James Pycroft
Encyclopedia
James Pycroft is chiefly known for writing The Cricket Field, one of the earliest books about cricket
, published in 1851. Pycroft mythologised cricket as a noble, manly and essentially British activity ('Cricket is essentially Anglo-Saxon, ... Foreigners have rarely imitated us. English settlers everywhere play at cricket; but of no single club have we heard that dieted either with frogs, saur-kraut or macaroni).
His hagiography favourably compared the virtues of Victorian cricket with the disgraceful state of play at the turn of the century where 'Lord’s was frequented by men with book and pencil, betting as openly and professionally as in the ring at Epsom, and ready to deal in the odds with any and every person of speculative propensities’.
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, published in 1851. Pycroft mythologised cricket as a noble, manly and essentially British activity ('Cricket is essentially Anglo-Saxon, ... Foreigners have rarely imitated us. English settlers everywhere play at cricket; but of no single club have we heard that dieted either with frogs, saur-kraut or macaroni).
His hagiography favourably compared the virtues of Victorian cricket with the disgraceful state of play at the turn of the century where 'Lord’s was frequented by men with book and pencil, betting as openly and professionally as in the ring at Epsom, and ready to deal in the odds with any and every person of speculative propensities’.