13. In the late 18th century, people made cricket even more confusing by playing it on horseback
You could certainly make a case for cricket itself being included on this list, since it remains a mystery to most people in the world, but cricket and horses? Incredibly, someone thought that cricket could be made yet more interesting by incorporating horses into an already complicated sport. In April 1794, The Kentish Gazette announced that ‘a very singular game of cricket will be played on Tuesday, the 6th of May, in Linsted Park, between the Gentlemen of the Hill and the Gentlemen of the Dale, for one guinea a man. The whole to be performed on horseback’.
There are no records of how it was played, or who won, but another game of Equestrian Cricket was again organized in 1800 by Sir Horace Mann. Theories abound that riders used specially elongated cricket bats to reach the ground, or that the ball was comically large to be reached by standard batting equipment. Alas, it most likely that ‘Equestrian Cricket’ was an obsolete term for polo. Polo is one of the world’s most ancient sports, and the modern game is based on the variation played in Manipur, India, with which subcontinent England was trading in the 18th century.