Politics, Bollywood, and Cricket are the three things that India values most highly. The latter is so well-known in India that we have a God of Cricket named Sachin Tendulkar among us.
Cricket is a bat and ball game played between two teams comprising 11 players each. But do you know when cricket was invented? It may have originated from the children living in the Weald, south-east England, during the Saxon or Norman periods. Cricket is played in numerous formats like Test matches, One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals.
So, the question that all of us have is why it’s called Bowling rather than Balling. Bowling should be termed balling since bowlers use a ball. The explanation behind this is as follows:
- Bowling is derived from the verb ‘bowl’ rather than the noun ‘ball.’ You don’t say a ‘ball a ball,’ but a ‘bowl a ball.’ As a result, it’s referred to as bowling rather than balling.
- Bat, on the other hand, is a noun that may also be employed as a verb when used in the phrase “to bat.” I’ll bat, for example.
- In cricket, bowling refers to when a player, known as the ‘bowler,’ drives the ball towards a batsman’s stumps. Bowlers have two goals: take wickets (the act of dismissing batsmen by striking the stumps with the ball) or restrict run-scoring opportunities.
Let’s take a closer look at the verb “bowling.”
Cricket was a vastly different game before the 1750s. The initial bat was shaped like a current hockey stick, and the game was invented by shepherds who attempted to strike a ball that was rolled down the ground with it. According to some beliefs, the bat was named cricce, and the game was named after it.
The origins of the term “bowling” may be traced back to the Latin bulla, which means “bubble, round item.” This was converted to bole or boule, which simply meant “ball” in French.
By the fifteenth century, it had become a bowl, which means “wooden ball.” The game of “bowls,” which entailed rolling the balls down the ground, was named after a gerund version of the word bowl.
The verb bowling sprang from this, which simply meant rolling the ball down the ground. This was also how it was done in cricket, thus the act of propelling the ball over the pitch was referred to like bowling, and the individual who performed it was referred to as the bowler, as predicted.
The term for the round item had developed to a ball at that time, but the deed and verb name remained from cricket’s early days and its link with bowls. As a result, bowling was born.
Cricket is one of the finest sports in the world since it promotes team spirit, discipline, character development, and leadership qualities.