First-class cricket

A first-class cricket match is one of three or more days duration between two sides of eleven players officially adjudged first-class. Matches must allow for the teams to play two innings each, although in practice a team might only need to play one inning. The term "first-class" is commonly used to refer to domestic competition only, but international Test matches are part of the first-class structure and a player's first-class statistics include his performances in Test matches. First-class is the highest standard of double innings cricket, which is distinct from other forms including limited overs and historic single wicket.

Generally, first-class matches are eleven players a side but there have been exceptions. Equally, although first-class matches must now be scheduled to have at least three days' duration, there have historically been exceptions. Due to the time demands of first-class competition, the players are mostly paid professionals, though historically many players were designated amateur. First-class teams are usually representative of a geopolitical region such as an English county, an Australian state or a West Indian nation.

Definitions of first-class cricket

MCC 1895

Prior to 1947, the only definition of first-class cricket had been one in Great Britain that dates from a meeting at Lord's in May 1894 between the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) committee and the secretaries of the clubs involved in the official County Championship, which had begun in 1890. As a result, those clubs became first-class from 1895 along with MCC, Cambridge University, Oxford University, major cricket touring teams and other teams designated as such by MCC.

ICC 1947

The term "first-class cricket" was formally defined by the then Imperial Cricket Conference (ICC) in May 1947 as a match of three or more days duration between two sides of eleven players officially adjudged first-class; the governing body in each country to decide the status of teams. Significantly, it was stated that the definition does not have retrospective effect. MCC was authorised to determine the status of matches played in Great Britain.

For all intents and purposes, the 1947 ICC definition confirmed the 1895 MCC definition and gave it international recognition and usage. Hence, official judgment of status is the responsibility of the governing body in each country that is a full member of the ICC. The governing body grants first-class status to international teams and to domestic teams that are representative of the country's highest playing standard. It is possible for international teams from associate members of the ICC to achieve first-class status but it is dependent on the status of their opponents in a given match.

According to the ICC definition, a match is first class if:

• it is of three or more days scheduled duration
• each side playing the match has eleven players
• each side may have two innings
• the match is played on natural, and not artificial, turf
• the match is played on an international standard ground
• the match conforms to The Laws of Cricket, except for only minor amendments
• the sport’s governing body in the appropriate nation, or the ICC itself, recognises the match as first-class.

A Test match is a first-class match played between two ICC full member countries subject to their current status at the ICC and the application of ICC conditions when the match is played.

A peculiarity of the two-innings match is the follow-on rule. If the team that batted second is substantially behind on first innings total, they may be required to bat again (i.e., to immediately follow on from their first innings) in the third innings of the match. In first-class cricket, the follow-on minimum lead requirement depends on match duration. In a Test or other match with five or more days duration, the team batting second can be asked to follow on if 200 or more runs behind. If the match duration is three or four days, the minimum lead is 150 runs.

Matches played before the MCC and ICC definitions

The absence of any ruling about the status of matches played before 1947 (or before 1895 in Great Britain) has caused problems for cricket historians and especially statisticians who have been forced to compile their own matchlists and apply first-class status retrospectively, in contravention of the ICC and MCC directives. Matches that meet the official definitions, assuming they featured teams of the necessary high standard, have been recorded since 1697.

The position is that each statistician must compile his own list based on his personal opinions. As a result, significant differences may be observed in the published career records of W. G. Grace, Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe and some minor differences in the records of other players. At club level, there are differences in the perceived status of certain matches played by Gloucestershire before 1870 and by Somerset in 1879 and 1881. The number of variations is minuscule in terms of the sport's overall statistics.

The development of scorecards to 1895

The problem of different statistical versions is as old as cricket scorecards themselves. The earliest known scorecards are dated 1744 but very few were created (or have survived) between 1744 and 1772 when they became habitual.

The main source for scorecards since 1772 until the 1860s is Arthur Haygarth’s Scores & Biographies, which was published in several volumes between 1862 and 1872. Haygarth used a number of sources for his scorecards including many that were created by the Hambledon Club and MCC. He frequently refers to earlier compilers such as Samuel Britcher, W. Epps and Henry Bentley. Haygarth often mentions in his match summaries that another version exists of the scorecard he has reproduced. Sometimes he outlines the differences which range from players' names to runs scored and even to apparent discrepancies in innings totals or match results.

Haygarth first mentions the difficulty of obtaining scorecards in his summary of the Hampshire v Surrey match at Broadhalfpenny Down on 26 August 1773:

"The Score of this match was obtained from the Hampshire Chronicle, and it was not inserted in the old printed book of Hambledon Scores from 1772 to 1784".

Then, in his summary of the Surrey v Hampshire match at Laleham Burway on 6–8 July 1775:

"The above is taken from the old printed score books; but in another account, in the first innings of Surrey, Miller is b Brett...&c".

He goes on to list a total of 13 differences between his two versions, some re dismissal details and others re scores. He then makes a highly pertinent comment:

"It may here be remarked, that when there are two scores of the same match, they never agree". (The italics are Haygarth's own.)

In saying that, Haygarth has recognised the essence of the problem when there is no standard means of scoring and no centralised control over the system of capturing and storing the data.

