Broadhalfpenny Down is the Mecca of cricket. The Bat and Ball Inn across the road is pavilion to the whole cricket world. This is the home of the legendary 18th-century Hambledon Club. Every cricketer wants to visit it because they know this is where cricket began. Only it didn't.

That Broadhalfpenny Down is the birthplace of cricket is one of the most well-established myths in sporting history. Yet this ground still holds a unique place in the history of the game. It is where a simple country pastime evolved into a national sport; where the crude techniques of the first players evolved...