Notes on History and Sport: The Stoty of Cricket | MCQs & Q&A

Multiple Choice Questions of History and Sport: The Story of Cricket

Notes on History and Sport: The Stoty of Cricket

1. Pakistan's contribution to advancing the cricket is
(a) No ball
(b) Run-out
(c) Reverse swing
(d) Leg before wicket

2. Game of cricket was invented in:
(a) England
(b) India
(c) Australia
(d) Pakistan


3. Cricket was said to represent
(а) English values of fair play and discipline
(б) English racial superiority
(c) English sense of enterprise
(d) English sportsmen spirit

4. Cricket in 19th century India was linked to
(a) Politics of colonialism
(b) Politics of nationalism
(c) Civilising mission of the British
(d) Colonialism and nationalism

5. Cricket grew out of
(a) Hockey
(b) Volleyball
(c) Stick and ball games
(d) Baseball



6. Early cricket bats were shaped like
(a) Hockey sticks
(b) Flat sticks
(c) Rackets
(d) Curved outwards

7. First written laws of cricket were in
(a) 1474
(b) 1447
(c) 1774
(d) 1744

8. Where and when was the world's first cricket club formed?
(a) Hambledon 1760s
(b) Marylebone 1760s
(c) London 1670s
(d) Melbourne 1760s

9. Change in game rules in the 1760s led to immediate change in
(а) Weight of ball got limited to 5-1/2 to 5-1/4 ounces
(б) Third stump became common
(c) Opened possibilities for spin and swing
(d) Curved bat was replaced by a straight one

10. Cricket is a
(a) Post industrial sport
(b) 19th century sport
(c) Pre industrial sport
(d) 20th century sport

11. Rural origins of cricket are not visible in
(a) bat and stumps
(b) Ball and bats
(c) Field size
(d) Protective equipment

12. Post industrial influence in cricket
(a) Pads
(b) Bat
(c) Ball
(d) Stumps

13. Who were 'Amateurs'?
(a) Those who did not know how to play the game well
(b) Those proficient at the game
(c) The rich who played for pleasure
(d) Those who played for the money

14. Professionals were described as
(a) Gentlemen
(b) Batsmen
(c) Players
(d) Spinners

15. Amateurs were generally
(a) Bowlers
(b) Aristocrats
(c) Fast bowlers
(d) Miners

16. The first professional to lead the English team
(a) Vijay Hazare
(b) Thomas Hughes
(c) Len Hutton
(d) Garry Sobers

17. The first among Indian communities to set up a cricket club
(a) Parsis
(b) Hindus
(c) Muslims
(d) Christians

18. Spread of the game cricket was confined to
(a) British colonies
(b) Australia and New Zealand
(c) Africa and West Indies
(d) Third World

19. Elites of colonies viewed playing cricket as symbolizing
(a) Progress
(b) Equality
(c) Superior, social and racial status
(d) English values

20. West Indies won its first Test series against England in
(a) 1930
(b) 1949
(c) 1950
(d) 1960

21. Cricket in colonial India was organized on the principle of
(a) National loyalties
(b) Religion
(c) Region
(d) Race and religion

22. The game of cricket was brought to India by
(a) East India Company
(b) Governor Generals
(c) The Portuguese
(d) British Imperial Officers

23. Mulattos were
(a) Afro Caribbeans
(b) Blacks
(c) Tribals
(d) Afro Europeans

24. Where did Cricket in India originate?
(a) Bombay
(c) Madras
(b) Calcutta
(d) Pondicherry

25. Dalit Captain of Hindu Gymkhana:
(a) Palwankar Baloo
(b) Vijay Hazare
(c) S.A. Brelvi
(d) Palwankar Vithal

26. In Ranji Trophy teams represent
(a) Regions
(b) Communities
(c) Races
(d) Religions

27. Who among the following was not critical of the Pentangular Tournament?
(a) M.K. Gandhi
(b) Dada Bhai Naoroji
(c) AFS Talyarkhan
(d) S.A. Brelvi

28. Which of the following constituted the 5th team in the Pentangular Tournament?
(a) The Europeans
(b) The Christians
(c) The Rest
(d) The Muslims

29. First Test Captain of India
(a) Palwankar Baloo
(b) Palwankar Vithal
(c) Vijay Hazare
(d) C.K. Nayudu

30. India entered World Test Cricket in
(a) 1932
(b) 1950
(c) 1877
(d) 1847

31. Test Cricket celebrated 100 years in the year
(a) 1877
(b) 1977
(c) 1875
(d) 1774

32. Who among the following introduced the world to One-Day Internationals?
(a) Kerry Packer
(b) Len Hutton
(c) Frank Worrell
(d) Thomas Hughes

