In Izmir in 1806

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Awaiting Review
Date of Game 1806
Game Cricket
Location Izmir, Turkey
Has Source On Hand No
NY Rules No - Predecessor
Description Unsurprisingly, the roots of cricket in Turkey can be pinned on the British in the Ottoman Empire. The earliest reference I have ever found to cricket being played in the Ottoman Empire is in the travel memoirs of Robert Walpole, who reported the British merchants resident in Izmir playing a match in the ruins of the ancient stadium of that city in 1806. The explorer and adventurer John Auldjo, who visited Istanbul in 1833 during the peace negotiations between the Ottomans and Russia, recounted the officers of HMS Actaeon playing a game of cricket in 'the Sultan's Valley' (Hünkar İskelesi in Beykoz), which he said was 'much to the amusement of both Russian and Turk'. Hünkar İsekelesi continued as a hub of cricket in the Ottoman realms, the sound of leather against willow ringing out as British soldiers and sailors stationed there played matches to pass the time en route to Crimea in 1854. Of these games, the British journalist George Dodd said 'many of the astonished Turks are said to have almost lost their senses in endeavouring to comprehend.'Izmir is the historic Smyrna.
Sources http://www.docblog.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2015/07/the-ottoman-empire-and-cricket-from.html
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Submitted by Bruce Allardice



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