching the ground behind the crease – i.e. if his bat is elevated from the floor despite being behind the crease, or if his foot is on the crease line itself but not across it and touching the ground behind it he would be considered out. One of the fielding team must appeal for the wicket by asking the umpire; the appeal is directed to the square-leg umpire, who would be in the best position to adjudicate on the appeal. Stumping is the fifth most common form of dismissal after caught, leg before wicket and run out, though it is seen more in Twenty20 cricket because of its more aggressive batting, it is governed by Law 39 of the Laws of Cricket.
It is seen with a medium or slow bowler, as with fast bowlers a wicket-keeper takes the ball too far back from the wicket to attempt a stumping. It includes co-operation between a bowler and wicket-keeper: the bowler draws the batsman out of his ground, the wicket-keeper catches and breaks the wicket before the batsman realises he has missed the ball and makes his ground, i.e. places the bat or part of his body on the ground back behind the popping crease. If the bails are removed before the wicket-keeper has the ball, the batsman can still be stumped if the wicket-keeper removes one of the stumps from the ground, while holding the ball in his hand; the bowler is credited for the batsman's wicket, the wicket-keeper is credited for the dismissal. A batsman may be out stumped off a wide delivery but cannot be stumped off a no-ball as bowler is credited for the wicket. Notes: The popping crease is defined as the back edge of the crease marking (i.e. the edge closer to the wicket. Therefore, a batsman whose bat or foot is on the crease marking, but does not touch the ground behind the crease marking, can be stumped.
This is quite common. The wicket must be properly put down in accordance with Law 28 of the Laws of cricket: using either the ball itself or a hand or arm, in possession of the ball. Note that since the ball itself can put down the wicket, a stumping is still valid if the ball rebounds from the'keeper and breaks the wicket though never controlled by him; the wicket-keeper must allow the ball to pass the stumps before taking it, unless it has touched either the batsman or his bat first. If the wicket-keeper fails to do this, the delivery is a "no-ball", the batsman cannot be stumped
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff is an English presenter and former international cricketer. Playing for Lancashire, Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all rounders, serving as a fast bowler, middle order batsman and slip fielder, he was rated by the ICC as being among the top international all-rounders in both ODI and Test cricket. In his career he played for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League. Following his debut in 1998, he became an integral player for England, was England's "Man of the Series" during the successful 2005 Ashes series, he served as both captain and vice-captain of the team. However, he suffered regular injuries throughout his international career due to his heavy frame and bowling action. During the period 2007–09 he played in only 13 of England's 36 Test matches, but remained a core member of the England squad, being selected whenever available. On 15 July 2009, he announced his retirement from Test cricket at the conclusion of the 2009 Ashes series on 24 August.
Although he made himself available for future commitments in One Day International and Twenty20 International matches, it was reported on 7 September 2009 that he had developed deep vein thrombosis after surgery to his knee. On 16 September 2010, he announced his retirement from cricket, he had one professional boxing fight on 30 November 2012 in Manchester, beating American Richard Dawson on a points decision. In May 2014, Flintoff came out of retirement after five years to play Twenty20 cricket for Lancashire again, before being signed by Brisbane Heat to play in the Australian Big Bash League for the 2014–15 season. After a poor season with the Heat, he announced his retirement again. Since his retirement, Flintoff has been involved with numerous projects, including designing his own fashion range and becoming the face of the brand Jacamo, winning the first series of the Australian version of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, being part of Sky One's sports-based comedy panel show A League of Their Own.
He presented ITV game show Cannonball in 2017. Flintoff's father Colin was a plumber and factory maintenance worker and the captain of Dutton Forshaw second XI cricket team. Andrew attended Greenlands Community Primary School and Ribbleton Hall High School where he performed well academically, passing nine GCSEs, but he did not want to stay in education and left school at 16; as a boy he played cricket for the Lancashire Schools under-11s and under-15s teams and he was a keen chess player. He played for 2½ years in the England under-19 team. Flintoff was captain of the England Under-19 team for their "Test" match tour to Pakistan in 1996/7 and at home against Zimbabwe in 1997, he made his Test match debut for England in 1998 against South Africa at Trent Bridge, in a match remembered for its second-innings duel between Mike Atherton and Allan Donald. Nonetheless, his struggle to make the grade at county level continued, he found form only intermittently, though explosively when he did so. In 2000, he hit 135 not out in the Quarter-finals of the Natwest Trophy against Surrey, which David Gower described as "the most awesome innings we are going to see on a cricket field".
In the same year England's management made clear they were unhappy with his fitness and weight, Flintoff responded to his critics with 42 not out in a one-day game against Zimbabwe on his home ground of Old Trafford, forming an explosive second wicket stand with Graeme Hick. Although he lost his England place during 2001, he remodelled his bowling action and gained a place on the 2001–02 tour to India. Though he hit his worst international batting form during the Test series, frustrating him to the point that he broke down in tears in the dressing room at one stage, he saw the tour as a turning point in his career the crucial final one-day match. Entrusted with bowling the final over with India needing 11 to win, he ran out Anil Kumble and bowled Javagal Srinath with successive balls to win the match, taking off his shirt in celebration, mimicked by Sourav Ganguly in a match. In 2002, he scored his maiden Test century. By 2003, a newer, fitter Flintoff started to justify the comparisons with Botham.
