Cricket During The World Wars – In Pictures

Throughout the history of humankind, tragedies of all kind have taken place, and as bad as the current situation may seem, perhaps no tragedy in our history has been as awful as World War 1 or 2.

Young men and women around the same age as many of our cricketing heroes were being sent off to fight in battles all around the world, not battles where series and wickets were at stake, but peoples’ lives.

Over the course of the two wars, millions died, including those from almost every major cricketing nation - and some scars from the two conflicts may never heal.

However, cricket was a positive force in those turbulent times.  Members of the armed forces enjoyed playing the game we love in their time away from the front line. It gave those in a war-torn world a crumb of comfort, a chance to take their minds away from the horrors of the time.

Members of the royal navy enjoy a spot of cricket in

Malta during the second world war

A group of female auxiliary corps prepare for a cricket match on

the Western front

 A soldier prepares to face a delivery in Étaples, France

Impromptu cricket during the second world war in Italy,

 a packed slip cordon lying in wait

Troops from Britain and New Zealand prepare for a cricket

match in May, 1918

A beach in Trinidad provides the backdrop for a game between 

naval volunteers from the island during September, 1944

Underarm bowling is on the cards at a cricket match between

female auxiliary corps and recovering soldiers

This article is dedicated to the 500+ international and first class cricketers that lost their lives during the bloodiest and most fatal wars in our history. Lest we forget.