Who is the father of cricket ball?

This is not very perfect but many sources state that England's William Gilbert Grace is stated as the father of cricket. He played first-class cricket from 1865-1908 and test cricket between 1880-1899 for England. He is regarded as so for his exceptional all-round performance in first class cricket scoring more than 54000 runs and taking more than 2800 wickets. For all his stats: http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/13424.html