33. Cricket matches are organized:
(a) News of cricket hits newspaper headlines
(b) Cricketers are seen as ambassadors
(c) Game represents the unity of India
(d) To establish friendship between nations

34. By the players of which of the following countries were two great advances made in bowling - doosra and reverse swing?
(a) England
(b) Pakistan
(c) India
(d) West Indies

35. When was first one day Cricket World Cup played?
(a) 1975
(b) 1980
(c) 1970
(d) 1983

36. In which of the following year did India enter the world of Test Cricket?
(a) 1932
(b) 1930
(c) 1931
(d) 1934

37. In the game of cricket who is always given the benefit of doubt?
(a) Bowler
(b) Batsman
(c) Fielder
(d) None of the above

38. During British rule, initially why the cricket tournaments were called quadrangular tournament?
(a) The tournaments were played in four different regions
(b) The tournaments were played in four different cities in India
(c) The tournaments were played by four Indian teams representing four different religions
(d) The tournament was played in four corners of the playing field.

39. Ranji Trophy Cricket is played between which types of teams?
(a) Between two international teams
(b) Between an Indian and one international team
(c) Between English and Australian teams
(d) Between two Indian teams representing two different Indian regions

40. Which city has International Cricket Council Headquarters?
(a) London
(b) Dubai
(c) Paris
(d) Mumbai

ANSWER of the MCQs of History and Sport: The Stoty of Cricket

1. (c) Reverse swing
2. (a) England
3. (а) English values of fair play and discipline
4. (d) Colonialism and nationalism
5. (c) Stick and ball games
6. (a) Hockey sticks
7. (d) 1744
8. (a) Hambledon 1760s
9. (d) Curved bat was replaced by a straight one
10. (c) Pre industrial sport
11. (d) Protective equipment
12. (a) Pads
13. (c) The rich who played for pleasure
14. (c) Players
15. (b) Aristocrats
16. (c) Len Hutton
17. (a) Parsis
18. (a) British colonies
19. (c) Superior, social and racial status
20. (c) 1950
21. (d) race and religion
22. (d) British Imperial Officers
23. (d) Afro Europeans
24. (a) Bombay
25. (d) Palwankar Vithal
26. (a) Regions
27. (b) Dada Bhai Naoroji
28. (c) The Rest
29. (d) C.K. Nayudu
30. (a) 1932
31. (b) 1977
32. (a) Kerry Packer
33. (d) To establish friendship between nations
34. (b) Pakistan
35. (a) 1975
36. (a) 1932
37. (b) Batsman
38. (c) The tournaments were played by four Indian teams representing four different religions
39. (d) Between two Indian teams representing two different Indian regions
40. (b) Dubai

Questions Answers of History and Sport: The Story of Cricket

 Q.1. When were the first written "Laws of Cricket" drawn up?
Ans: 1744

Q.2. Name the Australian player who tried to play with an aluminum bat?
Ans: Dennis Lillee

Q.3. When was the first Indian Cricket Club established? What was its name?
Ans: The first Indian Cricket Club was established in 1792. The name of the first Indian Cricket club was the 'Calcutta Cricket Club'.

Q.6. Which was the first Indian community to start playing cricket? How did they contribute to cricket?

Ans: Parsis was the first Indian community to start playing the game. They had close contact with the British because of their interest in trade and the first Indian community to westernize. They founded the first Indian Cricket Club called Oriental Cricket club in Bombay in 1848. The club was funded by Parsis businessmen like Tatas and Wadias. The white elite did not help the Parsis promote this game. In fact they obstructed in their way and prejudiced e.g. the Whites-only club put up a quarrel with the Parsis over the use of Public Park. It resulted into the formation of own Gymkhana by the Parsis. In 1889, the Parsis defeated the Bombay Gymkana (Whites-only club). It paved way to many Indian communities to open their own cricket clubs but based on the idea of religious community.

Q.7. Why the cricket bats were roughly the same shape as hockey sticks during the eighteenth century?

Ans: During eighteenth century, the game of cricket, the ball was bowled underarm, along the ground and the curve at the end of the hockey-like bat gave the batsman the best chance of making contact. That’s why the bats looked like hockey sticks at that time.

Questions and Answers of NCERT Book, History and Sport: The Stoty of Cricket

Q.1. Test cricket is a unique game in many ways. Discuss some of the ways in which it is different from other team games. How are the peculiarities of Test cricket shaped by its historical beginnings as a village game?
Ans: The two peculiarities of Test cricket are:

(i) That a match can go on for five days and still end in a draw. No other modern day team sport takes even half as much time to complete. Baseball completes nine innings in less than half the time that it takes to play a limited overs match.

(ii) That the length of the pitch is specified — 22 yards — but the size or shape of the ground is not. No dimensions of the playing area are mentioned for cricket.
The reason behind these oddities is that cricket was the earliest modern team sport to be codified. Cricket was a game before hockey and soccer and hence gave itself rules and regulations so that it could be played in a uniform and standardised manner.

