Many of the first cricket matches played in northern British India during the 19th Century were instigated by the British Army who were stationed there.
Kohat is described by Edward Emmerson in his book 'Across the Border' published in 1890, as a 'picturesque town'. He noted that Kohat boasted a church, an assembly room, a library, racket courts, a cricket ground, polo field and racecourse all within a ring fence "so that society can take its exercise, or afternoon tea, without going beyond the range of the mess; that Garrison mess whose doors are open to every one, whom duty or pleasure carries in its direction".
The British introduced cricket to India in the 18th century. Initially, Indians were only spectators to contests played between Army and Navy units, but by the late 19th century the game had acquired popular appeal. Both Hindu and Muslim native soldiers took up cricket with enthusiasum. For the British, cricket was part of their colonising mission.
The cricketing historian Cecil Headlam, travelling in India during the 1903 Delhi Durbar, reflected on its place in the imperial scheme: 'First the hunter, the missionary, and the merchant, next the soldier and the politician, and then the cricketer - that is the history of British colonisation. And of these civilizing influences the last may, perhaps, be said to do least harm. The hunter may exterminate deserving species, the missionary may cause quarrels, the soldier may hector, the politician blunder - but cricket unites, as in India, the rulers and the ruled. It also provides a moral training, an education in pluck, nerve and self-restraint valuable to the character of the ordinary native'.
Like their British counterparts, Indian Army regiments took part in competitions against both Indian and British units stationed on the sub-continent. Today, Pakistan and India are both cricket-mad nations.
One Of The Earliest Photographs Of Cricket In British India.
19th Century Cricket at Kohat, a photograph by Major Charles Patton Keyes of the 1st Punjab Infantry, between 1862-1865 (c).
© Charles Patton Keyes
