Chapter 10: The Story of Cricket

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Chapter 10: The Story of Cricket

Class: VII

Exercise number-1

Question 1

Cricket is originally a/an
(i) Indian game.
(ii) British game.
(iii) international game.
Mark the right answer.

Answer 1

Cricket is originally a British game.

 

Question 2

"There is a historical reason behind both these oddities." In the preceding two paragraphs, find two words/phrases that mean the same as ‘oddities’.

Answer 2

Two words/phrases that mean the same as oddities are ‘peculiarities’ and ‘curious characteristic’.

 

Question 3

How is a cricket bat different from a hockey stick?

Answer 3

Bats were roughly of the same shape as hockey sticks, curving outwards at the bottom, till the middle of the eighteenth century. Later the curved bats were replaced by the straight one. A cricket bat is thicker, wider and straight while a hockey stick is thin and curves at the bottom. Earlier it was cut out of a single piece of wood but now it consists of two pieces – the blade and the handle.

 

 

Question 1

Write True or False against each of the following sentences.
(i) India joined the world of Test cricket before Independence. ________________
(ii) The colonisers did nothing to encourage the Parsis in playing cricket. _________
(iii) Palwankar Baloo was India’s first Test captain. ___________
(iv) Australia played its first Test against England as a sovereign nation.
___________

Answer 1

(i) True
(ii) True
(iii) False
India’s first Test captain was C.K. Nayudu.
(iv) False
Australia was not a sovereign nation when it played its first Test. It was still a white-settler colony.

 

 

Question 1

A ‘professional’ cricket player is one who makes a living by playing cricket. Find the opposite of ‘professional’ in the last paragraph.

Answer 1

The opposite of ‘professional’ is ‘amateur’.

 

Question 2

In "the triumph of the one-day game", ‘triumph’ means the one-day game’s
(i) superiority to Test cricket.
(ii) inferiority to Test cricket.
(iii) achievement and success over Test cricket.
(iv) popularity among viewers.
Mark the right answer.

Answer 2

Here, ‘triumph’ means the one-day game’s popularity among viewers.

 

Question 3

"…the men for whom the world is a stage".
(i) It refers to the famous cricket fields in the world.
(ii) It means that there are many cricket playing countries in the world.
(iii) It implies that cricketers are like actors and every cricket ground is like a stage on which the drama of cricket is enacted the world over.
Mark the right answer.

Answer 3

It implies that cricketers are like actors and every cricket ground is like a stage on which the drama of cricket is enacted the world over.

 

 

Question 1

Name some stick-and-ball games that you have witnessed or heard of.

Answer 1

Cricket, hockey, baseball, and polo are a few stick-and-ball games.

 

Question 2

The Parsis were the first Indian community to take to cricket. Why?

Answer 2

The Parsis were brought into close contact with the British because of their interest in trade and they were the first Indian community to westernize. Hence, the Parsis were the first Indian community to take to cricket.

 

Question 3

The rivalry between the Parsis and the Bombay Gymkhana had a happy ending for the former. What does ‘a happy ending’ refer to?

Answer 3

The ‘happy ending’ refers to the victory of a Parsi team in cricket over the Bombay Gymkhana in 1889, and this happy ending was just after the four years of the foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1885.

 

Question 4

Do you think cricket owes its present popularity to television? Justify your answer.

Answer 4

Yes, cricket owes its present popularity to television. With the medium of television, people in small towns and villages have started watching cricket matches and this thereby increases the audience for watching cricket. Previously, Children who lived outside the big cities never had the chance of watching international cricket. Now matches in Sydney can be watched live in Surat. As a result, Cricket became available to everyone and gained a lot of popularity.

 

Question 5

Why has cricket a large viewership in India, not in China or Russia?

Answer 5

Due to lack of popularity, Cricket’s viewership in countries like China, Russia is very little. It is the same case with the games like rugby and baseball which do not have a large viewership in India like Cricket. However, games like soccer, cricket and baseball are different and are hugely popular in India because these games are played at the grass root level. The greater part of Indian population has grown up playing these games and has a good knowledge of them.

 

Question 6

What do you understand by the game’s (cricket) ‘equipment’?

Answer 6

The tools used in cricket such as bat, ball, gloves, stumps, pads etc are the game’s ‘equipment’. The bat has two pieces- the blade and the handle. The blade is made out of the wood of willow tree and the handle is made out of cane. Cricket had refused to make its tools with industrial or man-made materials such as metal, plastic, and fiberglass. Cricket has been influenced by technological change when it is a matter of protective equipment. The invention of vulcanized rubbed led to the introduction of pads used in cricket in 1848 and after this protective gloves were also made. Now cricket is unimaginable without helmets made out of synthetic lightweight materials and metals.

 

Question 7

How is Test cricket a unique game in many ways?

Answer 7

Test Cricket is a unique game because it can go on for five days and still can end in a draw. Also, no other modern games can take even half the time taken by the test cricket to complete.

