When Oliver Cromwell was accused in the 1650s of being a "secret cricketter", the Father of the English Republic indignantly denied any connection with the sport. His supporters, the Puritans, were especially opposed to cricket, and thundered against it from their pulpits.
Cricket continued to be played, of course, but not in London or the main cities....it was exiled to the countryside, where it drew the attention of those other exiles, the royalist Cavaliers, the "gentlemen" who had suported the monarchy and were biding their time until the Puritan experiment with a non-monarchical Republic had failed.This happened when the Restoration of 1688 brought the monarchy back to England, swept the Puritans away, and brought back the Cavaliers into power. Cricket came back with them from exile, and at last acquired a metropolitan respectability of sorts. The Cavaliers were now cricket's official patrons, and publicly supported and sponsored the game. Certainly, after this time, more and more cricket is heard of; the protests of the Church grow increasingly plaintive, and finally cease altogether. It appears that, by 1700, cricket is finally there to stay.
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