A profound question.

The origins of the game are lost in the realms of Old England but its history from the mid 1700’s is well documented. As the British spread around the world creating their Empire they took the game with them and that is why today the game is dominated by countries that were visited during that time.

The major cricket playing countries today are Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies, New Zealand and Zimbabwe. There are, however, many other nations now developing their game and at the last World Cup held in South Africa in February/March 2003 Kenya, Canada, Holland and Namibia more than held their own. The Governing Body of cricket, The International Cricket Council, is working with more than another 20 nations to bring them into the Test Playing Nations fold.

The basis of the game is very difficult to explain to people who are new to the concept but the nearest equivalent is probably baseball. But the English would probably claim that the reason they were happy to give up America was that they natives could not understand cricket! The game is played in the USA but IFCR has not got many members there.