Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
Cricket is a global passion, played everywhere from Test match arenas to village greens, tropical beaches and dusty back lots. Cricket is the world’* second most popular spectator sport after football.
The origin of cricket is somewhere in the Dark Ages. All research concedes that the game derived from a very old, widespread and uncomplicated pastime by which one player served up an object, be it a small piece of wood or a ball, and another hit it with a suitably fashioned club. Cricket was first recorded in- 16th century England, and it was played in grammar schools, farm communities and everywhere in between. But things really took *** when 18th century nobles realized it was a great sport.
The oldest surviving set of cricket laws date from 1744 - printed on a handkerchief, naturally. It’ now in the MCC Museum at Lord’ in London. The oldest permanent fixture is the annual Eton v Harrow match, played since 1805. A young Lord Byron turned out for Harrow in the first match, though history doesn’t record how poetic - or “***, bad and dangerous” - his bowling was.
The first international match was in 1877 when Australia England in Melbourne. The match was dubbed a “Test”, since the gruelling nature of playing over five days was deemed the ultimate “test” for any side. But it was Australia’ first win on English soil - in 1882 at The Oval in London - that led to matches between the two nations being christened the Ashes. Following the defeat, newspapers published an obituary mourning “the of English cricket”, adding that “the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia”.
A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, usually 50. The Cricket World Cup is played in this format. The international one-day game is a late twentieth-century development. The first ODI was played on 5 January 1971 between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The following questions on the basis of the passage you have read :
(a) According to the passage, how did the game of Cricket originate?
(b) Where can we find the oldest sets of Cricket laws?
(c) Which match did Lord Byron play?
(d) When was the first international match played?
(e) Which countries played that match?
(f) Why were the matches between Australia and England titled “The Ashes”?
(g) In which format is the Cricket world cup played ?
(h) When did the ODIs begin?
(i) Which word in paragraph no.4 means the same as ‘exhausting’?
