One Day Cricket and Its Progress (Nov 1995)

One-day cricket history and progress

By Chamikara Weerasinghe.

One-day limited over cricket is the order of the day these days. It promises the cricketers, the spectators and even TV viewers, the spectacle of seeing for themselves the exciting movements of cricket.

Sri Lanka has been in the past month or two in the forefront of one-day cricket. The Sri Lankans won the one-day series in Pakistan and followed it up with their spectacular show in Sharjah where they won the Singer Champion Trophy beating the West Indies and Pakistan.

Sri Lanka are now preparing for the Test tour of Australia and also for the Benson and Hedges series against Australia and the West Indies starting later this month.

Cricket followers may not be fully aware of how oneday cricket started. Delving into the past we find that the first `official' one-day cricket championship was organized in England in 1963,the Gillette Cup. Each side played 60 overs in this match.

The John Player League was the next championship. In these matches 40 overs had to be bowled and they were usually played on Sundays.

The Benson and Hedges Cup in 1972 was the third limited overs competition organized in England, in which each side played 55 overs.

Authorities felt the need for such matches due to falling gate receipts leading to paucity of funds in English County Chmpionship. One-Day Internationsals

The first officially recognized one-day international was played at Melbourne, Australia on January 5 in 1971. This was arranged to appease a disappointed public due to the loss of last day's play in a rain affected Test match. The match was played between Australia and England and Australia won by 5 wickets. It was a game of 40 overs

John Edrich of England , who scored 82 runs in this match became the first cricketer to hit a half century in-one day international history. He was also selected as the Man of the Match.

Charlie Elliot, the man who was the adjudicator in this match went on to umpire the first one-day international played in England.

Denis Amiss, who hit 103 runs became the first cricketer to hit a century in an one-day international . It was played between England and Australia at Old Trafford, Manchester in 1972 in the 2 nd one-day international ever.

The first series of one-day internationals were held in England in 1972 for Prudential Trophy, which lasted in England upto 1984.

The first player to play in one-day internationals but never played Test cricket was Peter Coman of New Zealand in 1973.

The first one-day international to be aborted due to rain was the match between England and New Zealand in 1973 at Old Trafford, Manchester.

Gary Sobers could not score any runs in his only one-day international held at Headingley, Leeds in 1974.

India played their first one-day international at Headingley, Leeds in 1974. Ajith Wadekar and Mike Denness were the rival captains in this match. England won this match by 4 wickets.

The first one-day international ever to be played under floodlights was held at Sydney on November 27 in 1979. It was a match between Australia and West Indies.

Produced by Lake House in collaboration with Lanka Internet Services Ltd

Source :: 1995 Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited