Vintage Athletes - Part 35

 Muybridge Cricket

We continue our look at the stop-motion photography of Eadweard Muybridge published in his 1887 book Animal Locomotion. Muybridge did his work at the University of Pennsylvania, and his subjects were mostly students or graduates who excelled in the activity being portrayed.  Today we look at the game of cricket.

Muybridge was born in England and emigrated to the U.S. at age 20, so of course he was familiar with cricket.  After the Civil War, baseball largely replaced cricket in the U.S.  Cricket was still played in a few places in the 1880s when Muybridge was working, including the University of Pennsylvania.

I made the gif above from plate 289 in the book, labeled "Cricket, round arm bowling."  Bowling in cricket is the equivalent of pitching in baseball.  Originally, cricket bowling was underarm bowling, which Americans would call underhand pitching.  By the 1830s, the prevailing style had changed to roundarm bowling, where the arm is held straight out sideways from the body, allowing for a more powerful throw than underarm bowling.  At that time, overarm bowling (overhand pitching) was banned.

I made the gif above from plate 290, "Cricket, over arm bowling."  Americans would call it overhand pitching.  It was initially illegal in cricket, but it became legalized in 1864.  It then became the favorite style, allowing for even more powerful throws.

I made the gif above from plate 291, "Cricket, batting, drive."  In a drive shot, the batter swings the bat in a vertical arc, usually hitting the ball forward along the ground.

I made this gif from plate 292, "Cricket, batting, back cut."  I won't try to explain what a back cut is, since the description involved so much cricket jargon that I couldn't follow it.

I made this gif from plate 293, also called "Cricket, batting, back cut."  The model in all of these plates was model #69.  Muybridge called him "the best all-round cricketer," and he was presumably a student at Penn, but like the other models, his name was not given, and I haven't been able to further identify him.

As time went on, cricket became less popular in the U.S., even in its stronghold around Philadelphia, and it completely died out by the 1920s.  Of course, in England it remains the national game.