History and Sport: The Story of Cricket – CBSE 9th SST

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Question: How was the game of cricket used by the Caribbean’s a measure of racial equality and political progress? Explain.

Answer:

1. While British imperial officials brought the game to the colonies, they made little effort to spread the game, especially in colonial territories where the subjects of empire were mainly non-white, such as India and the West Indies. Here, playing cricket became a sign of superior social and racial status, and the Afro-Caribbean population was discouraged from participating in organised club cricket, which remained dominated by white plantation owners and their servants.
2. At the time of their independence many of the political leaders of Caribbean countries like Forbes Burnham and Eric Williams saw in the game a chance for self-respect and international standing.
3. When the West Indies won its first Test series against England in 1950, it was celebrated as a national achievement, as a way of demonstrating that West Indians were the equals of white Englishmen.

Question: What is importance of sports in our life?
Or
Explain the moral values which sports teaches us?

Answer:

1. It is way of amusement and keep us fit.
2. Many see sports an organised way of teaching children the discipline, the importance of hierarchy, the skills, the codes of hon-our and the leadership qualities.
3. Success at sport became a measure of racial equality and political progress. At the time of their independence many of the political leaders of Caribbean countries like Forbes Burnham and Eric Williams saw in the game a Chance for self respect and international standing. When the West Indies won its first Test series against England in 1950, it was celebrated as a national |achievement, as a way of demonstrating that West Indians were the equals of white Englishmen.
4. It is also a way of expressing our social loyalty towards our nation.
5. History of sports also reflects the nature of society.

Question: Why is it said that the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing field of Eton though the fact was different?
Or
‘The battle of Waterloo was on the playing fields of Eton’. Explain the statement. Why is it said that the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing ground of Eton?

Answer:

1. 1. Eton was the most famous school of England where the best type of military training was given to the students.
   2. It was here that the high values of life were taught to the students.
   3. Thomas Arnold, the founder of the Modern Public Schools, and the headmaster of the famous Rugby School saw in the Cricket the best way to teach the high values of social service, discipline, courage, qualities of leadership, etc., to the students.
      Real fact: Actually, England won these wars because of its better economic condition, because of the iron works of Scotland and Wales, the mills of Lancashire and the great financial houses of the city of London who greatly added to the financial resources of the country.

Question: Compare the other sports with that of cricket.

Answer: Test cricket can be played for five days or more. No other sport takes a time like this. Football is generally played in one and a half hour. Baseball which is the shortened version of modern cricket is completed in nine innings.

Question: What is the curious characteristic of cricket?

Answer: The curious characteristic of cricket is that the length of the pitch is specified – 22 yards – but the size or shape of the ground is not. Most other team sports, such as hockey and football lay down the dimensions of the playing area: cricket does not. Grounds can be oval like the Adelaide Oval or nearly circular, like Chepauk in Chennai. A six at the Melbourne Cricket Ground needs to clear much more ground than a lofted shot for the same reward at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi.

Question: Mention the curious characteristic of cricket.

Answer: Cricket was the earliest modern team sport to be codified, which is another way of saying that cricket gave itself rules and regulations so that it could be played in a uniform and standardized way well before team games like soccer and hockey. The first written ‘Laws of Cricket’ were drawn up in 1744. They stated, ‘the principals shall choose from amongst the gentlemen present two umpires who shall absolutely decide all disputes. The stumps must be 22 inches high and the bail across them six inches. The ball must be between 5 and 6 ounces, and the two sets of stumps 22 yards apart’. There were no limits on the shape or size of the bat. It appears that 40 notches or runs was viewed as a very big score, probably due to the bowlers bowling quickly at shins unprotected by pads. The world’s first cricket club was formed in Hambledon in the 1760s and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was founded in 1787. In 1788, the MCC published its first revision of the laws and became the guardian of cricket’s regulations.