Step 1: Tense Analysis.
- The original sentence is in the past continuous tense, as shown by "were playing." This is important because we need to maintain the same tense in the passive voice.
Step 2: Forming the Passive Voice.
To form the passive voice, we need to follow the rule:
Subject (in passive) + was/were + being + past participle of verb.
The subject of the passive sentence will be "cricket," as it is the object of the verb "playing" in the active sentence.
The verb "playing" is in the continuous tense, so its past participle form is "been played."
Thus, the correct passive form should be:
"Cricket was being played by the boys."
Step 3: Analyzing the Options.
(1) Cricket had been played by the boys: This is in the past perfect tense, which doesn't match the original sentence’s continuous action.
(2) Cricket has been played by the boys: This is in the present perfect tense, which also doesn’t match the original sentence.
(3) Cricket was played by the boys: This is in the simple past tense, which fails to capture the continuous aspect of the original sentence.
(4) Cricket was being played by the boys: This correctly matches the passive form in the past continuous tense.
Therefore, the correct passive form is (4) Cricket was being played by the boys.