Who started playing cricket in India and why?

We have the record of cricket being played by English sailors in Cambay. The Calcutta Cricket Club established in 1792 was the first Indian club. The first Indian community to start playing the game was the small community of Zoroastrians, the Parsis.

People played cricket as a part of the fun and to escape from the strangeness, discomfort and danger of their stay in India.