And God Created Cricket

Cricket defines Englishness like no other national pastime. From its earliest origins in the sixteenth century (or an early version played by shepherds called creag in the 1300s), through the formation of the MCC and the opening of Lord''s cricket ground in 1787, to the spread of county cricket in the next century, when the Wisden Cricketers'' Almanack was first published and the Ashes series was born, this simple sport of bat and ball has captured the imagination of the masses.

Throughout its 500-year history, cricket has been a mirror for society as a whole, reflecting the changes that have brought us from the quintessential village green to Freddie Flintoff''s pedalo, from W G Grace to Monty Panesar, via a fair number of eccentrics, heroes and downright villains.

William Hill Award-winning writer Simon Hughes, no mean player himself, has lived and breathed cricket his whole life and now takes his analytical skills and typically irreverent eye to charting the