story of Cricket in India .300 years ago it came to kerala first.[ALSO KERALA'S OWN ANCIENT CRICKET LIKE SPORT OF " KUTTIYUM KOLUM"]

Kerala, is the birth place of the game of Cricket in India 300 years ago.. Cricket has always been a game with a distinct English origin and it was Col.Sir Arthur Wellesley, who later became the[1^st Duke of Wellington of Waterloo fame ] who brought the game to Tellicherry.
Tellicherry fort:- The British exported pepper and cardamom from Tellicherry. In 1708, the British built the Thalassery Fort on the beach, to protect and control the spice trade from the town. The square fort, with its massive walls, secret tunnels to the sea and intricately carved huge doors, is an imposing structure.

English fort Thalassery kerala1720


cricket was brought to india and kerala ;for the british garrison soldiers in this fort, India's

An illustration taken from the Illustrated London News June 1850 shows a typical scene at a cricket game.

Source: Carlow County Library

cricket came to calcutta and other places later after 1860

 history of foot ball in kerala:-

It was only after four decades that the popular game of football reached Kerala. The initial efforts were made in 1890 by Bishop Boyle, a Chemistry Professor of the Maharaja's College{present day university college at palayam }, Thiruvananthapuram



He imparted the first lessons in football to the youngsters playing the country ball game at the Puthenkacheri Maidan (the present Central Stadium) Football (soccer) became more popular and struck deeper roots in Kerala than cricket owing to some of its special characteristics like easily understandable rules and less costly nature.

However, cricket is still a virgin game in the state, even though you can find enthusiasts and players across it.

kuttiyum kolum[ANCIENT KERALA CRICKET]





It is called dangguli in Bangla, chinni-dandu in Kannada, kuttiyum kolum in Malayalam, viti-dandu in Marathi, kitti-pullu in Tamil, gooti-billa in Telugu, and Lappa-Duggi in Pashto

galli danda

and 'gully danda' in hindi and Lippa, ,in southern Europe.
It is possible that this game was brought from Europe during the time of Alexander or by rRoman empire traders


The game is played with a gilli or guli and danda, which are both wooden sticks. The danda is longer and handmade by the player, who can swing it easily. The gilli is smaller and is tapered on both sides so that the ends are conical. The gilli is analogous to a cricket bail and the danda is analogous to a cricket bat. There is no standard length defined for the danda or gilli. Usually, however, the gilli is 3 to 6 inches long and the danda is 12 to 18 inches.

Each team has 6 players. One player (scoring player) of one team will play against other team. Scoring player will have a longer stick (Kol) and shorter stick (Kutti) and he has to hit the Kutty from base with the Kol in different ways based on the last score ends. Goal is to reach the Kutty farthest so that, when the opposite team throw the Kutty back to the base, it will be hard to reach the base. Scoring is based on the distance between Kutty and Base. Scoring player will have another chance to hit Kutty again on the air, when other team throw the Kutty back to the base. Distance between the Kutty and base is measured by the Kol which will be converted to the score (6 measure of Kol is required to make one point.
Sub points are
Saasa (1 measure, if the score ends on this, player has to hit the Kutty placing on feet)
Muri (2 measure, if the score ends on this, player has to hit the Kutty holding on other hand)
Naaya (3 measure, if the score ends on this, player has to hit the Kutty placing on two fingers)
Ighty (4 measure, if the score ends on this, player has to hit the Kutty placing on the elbow)
Aarengu (5 measure, if the score ends on this, player has to hit the Kutty placing on eye)
Scoring player can be out in following situations
1. If the Kol does not hit Kutty when he hit
2. If Kutty is caught by the opposite team when scoring player hits Kutty (when other team throws) and if the kutti goes behind the base
3. If Kutty is so close to the base that we can not measure one kol for scoring.
Each team gets one innings (each player one out) and whichever team gets maximum score win.