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Noted playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, "Cricket is a game played by 22 fools and watched by 22,000 fools". Try telling that to those people for whom cricket is not just merely a sport, but a way of life, with cricket betting adding even more fun to the game for them.
In the subcontinent for example, people report sick at work if there is a major game featuring their nation. They jostle with thousands of others for a seat in the stadium and support their team whole heartedly. And in this article, we will track the changes in the game that was originally invented in England, but quickly spread to other parts of the erstwhile British Empire.
When England's Alfred Shaw bowled the first ball of the first ever official test to Australia's Charles Bannerman, over a hundred and thirty years ago at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, neither he nor the remaining 21 players participating would have anticipated the changes to come into the game in the next century.
James Southerton was close to completing five decades of existence on earth when he made his debut in that game. Today, you will rarely see a person above 35 taking the field. Test matches in those days used to be of different durations - ranging from 3 to 6 days. There were even timeless tests, and the first test itself was an example of one. Without commercial airplanes, players in those eras were not the jet setters that we have today, and it would often take as long as a year for a cricketer to come back from a tour of another nation.
Even today, for many people, test cricket is still the only form of the game. It has given us players like Don Bradman, Sydney Barnes, Graeme Pollock, Lawrence Rowe, Frank Worrell and Colin Cowdrey.
A good test player is technically very sound, and knows his basics well. Shots are played to textbook perfection, and the way the batsman positions himself when the bat comes into contact with the ball looks like a work of art. Both batsmen and bowlers must be patient, and must possess high stamina and fitness levels, with the sun shining down upon them the whole day.
It is the ultimate test of one's body and mind. Players did not have protective head gear in the form of helmets until the late 1970's. Facing the likes of Sydney Barnes, Frank Trueman, Dennis Lillee, Joel Garner and Jeff Thompson required batsmen to bring their batting to another level altogether. There are very few bowlers who have genuine pace today, and even fewer who can cross the 150 Km/Hour mark consistently. Those bowlers looked like agents of the devil, steaming in at blistering pace with the cherry in their hand. And remember, there was no speedometer in those days.
How did one day cricket come about really? The first ever one day international was played between England and Australia on January 5, 1971 to appease the spectators who had their plans of watching the two teams doing battle ruined by rain.
The first ever ODI World Cup in 1975 proved to be a resounding success. Some might remember it for Gary Gilmour's splendid bowling effort in the semifinal against England. Most of the games weren't too high scoring and some of the players still seemed to be stuck in the test match mode. Many Indians have not forgotten Sunil Gavaskar's excruciatingly slow 36 run innings in the opening match of the tournament. But the World Cup showed that ODI cricket had a future, and was there to stay.
In the late 70's, Kerry Packer introduced pyjama cricket to the world with his World Series of Cricket, his idea to fight the ACB. Packer gave fans the opportunity to see the likes of Allan Knott, Tony Greig, Michael Proctor, Javed Miandad and Clive Lloyd in action as the WSC brought about revolutionary changes in the game. The matches were of a very high standard, and the players had to give their best in order to win.
The crowds flocked to the stadiums, and the ACB conceded defeat to Packer. The West Indian team enjoyed great success in the years that followed, and a fair share of credit for that does go to the WSC, in which many players from the Caribbean participated.
If 200 was considered to be a good score in the 50 over format in the olden days, nothing less than 300 is required for the batting side to feel comfortable. Most of the pitches are batsmen friendly, and balls fly out of the park as if the boundary ropes were nothing but neighborhood fences. Even the 400 run barrier has been breached, and it may not be long before 500 is surpassed too.
Cricket online betting is a relatively new phenomenon, but bookmakers have offered cricket odds for many years, and with the popularity of online sports betting, it's only natural that cricket fans try their betting skills out with the game.
What makes cricket betting a good way to practice your online sports betting skills? You can put your money on a variety of cricket odds - the outcome of the match, the highest run scorer, the player with most sixes, the highest wicket taker and so on and so forth. With the introduction of T20, the game is likely to spread rapidly in the coming decades, as the main complaint of it being too long is thrown out. It might gain popularity in hitherto untapped markets like North America and Central Europe. As there is a television break in between over, advertisers love the game too.
If you haven't watched a game yet, go to your local ground or put on the television. And if you are already a cricket fan, try your hand at cricket online betting. You might be able to earn money by putting your knowledge of the game to good effect.
