Golden years: Hill & Gregory to Hobbs & Sutcliffe

David Gower traces the roots of cricket through the golden age upto the start of World War 1.

The period became infused with a nostalgic yearning, ostensibly because the teams played cricket according to "the spirit of the game". More poignantly, the nostalgia was due to loss of life in the Great War and a hankering for those happier times before the war's outbreak.