Scoring systems in the 18th century and most of the 19th century had nothing like the consistency of standard that was employed through the 20th century to the present. Many early cards gave no details of dismissal. Where dismissal was recorded, it was limited to the primary mode and so a fielder would be credited with a catch but the bowler would not be credited with the wicket unless he bowled out the batsman.

MCC finally responded to the problem in 1836 when they decided to include in their own scorecards (i.e., for matches played at Lord's) the addition of bowlers' names when the dismissal was caught, stumped, lbw or hit wicket. Haygarth comments that "this was a vast improvement in recording the game and but justice to the bowler". As a result, scorecards became more detailed through the second half of the 19th century but reliability remained a problem and different versions continued to appear. It was some time before the MCC scorecard standard was adopted throughout the country and the inclusion of bowling analyses "was not introduced until several years afterwards".

A greater problem surfaced after 1890 with the establishment of the County Championship because, as described above, this gave rise in 1895 to the concept of first-class cricket and so, for the first time, there was a perceived higher standard based on organisation of games in an official competition. Until then, everything had been somewhat ad hoc and playing standards was a term applied very liberally, especially with teams containing guest or occasional players in addition to recognised players.

In the context of pre-definition matches, first-class cricket is essentially a statistical concept and not a historical one. Historians record the importance of a match in contemporary terms regardless of 21st century ideas. Thus, to a cricket historian, the inter-county match between Kent and Surrey in 1709 has the same importance as a County Championship match between the same two counties in the 21st century.

Commencement of statistical records

Roy Webber published the Playfair Book of Cricket Records in 1951 and, in his introduction, expressed the view that first-class records should commence in 1864. A number of sources have agreed with this date.

The issue with using any cut-off date as a startpoint is that it excludes everything before that date despite cricket's history making clear that there has been a continuous standard of top-class cricket in England since the 1740s, if not the late 17th century. If first-class cricket did not begin until 1864, then legendary cricketers like Richard Newland, John Small, Billy Beldham, Alfred Mynn and William Caffyn were not first-class players.

It is true that none of the cricketers with large career totals played before 1864 (Webber's main reason for adopting that date) and so his startpoint is not really an issue in that context. But it does exclude numerous major players and it does affect other cricket records. For example, the lowest known team score occurred in the 1810 match between England and The Bs (with Wells and Lawrell) when The Bs were dismissed for 6 in their second innings; and that match is not regarded as first-class by those statisticians who still use 1815 or 1864 as their statistical startpoint. The real significance of 1864 was the legalisation of overarm bowling but there is also evidence of a more structured approach to inter-county cricket which ultimately brought about the introduction of the official County Championship. 1864 was also the first year in which Wisden Cricketers' Almanack was published and this is seen as the key source for cricket records, although there are plenty of earlier sources.

When Bill Frindall published his Wisden Book of Cricket Records, he explained in his preface that he used 1815 as the starting point for "proper" first-class cricket, though he conceded that there is a reasonable case for several other years, particularly Webber’s 1864. Frindall thus included the entire roundarm era but also a substantial part of the underarm era. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack also commences its first-class records section in 1815.

The problem with 1815, if the intention is to include roundarm, is that roundarm did not begin in any real sense until 1827 and was not legalised until 1835; and even then The Laws of Cricket had to be reinforced in 1845 by removing the benefit of the doubt from the bowler in the matter of his hand’s height when delivering the ball. For most of the period from 1815 to 1845, underarm bowling continued to prevail and so 1815 as the startpoint was resisted by champions of the "underarm era" which had existed from time immemorial.

There is now a general consensus that first-class statistics, as distinct from first-class history, commence in 1772 when scorecards began to be kept on a routine basis. Even then, there isn't a complete statistical record of matches before 1825, especially given the loss of records in the catastrophic Lord's fire, which occurred on the night of Thursday, 28 July 1825. The pavilion burned down and many invaluable and irreplaceable records were lost. It is believed that these included unique scorecards of early matches. The main difficulty encountered by researchers before the Lord's fire is the absence of match details and there are numerous matches in the 18th century which are known about in name only, with no scores having survived.

The handful of scorecards before 1772, including the two in 1744, are arguably too isolated for inclusion in the statistical record. It is in this sense that the statistical record is divorced from the historical record which includes all first-class matches for which no scorecard has survived. The point of origin for first-class cricket's historical record is uncertain. Teams of "county strength" were being assembled by the 1730s, but there are surviving references to what were termed "great matches" going back to 1697.

In 2005, scorecards and other details of all known matches prior to 1801 were loaded into the CricketArchive database and there classified as "major" or "minor" pending an overall accord with other sources about statistical first-class status, which was finally achieved in 2010. The problem of a statistical startpoint is exclusive to England. The "first-class startpoints" in other countries are agreed by most sources.

In the rest of the world, the generally recognised startpoints before 1947 are:

• Australia, February 1851
• New Zealand, January 1864
• West Indies, February 1865
• North America, 1878
• South Africa, March 1889 (the inaugural first-class match was also South Africa's first Test match)
• India, August 1892