Ancient cricket

According to this web resource for American schools the ancient Greeks might have played cricket. If you scroll down the page till you find the entry entitled "Greek Cricket" you will find three images. I have posted one (and you can click on it to blow it up a little) and there is another which is virtually the same. The image between these two is interesting though. On the left is what appears to be a very large set of stumps (or "goal" as the Americans call it. Frickin' Americans) and a bloke with a stick. Its all probably bollocks of course. Cricinfo tells us that cricket was probably developed in Northern Europe and appeared some time between when the Romans left England (c.400AD) and when the Normans arrived (1066AD).

Anyway. If you found that interesting keep scrolling down the page of ancient ball games and check out the ancient Greeks playing hockey. Now there is a convincing portrayal of a sport some of us are still playing today. And if you still find the topic interesting, go to this page and find out more about the game described by an ancient version of Murray Mexted as follows:

"He seized the ball and passed it to a team-mate while dodging another and laughing. He pushed it out of the way of another... All the while the crowd resounded with shouts of Out of bounds, Too far, Right beside him, Over his head, On the ground, Up in the air, Too short, Pass it back in the scrum."