Amazing facts about Cricket

With the help of the internet, i found some amazing facts about cricket:

• • It is believed that Cricket was started in England in 1300 AD.
  • It started as a game of shepherds and became widespread among other classes in 18th century AD.
  • After some time a club known as "Merylebone Cricket Club (MCC)" was formed at Lords in London.
  • Cricket became popular in Australia due to British effect there.
  • The first official cricket test match was played in the year 1877 between Australia and England in Melbourne.
  • When some other countries started played Cricket Imperial Cricket Conference was formed in 1909      which gave birth to International Cricket Conference in 1956.
  • The first One Day International cricket match was played in the year 1971 between England and Australia in Melbourne.
  • The first World Cup on one day matches was played in 1975 in London. West Indies won’t the World Cup beating Australia 17 runs.
  • The apex institutions of world cricket are the 'International Cricket Council'(ICC) and its headquarters is now in Dubai from August 1, 2005. Earlier it was in Lords (England).
  • Australia won the maximum of four World Cups till date.
  • In India Cricket was introduced by British royalty. Parsee community of India was the first to take part in Cricket in 1848.
  • Later on Parsee team visited England in 1886. Matches between European and Parsee teams, called Presidency matches, were started in Poona (now Pune) and Bombay (now Mumbai)
  • Raja Bhupindra Singh of Patiala donated the Ranji Trophy in 1934 for the national championship of Cricket.
  • The Board of Council for Cricket in India was formed in 1927.

Source: Cricket Facts. (n.d.). Facts About India, Indian Facts, Everything About India. Retrieved March 5, 2012, from http://www.facts-about-india.com/cricket-facts.php