Von voyage reporter Louise Brown

No one quite knows when and where the game of cricket started. One theory is that shepherds used to play it. One shepherd would stand in front of the gate to the sheep fold, and another would throw a stone at him, which he would have to hit with his crook, then known as a cricce. What is definitely known, however, is that cricket as a sport has existed for hundreds of years in some form or another, even though the laws of the game were first written down in 1788 by the first official cricket club, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in London.

Cricket today and the Ashes

Cricket is very popular all over Britain and lots of children learn to play it at school. The game received a huge boost when the English team won the legendary Ashes, a contest which is played every two years against Australia and is seen as one of the most famous - and smallest - trophies in sport. When the Ashes were held in London, millions of people gathered in parks, in front of televisions and around the grounds to watch it. Pupils at a local school had some of the best places, as their classrooms overlooked the grounds where the game was being played! The sheperds surely would be happy to see how much their sport has developed.