Popular sports and how they became the games we know today

The three most famous sports include football, with 3.5 billion fans, cricket, with 2.5 billion, and hockey, with 2 billion fans. All of them have a unique history; from backyard games to professional leagues with billions of fans cheering in the stadium, from the very start and its peak in popularity. In this article, I will be exploring the origins of the greatest spectacles the modern world has to offer: football, cricket and hockey.

Football:

Football most likely began during the 12th century in England. But strangely, there weren’t any signs of kicking the ball, instead they punched the ball, and the rules were not as strict as football now. Thus, leading to more injuries in the game, some of the injuries were so severe that sometimes they led to fatalities. Due to these reasons, football-like games were forbidden for many centuries. Then it came back to the 17th century only to be banned again in 1835. But this game spread to public schools like Rugby and Eton. The game rugby came from the name of the school as players were allowed to pick up the ball with their hands. However, Eton displayed a much more modern version of football, they played with their feet and touching the ball was not allowed. Football used to be called the running game at Rugby and the dribbling game at Eton. Proper rules for football began forming in 1848 in Cambridge. Another important event in football's history is in 1863 when the first football association formed, this is also when the game split into 2, Rugby and football.

Cricket:

The first written records of the game are from the 16th century, but the root of the game comes much earlier, like 400 years, in the southeast of England. The main goal being to stop the ball from reaching its

target with a wooden bat or stick. Traditionally, the target is suggested to be a tree stump or the gate of a sheep enclosure. Cricket, like any sport, was not without dangers. In 1624 Jasper Vinall got struck in the forehead by a cricket bat while going to retrieve the ball. This was the first casualty recorded in cricket’s history. The cricket players agreed on a rule- the batsman was not to swing the bat twice in effort to stop the ball from reaching the target. By the 18th century, the popularity of cricket grew, from small games to representing countries. The popularity of cricket exploded and when England began to expand, wherever they when, the game followed. In 1676 a large group of British delegation played in Aleppo, located in the Ottoman Empire, this was the first game played outside of England, further solidifying the sport's growing global appeal.

Hockey:

The origin of hockey can be seen in Egypt, a 4000-year-old engraving showing a game hitting the ball with curved sticks, and there is also a depiction in Ancient Greece from approximately 600BC with horn shaped sticks! Hockey is shown in many different cultures and mostly played during the Middle Ages. Ice hockey was first invented in the 19th century. The first organized hockey game was played on March 3rd, 1875, the puck nowadays is made of rubber but in those times, they use wooden bricks. Even though hockey was not invented by Canada, it somehow became its national sport and Hockey Canada was formed on December 4th, 1914, then hockey made its entrance in the Olympics Games in 1920.