It is normally believed that cricket was invented during Saxon times in the Weald, south-east England. The first reference to cricket being played as an adult sport was in 1611. Village cricket was developed in 17th century the first known game in which the teams use county names is in 1709. In 1744, the first Laws of Cricket were written and subsequently amended in 1774, when innovations such as lbw, a 3rd stump, the middle stump and a maximum bat width were added. The famous Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was established in 1787 at Lord’s. It became the custodian of the Laws and has made revisions ever since then to the current day. The hockey-stick style of bat was replaced by straight bat in 1787. Cricket arrived in Australia in 1788 and the reached New Zealand and South Africa in the early years of the 19th century. It was introduced to North America via the English colonies as early as the 17th century. It was introduced to the West Indies by colonists and to India by British East India Company mariners.
In 1864 overarm bowling was legalized, 1864 also marked a notable first with the publication of the first Wisden Cricketers’ Almanac which continues to this day. That same year, W. G. Grace began his long and influential career, contributing much to increase cricket’s popularity. In 1877, an England touring team in Australia played two matches against full Australian XIs that are now regarded as the first Test matches. The following year, the Australians toured England for the first time and the success of this tour ensured a popular demand for similar ventures in future. At The Oval in 1882, the Australian victory in a tense finish gave rise to The Ashes. South Africa subsequently became the third Test nation in 1889.
In 1890, the official County Championship was constituted in England. The Currie Cup started in South Africa in 1889-90 and the Sheffield Shield in Australia three years later.
The Golden Age of Cricket
The period from 1890 to the outbreak of the First World War has become known as the Golden Age of Cricket as it featured numerous great names such as Grace, Wilfred Rhodes, C. B. Fry, Ranjitsinhji and Victor Trumper.
When the Imperial Cricket Conference (as the ICC was originally called) was founded in 1909, only England, Australia and South Africa were members. However, the West Indies (1928), New Zealand (1930) and India (1932) became Test nations before the Second World War and Pakistan (1952) soon afterwards. Cricket soared in popularity in these countries with the advent of Test cricket and domestic competitions gradually became more formalized with the West Indies formulating an island-based First-Class competition, New Zealand continuing their Plunkett Shield that has origins back to 1906, India introducing the Ranji trophy in 1934 and Pakistan founding the Quaid-e-Azam trophy in 1953.
Advent of One Dayers
The first limited-over international match took place at Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1971 as a time-filler after a Test match had been abandoned because of heavy rain on the opening days. The International Cricket Conference (as it was then) reacted to this development by organizing the first Men’s Cricket World Cup in England in 1975, with all the Test-playing nations of the time taking part and West Indies triumphing at Lord’s in the final.
Such was the success of the inaugural World Cup, it was decided that it would become a regular part of the calendar with further Cricket World Cups were held in England in 1979 and 1983 before the tournament moved to India and Pakistan in 1987, which was the last event to be played using a red ball with white clothing. 1992 dawned a new era of World Cup Cricket with floodlights, colored clothing and a white ball being utilized.
The international game continued to grow with several ICC Associate and Affiliate Members becoming involved in expanding domestic competitions and then on the international scene. And in the closing years of the 20th century, three of those countries also became Test nations: Sri Lanka (1982), Zimbabwe (1992) and Bangladesh (2000).
The ICC WCL
The ICC World Cricket League (ICC WCL) was created in 2007 to provide regular playing opportunities for similar standard ICC Associate Members (AMs) in an international 50-over competition structure. The ICC World Cricket League currently includes five divisions. Each division has six teams, except for ICC WCL Division 5 which has eight teams. Each divisional event is played approximately every 12-18 months and lasts 8 to 10 days in a round robin format. Promotion and relegation takes place between divisions. The ICC World Cricket League Championship (ICC WCLC) is an elite 50 over competition played between leading Associate Members. The ICC WCLC is the pathway for participating teams to play in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier, the 2015-2017 edition will culminate with the winner being crowned at the end of 2017.
The Indian Premier League (IPL), was established in 2008. The brainchild of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the IPL has developed into the most lucrative and most popular outlet for the game of cricket.
The beginning of PSL
In September 2015, the Pakistan Cricket Board officially announced the launch of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) former captains of Pakistan team Wasim Akram and Rameez Raja signed up to promote the PSL and become brand ambassadors of the league for three years.
After several years of planning and two previous failed attempts the league officially began on 4 February 2016 in the United Arab Emirates. The first two seasons included five teams based on the capital cities of Pakistan’s provinces and the Federal capital. In its first season the PSL had a higher percentage of international players. The league uses a draft system for player recruitment similar to that used in many North American professional sports leagues and as opposed to the auction system used in some other T20 leagues.
The commercial rights to the initial franchises were sold for US$93 million for a span of 10 years in December 2015. The market value of PSL in 2017 was up to US$300 million according to Arif Habib, and has grown significantly in the years since.
In May 2016, the PCB announced that the inaugural season of the PSL had yielded profits of US$2.6 million.
An estimated ratio from Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) shows that 1.75 million tourists visited Pakistan in 2017 alone and 30% tourist were domestic. Pakistan Super League can bring foreign players into Pakistan and it can increase new doors of foreign tourism, along with a boost into the economy and strengthening the international relations as well. Foreign tourism consist of several service activities including, communication, transportation, catering, entertainment, hospitality and advertising etc.
Pakistan Super League was not much successful during initial seasons. But with the passage of time it started getting most views through online platforms and also when it comes to other global tournaments. In the foreign tournaments, the crowd coming to grounds was relatively lesser for Pakistani players because they were not big names like wise other retired players who still are known for their performance in cricket at international level. Another reason is that majority of top players don’t participate in PSL due to reasons of being lack of lucrative payment and safety concern In Pakistan.
With a comparison from previous years, Pakistan Super League is growing faster day by day among overseas players, if we review short history of PSL, the largest contingent of overseas talent came to Pakistan was in 2019. The fourth edition of the tournament is going to start from. An attack on Sri Lankan cricket team has stopped the foreign players in Pakistan. But despite all these difficulties, Pakistan team is growing on international level as well. In the era of tourism, Pakistan Super League has one again gathered the whole nation at one platform.
PSL has achieved a milestone in the field of cricket in national and international level.
The Future of PSL
Pakistani foods attracts the foreign tourists and fans, while textile industry increases revenue by making shirts, caps and other accessories for cricket lover fans, and the many local vendors can run their circle by selling these items during these days. Tickets for watching PSL can also generate millions of revenue for the government. Sports events like cricket are compulsory for economic and cultural progress nationwide.
[box type=”note” align=”” class=”” width=””]The author, Nazir Ahmed Shaikh, is a freelance columnist. He is an academician by profession and writes articles on diversified topics. Mr. Shaikh could be reached at nazir_shaikh86@hotmail.com.[/box]