Originally cricket matches had no time limits. This was because the rhythms of village life were slower and cricket rules were made before the Industrial Revolution. Modern factory labour was paid by hours and hence games had to be codified and time limited to fit the routines of industrial city life. When cricket originated, there were no such limits or restrictions.
Cricket was originally played on public property known as commons. The size of this land varied from one village to another, so there were no designated boundaries or boundary hits.
This brought about the second oddity of cricket.

If you look at the game’s equipment, you can see how cricket both changed with changing times and yet fundamentally remained true to its origins in rural England. Cricket’s most important tools are all made of natural, pre-industrial materials. The bat is made of wood as
are the stumps and the bails. The ball is made of leather, twine and cork.

Even today both bat and ball are hand-made, not industrially manufactured. The material of the bat changed slightly over time. Once it was cut of a single piece of wood. Now it consists of two pieces, the blade which is made out of the wood of the willow tree and the handle which is made out of cane that became available as European colonialists and trading companies established themselves in Asia. Unlike golf and tennis, cricket has refused to remake its tools with industrial or man-made materials: plastic, fibre glass and metal have been firmly rejected.

Q.2. Describe one way in which in the nineteenth century, technology brought about a change in equipment and give one example where no change in equipment took place.
Ans. As far as protective equipment in cricket is concerned, it has been influenced by technological change. The invention of the vulcanized rubber led to the introduction of pads in 1848 and protective gloves soon afterwards. Today’s cricket cannot be imagined without helmets made of metal and synthetic lightweight materials.
However, cricket’s most important tools are all made of natural, per-industrial material. The ball, for example, is still hand-made. It is made of leather, twine and cork. These balls are not industrially manufactured.

Q.3. Explain why cricket became popular in India and the West Indies.
Ans: Cricket was a colonial game limited to countries that had once been part of the British empire. It took root only in countries that the British conquered and ruled. The British imperial officers brought the game to the colonies where it was played either by them or by the local elites who wanted to copy the habits of their colonial masters as in India.
Despite the exclusiveness of the game it became popular in India and West Indies. Success in cricket became a measure of racial equality and political progress.

Q.4. Give brief explanations for the following:
(i) The Parsis were the first Indian community to set up a cricket club in India.
(ii) Mahatma Gandhi condemned the Pentangular tournament.
(iii) The name of the ICC was changed from the Imperial Cricket Conference to the International Cricket Conference.
(iv) The significance of the shift of the ICC headquarters from London to Dubai.
Ans:
(i) The Parsis were the first Indian community to set up a cricket club in India, the Oriental Cricket Club in Bombay. This was as a consequence of the Parsi contact with the British. The Parsis were brought into close contact with the British because of their interest in trade and were the first Indian community to westernize.

(ii) Mahatma Gandhi condemned the Pentangular tournament as he felt that it was a divisive competition that went against the need of the hour. At a time when the nationalists were trying to unite India’s diverse population, the Pentangular tournament divided them on communal lines and the colonial government encouraged these divisions.

(iii) The name was changed because of decolonization. This was a process by which the British influence in many areas, one of them sports, declined. Cricket was no longer the monopoly of the imperial powers. Cricket was becoming international. In time, it came to be accepted that the laws of cricket could not continue to be framed for British or Australian conditions of play and they became part of the technique of all bowlers, everywhere in the world.

(iv) The break-up of the British empire brought about a shift in the balance of power in cricket. This shift was taken to its logical conclusion by globalization. Since India had the largest viewership for cricket as compared to other cricket playing nations the shift was towards South Asia. The transfer of ICC headquarters from London to tax-free Dubai is a clear symbol of this shift.

Q.5. How have advances in technology, especially television technology, affected the development of contemporary cricket?
Ans: Advances in television technology have certainly affected the development of contemporary cricket.

(i) Cricket has become more attractive to television audiences, endured and changed the nature of the game. Cricket now became a marketable game.

(ii) Cricket boards sold television rights to television companies and reaped profits.

(iii) Television channels sold television spots to companies. They aired their commercials and advertised their commodities to a large number of audience. They made huge profits.

(iv) Continuous television coverage made cricketers celebrities.

(v) Cricketers became rich. They were paid by cricket boards and also by companies whose commercials they endorsed.

(vi) Cricket audience expanded. Cricket was taken to the smaller towns. Children also became cricket fans.

(vii) People could watch and learn by imitating their heroes.

(viii) Cricket entered the global market. A match at Melbourne could be watched at Mumbai.

(ix) Balance of power shifted to South Asia as most viewership was from here. ICC headquarters shifted from London to tax-free Dubai.