Anyone for cricket?

You wouldn't believe people used to play cricket here, not centuries ago either, but only a few decades back. I'd never have imagined it, but talking to local residents who've lived here for years, annually two parallel roads, both ending at our common, would engage in a friendly cricket match. The ground was treeless, flat and open then; a favourite place for local kids to have a kick about and well used recreational space. Amazing how fast nature will re-wild herself if given the opportunity, but it hints at something far more interesting (to me anyway), that is social change. The area only re-wilded because all the people stopped using it, the question is, why? What social factors brought about these changes, more than one I'd guess. Was it the shift in social statuses that brought about the end of the annual cricket? One road being privately owned, the other council housing; around this time a conservative government set the beginnings of the demonization and division between those from 'council estates' and homeowners, suggesting and encouraging that home ownership made you socially superior. Thatcher is famously credited with saying there was no such thing as society; a self fore filling prophecy? That may account for the street on street cricket matches, but what abouts the kids? There were still plenty of children in the area, why did they stop using the common? The emergence of games consoles maybe? Or was the increased fear of stranger danger and the beginnings of childrens disenfranchisement from 'outside' a cause?  Are there other factors haven't I identified? I asked a local type and they merely shrugged and said 'dunknow'. Sad that community events fade and die; I think our lives are somehow lesser for it and division certainly makes us weaker, collectively I mean. So many questions and never enough answers. Things like this get me thinking; I think, I think too much.