Sorry guys, but saying something don’t make it so, however earnestly your individual experience may make you believe it. I was taught cricket by a captain of England and this phrase certainly always referred to the surface of a drying pitch in the ways I have heard it used literally. That proves equally little per se, but the weight of received (heh) wisdom all points one way. You will notice that the full phrase is to “BE ON A ~” which signifies it’s the strip-of-turf kind of wicket, not the stumps-and-bails kind of wicket being referred to.

first blood

second wicket down

it's a hat trick

According to some sources, it’s a comparatively modern saying, too.

But even David Crystal admits to sometimes being stumped by sporting idiom.

Who knew the game’s name came from the wicked Frogs and the main implement maybe from the wily Celts?