模仿文本： Cricket began as far as we can tell in the 16th century as a farm game played by labourers and farmers around the home counties in Kent and Hampshire. But by the 18th century, cricket had really become a major spectator activity with the great landowners, the patrons coming in to support it, challenging each other, employing their own farm labourers to play for them and staking huge amounts of money on the result of the game. 

 

译文：早在16世纪，在英国南部的肯特郡（Kent）和汉普郡（Hampshire），劳工和农夫们就在自己县里玩起了类似板球的运动，我们可以看作是板球的起源。到了18世纪，板球实际上就已经演变成了一项主要的观赏活动，大量的地主和赞助商都会前来助阵，互相较量，还会雇自己的农工来比赛，在比赛结果上大压赌注。