Up to the end of 2002, he had averaged just 19 with 47 with the ball. In the summer of 2003 he scored a century and three fifties in the five Test series against South Africa at home, continued to excel on the tour of the West Indies in March and April 2004, taking five wickets in the Test in Barbados, scoring a century in Antigua. In early 2004 he was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year, having failed to make Wisden's top 40 list in 2002. Although injury prevented him from bowling, he was called into the England squad for the 2004 NatWest One Day International Series against New Zealand and the West Indies as a specialist batsman, scoring two consecutive centuries in the series and hitting seven sixes in one innings, he matched this haul in the Second Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston in July, hitting a first-class best figure of 167. During this innings, watched by a crowd of 20,000, Flintoff hit a six into the top tier of the Ryder Stand. A man stood to claim the catch and dropped it – it was Flintoff's father.
Over the course of England's record-breaking summer, he hit a half-century in all seven victorious Tests against New Zeala
New Zealand national cricket team
The New Zealand national cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, played their first Test in 1930 against England in Christchurch, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. From 1930 New Zealand had to wait until 1956, more than 26 years, for its first Test victory, against the West Indies at Eden Park in Auckland, they played their first ODI in the 1972–73 season against Pakistan in Christchurch. The current Test, One-day and Twenty20 captain is Kane Williamson, who replaced Brendon McCullum who announced his retirement in late December 2015; the national team is organised by New Zealand Cricket. The New Zealand cricket team became known as the Black Caps in January 1998, after its sponsor at the time, Clear Communications, held a competition to choose a name for the team. Official New Zealand Cricket sources typeset the nickname as BLACKCAPS; this is one of many national team nicknames related to the All Blacks. As of 12 March 2019, New Zealand have played 1309 Internationals, winning 496, losing 594, tying 11 and drawing 165 matches while 43 matches ended yielding no result.
The team is ranked 2nd in Tests, 3rd in ODIs and 6th in T20Is by the ICC. New Zealand defeated South Africa in the semi final of Cricket World Cup 2015, their first win in the a world cup semi final and hence they made their maiden appearance in a World Cup Final; the reverend Henry Williams provided history with the first report of a game of cricket in New Zealand, when he wrote in his diary in December 1832 about boys in and around Paihia on Horotutu Beach playing cricket. In 1835, Charles Darwin and HMS Beagle called into the Bay of Islands on its epic circumnavigation of the Earth and Darwin witnessed a game of cricket played by freed Māori slaves and the son of a missionary at Waimate North. Darwin in The Voyage of the Beagle wrote: several young men redeemed by the missionaires from slavery were employed on the farm. In the evening I saw a party of them at cricket; the first recorded game of cricket in New Zealand took place in Wellington in December 1842. The Wellington Spectator reports a game on 28 December 1842 played by a "Red" team and a "Blue" team from the Wellington Club.
The first recorded match was reported by the Examiner in Nelson between the Surveyors and Nelson in March 1844. The first team to tour New Zealand was Parr's all England XI in 1863–64. Between 1864 and 1914, 22 foreign teams toured New Zealand. England sent Australia 15 and one from Fiji. On 15–17 February 1894 the first team representing New Zealand played New South Wales at Lancaster Park in Christchurch. New South Wales won by 160 runs. New South Wales returned again in 1895–96 and New Zealand won the solitary game by 142 runs, its first victory; the New Zealand Cricket Council was formed towards the end of 1894. New Zealand played its first two internationals in 1904–05 against a star-studded Australia team containing such players as Victor Trumper, Warwick Armstrong and Clem Hill. Rain saved New Zealand from a thrashing in the first match, but not the second, which New Zealand lost by an innings and 358 runs – the second largest defeat in New Zealand first-class history. In 1927 NZ toured England.
They played 26 first class matches against county sides. They managed to beat Worcestershire, Glamorgan and Derbyshire. On the strength of the performances of this tour New Zealand was granted Test status. In 1929/30 the M. C. C played 4 Tests all of 3 days in duration. New Zealand lost its first Test match but drew the next 3. In the second Test Stewie Dempster and Jackie Mills put on 276 for the first wicket; this is still the highest partnership for New Zealand against England. New Zealand first played South Africa in 1931–32 in a three match series but were unable to secure Test matches against any teams other than England before World War II ended all Test cricket for 7 years. A Test tour by Australia, planned for February and March 1940, was cancelled after the outbreak of the war. New Zealand's first Test after the war was against Australia in 1945/46; this game was not considered a "Test" at the time but it was granted Test status retrospectively by the International Cricket Council in March 1948.