 

Question 8

How is cricket different from other team games?

Answer 8

Cricket is different from other team games as one form of it, i.e., Test Cricket is a unique game because it can go on for five days and still can end in a draw. Also, no other modern games can take even half the time taken by the test cricket to complete.  A football match is of one and a half hours and even the baseball match completes nine innings in less than half the time that is taken to play a limited over match. Also, the length of the pitch is specified 22 yards but the shape and size of the ground is not. Most of the other team games like football and hockey lay down the dimensions of the playing area whereas cricket does not. Grounds shape may differ and can be oval like the Adelaide Oval or nearly circular like Chepauk in Chennai. Depending on the ground area, sixes and fours need to clear the provided area on the ground. For example a six at the Melbourne Cricket Ground needs to clear much more ground than it does at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. Unlike tennis or golf, some of the cricket’s equipment such as bat and ball are still made of natural materials, and not from industrial or man-made materials.

 

Question 9

How have advances in technology affected the game of cricket?

Answer 9

The advancement in technology has affected the game of cricket in the matter of protective equipment. The invention of vulcanized rubbed led to the introduction of pads used in cricket in 1848 and after this protective gloves were also made. Now cricket is unimaginable without helmets made out of synthetic lightweight materials and metals.

 

Question 10

Explain how cricket changed with changing times and yet remained unchanged in some ways.

Answer 10 

If we consider the rules and regulations of the game, Cricket has undergone a lot of changes with changing times. From hockey-like bats to the straight bats, from bowling underarm to bowling through the air, from being an elite sport to becoming a game of the masses, cricket has changed a lot. After so many changes there are still few things which are unchanged and the thing which is not changed is the cricket equipment. Cricket’s most important tools are still made of natural, pre-industrial materials. The bat is made of leather, twine, and cork. Even today, both bat and ball are handmade, not industrially manufactured. Unlike tennis or golf, some of the cricket’s equipment such as bat and ball are still made of natural materials, and not from industrial or man-made materials. However, in the matter of protective equipment, cricket has been influenced by technological change. The invention of vulcanized rubbed led to the introduction of pads used in cricket in 1848 and after this protective gloves were also made. Now cricket is unimaginable without helmets made out of synthetic lightweight materials and metals.

 

 

Question1

Wordsearch

• Twelve words associated with cricket are hidden in this grid.
• Six can be found horizontally and the remaining six vertically.
• Two words have been found for you.

Clues to the hidden words are given below.
Horizontal : six deliveries, four runs, attacked while out of arena, no result, stumps, fielder to the off side of the wicketkeeper
Vertical : stumps flying, back to the pavilion, a lofty one, mid-air mishap, not even one out of six, goes with bat

 

 

 

 

Answer 1

 

 

 

 

HORIZONTAL 

Six Deliveries – OVER

Four Runs – BOUNDARY

Attacked while out of arena – STUMPED

No Result – DRAW

Stumps – WICKET

Fielder to the off side of the wicketkeeper – SLIP

 

VERTICAL

Stumps flying – BOWLED

Back to the pavilion – OUT

A lofty one – SIX

Mid-air mishap – CAUGHT

Not even one out of six – MAIDEN

Goes with bat – BALL

 

 Question 2

Add -ly to the italicised word in each sentence. Rewrite the sentence using the new word. See the examples first.

• He runs between wickets as if his legs were stiff.

He runs between wickets stiffly.

• Why did the batsman swing the bat in such a violent manner?

Why did the batsman swing the bat so violently?
(i) It is obvious that the work has not been done in a proper way.
(ii) He made the statement in a firm manner.
(iii) The job can be completed within a week in an easy way.
(iv) You did not play in a serious manner, or else you would have won the match.
(v) She recited the poem in a cheerful manner.

Answer 2

(i) It is obvious that the work has not been done properly.
(ii) He made the statement firmly.
(iii) The job can be completed within a week easily.
(iv) You did not play seriously, or else you would have won the match.
(v) She recited the poem cheerfully.

 

Question 3

Use the following phrases appropriately in place of the italicised words in the sentences given below.

as a matter of fact	we had better
see to it	by accident	as well

(i) Actually, I didn’t intend to come to your place. I reached here without planning.
(ii) Sunil, there’s a letter for you in today’s post. There’s one for me also.
(iii) Everybody thought I had composed the poem. The truth is my younger sister did it.
(iv) The doctor told the patient to make sure that he took his pills on time.
(v) It will be better for us to plan our trip before setting out.

Answer 3

(i) Actually, I didn’t intend to come to your place. I reached here by accident.
(ii) Sunil, there’s a letter for you in today’s post. There’s one for me as well.
(iii) Everybody thought I had composed the poem. As a matter of fact, my younger sister did it.
(iv) The doctor told the patient to see to it that he took his pills on time.
(v) We had better plan our trip before setting out.