Cricket grew out of many stick and ball games played in England about 500 years ago. The word ‘bat’ is an old English word which simply means a club or a stick. By the seventeenth century, cricket had evolved enough to be recognised as a distinct game. Till the middle of the eighteenth century, bats were roughly of the same shape as hockey sticks, curving outwards at the bottom. There was a simple reason for this, the ball was bowled underarm, along the ground and the curve at the end of the bat gave the batsman the best chance of making a contact.
Answer the following questions:
- How did the game of cricket come into being?
- What does the word ‘bat’ actually mean?
- What were the shapes of bats of the eighteenth century?
- How was the ball bowled in the eighteenth century?
- Give the word that means the opposite of: (a) Simple (b) Bottom
Answer
- Cricket grew out of many stick and ball games played in England about 500 years ago.
- The word ‘bat’ actually means a club or a stick.
- Bats were of the shape of hockey stick in the eighteenth century, curving outwards at the bottom.
- The ball was bowled underarm along the ground.
- (a) Complicated/Tough (b) Top.