The New Zealand players who appeared in this match did not appreciate this move by the ICC as New Zealand were dismissed for 42 and 54. The New Zealand Cricket Council's unwillingness to pay Australian players a decent allowance to tour New Zealand ensured that this was the only Test Australia played against New Zealand between 1929 and 1972. In 1949 New Zealand sent one of its best sides to England, it contained Martin Donnelly, John R. Reid and Jack Cowie. However, 3-day Test matches ensured. Many have regarded the 1949 tour of England among New Zealand's best touring performances. All four tests were high-scoring despite being draws and Martin Donnelly's 206 at Lord's hailed as one of the finest innings seen there. Despite being winless, New Zealand did not lose a test either. Prior to this, only the legendary 1948 Australian team, led by the great Don Bradman, had achieved this. New Zealand played its first matches against the West Indies in 1951–52, Pakistan and India in 1955/56. In 1954/55 New Zealand recorded the lowest innings total, 26 against England.
The following season New Zealand achieved its first Test victory. The first 3 Tests of a 4 Test series were won by the West Indies but New Zealand won the fourth to notch up its first Test victory, it had taken them 26 years to attain. In the next 20 years New Zealand won only seven more Tests. For most of this period New Zealand lacked a class bowler to lead their attack although they had two excellent batsmen in Bert Sutcliffe and Glenn Turner and a great all-rounder in John R. Reid. Reid capt
India national cricket team
The India national cricket team known as Team India and Men in Blue, is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test, One Day International and Twenty20 International status. Although cricket was introduced to India by European merchant sailors in the 18th century, the first cricket club was established in Calcutta in 1792, India's national cricket team did not play its first Test match until 25 June 1932 at Lord's, becoming the sixth team to be granted Test cricket status. In its first fifty years of international cricket, India was one of the weaker teams, winning only 35 of the first 196 Test matches it played. From 1932 India had to wait until 1952 20 years for its first Test victory; the team, gained strength in the 1970s with the emergence of players such as batsmen Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath, all-rounder Kapil Dev and the Indian spin quartet of Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Bishen Singh Bedi.
Traditionally much stronger at home than abroad, the Indian team has improved its overseas form in limited-overs cricket, since the start of the 21st century, winning Test matches in Australia and South Africa. It has won the Cricket World Cup twice – in 1983 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev and in 2011 under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. After winning the 2011 World Cup, India became only the third team after West Indies and Australia to have won the World Cup more than once, the first cricket team to win the World Cup at home, it won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. It was the joint champions of 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, along with Sri Lanka; as of 19 October 2018, India is ranked first in Tests, second in ODIs and second in T20Is by the ICC. Virat Kohli is the current captain of the team across all formats, while the head coach is Ravi Shastri; the Indian cricket team has rivalries with other Test-playing nations, most notably with Pakistan, the political arch-rival of India.
However, in recent times, rivalries with nations like Australia, South Africa and England have gained prominence. The British brought cricket to India in the early 1700s, with the first cricket match played in 1721. In 1848, the Parsi community in Bombay formed the Oriental Cricket Club, the first cricket club to be established by Indians. After slow beginnings, the Europeans invited the Parsis to play a match in 1877. By 1912, the Parsis, Sikhs and Muslims of Bombay played a quadrangular tournament with the Europeans every year. In the early 1900s, some Indians went on to play for the England cricket team; some of these, such as Ranjitsinhji and KS Duleepsinhji were appreciated by the British and their names went on to be used for the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy – two major first-class tournaments in India. In 1911, an Indian team went on their first official tour of the British Isles, but only played English county teams and not the England cricket team. India was invited to The Imperial Cricket Council in 1926, made their debut as a Test playing nation in England in 1932, led by CK Nayudu, considered as the best Indian batsman at the time.
The one-off Test match between the two sides was played at Lord's in London. The team went on to lose by 158 runs. India hosted its first Test series in the year 1933. England was the visiting team that played 2 Tests in Calcutta; the visitors won the series 2-0. The Indian team continued to improve throughout the 1930s and'40s but did not achieve an international victory during this period. In the early 1940s, India didn't play any Test cricket due to the Second World War; the team's first series as an independent country was in late 1947 against Sir Donald Bradman's Invincibles. It was the first Test series India played, not against England. Australia won the five-match series 4–0, with Bradman tormenting the Indian bowling in his final Australian summer. India subsequently played their first Test series at home not against England against the West Indies in 1948. West Indies won the 5-Test series 1–0. India recorded their first Test victory, in their 24th match, against England at Madras in 1952.
In the same year, they won their first Test series, against Pakistan. They continued their improvement throughout the early 1950s with a series win against New Zealand in 1956. However, they did not win again in the remainder of the decade and lost badly to strong Australian and English sides. On 24 August 1959, India lost by an innings in the Test to complete the only 5–0 whitewash inflicted by England; the next decade saw. They won their first Test series against England at home in 1961–62 and won a home series against New Zealand, they managed to draw another series against England. In this same period, India won its first series outside the subcontinent, against New Zealand in 1967–68; the key to India's bowling in the 1970s were the Indian spin quartet – Bishen Bedi, E. A. S. Prasanna, BS Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan; this period saw the emergence of two of India's best batsmen, Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath. Indian pitches have had the tendency to support spin and the spin quartet exploited this to create collapses in opposing batting line-ups.
These players were responsible for the back-to-back series wins in 1971 in the West Indies and in England, under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar
