I remember a very surprising incident of my life. I was on a holiday vacation and traveling with some of my friends across the western coast of India. I will not be making an exaggerating statement if I say all Indians share at least one common hobby and it is 'PLAYING CRICKET'. We all friends too are not the exceptions for it. 

On a very fine morning we were playing the cricket. An Austrian couple was watching us playing the game. They came to us and said, "WHAT ARE YOU GUYS PLAYING ACTUALLY?" We all just looked at them as if they were asking a question of our life. I mean how can anybody be totally unaware of the game which is no less than a religion in a country like India.

It actually made me to write a Hub on the game of cricket and what it means to India ?

The game of cricket originated from England which is now played in most of the commonwealth nations. It has a history right away from the 16th century till date. The official entry though seems to be in 1877 in the form of International test cricket. There is a body of evidence which says that this game was devised by children in south-east england and later adopted by the adults during the beginning of 17th century.

Regarding the name of the game, 'Cricket', there is not a specific sources available.The name could have been derived from the old English or the middle dutch.

Cricket was introduced to the rest of the world in the 17th century. It was the first time that Cricket moved out of England. It was introduced in India by the East India company in the first half of the century.

Cricket is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players. 15 players are selected to form each "squad" and 11 players are selected from that squad. Each team has its own captain, multiple batsmen, multiple bowlers and other players acting as fielders. It is a bat-and-ball game played on a roughly elliptical grass field, in the center of which is a flat strip, called a pitch.

Check out the video which features an international match.

In India, Cricket is considered to be a religion. It has attained that much of importance even though it is not a national sports of India [Field Hockey]. The fever of this sports is such that negligible importance is given to the deserving personnels in other sports. The gravity of the  sport in india is such as to halt the whole country more so if India is winning.

India has produced some great sportsman in the history of Cricket like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar. The growth of Cricket actually started in India after the historical World Cup win under the captaincy of the Kapil Dev. From there on till date Indian cricket is always on the upper graph. For the administration of Cricket in India an organization called Board Of Control For Cricket In India [BCCI] is active. It is the richest cricket organization in the world.

Cricket is the one sport that makes whole country to get connected culturally and unites the religion and the diversity of the country. For India "CRICKET IS LIFE".