Fifth Grade
Worksheets
What Is Cricket?
If you were to ask an American to name a sport played with a bat and ball, you would probably get the name baseball. If, on the other hand, you asked the same question of someone in England, you might get a totally different answer. They might say that the game is cricket.
The origin of cricket is not quite clear. It is thought that children probably first played a form of the game back in the 1500s. Many sports began with children hitting some sort of ball with a stick. Some historians believe that cricket may have had its beginning in India. It could have traveled from there to Persia and then on to England with merchants and soldiers.
It is also believed that adults started getting involved with this bat and ball game in the 17th century. The rules became more defined. The equipment became a bit more sophisticated. And a name for the sport evolved. The name probably came from the bat used in the game, not the insect. The French word for the club used in the game of croquet is criquet. There is a word from Wales for stick that is "kricke." Old English had the words "crice" or "cryce", which refer to a staff or crutch. One of these words is probably the source of the name of the sport.
