Howzat? French say they created cricket

IT’S enough to make an MCC man choke on his gin and tonic. Historical records suggest that cricket did not originate in England, but was first played in France. A letter to King Louis XI in 1478 may contain the first known reference to cricket – or ‘ criquet’ – almost a century before experts believe it arrived in England on a village green in Guildford, Surrey. The note, preserved in France’s national archives, mentions ‘ boules’, or balls, and ‘ criquet’, a wooden post, in a description of a game played in the village of Liettres, northern France. The letter was written by a young man called Estiavannet, who watched the strange game before a player barked: ‘ Why are you staring at our ball game?’ A violent scuffle ensued, and one man died. Historians have always thought that cricket may have begun as a hobby for shepherds in Kent, who used their crooks as wickets. The first evidence of a proper game was in Guildford in 1550 and the first written mention was in court papers in 1589 when a Royal Grammar School pupil said how he and his classmates ‘ did runne and play there at creckett’. But the French are so confident they invented the game that tourism bosses have devised a ‘ Liettres 1478 Challenge’. Next month, the village will host an ‘ international cricket tournament’ in which Lille Cricket Club will take on players from Whitstable, Kent. Philippe Dethoor, 48, president of Lille Cricket Club, said it was ‘ perfectly plausible’ that the game began in France, telling the Independent on Sunday: ‘ Maybe by the late 15th century some form of the game had crossed the Channel from England, or maybe it was the other way round.’