37-511: Cambridge Town Club (CTC) was a first-class cricket club established in Cambridge before 1817. Among notable players who represented CTC were Tom Hayward senior , Robert Carpenter and George Tarrant . It co-existed with Cambridge University Cricket Club , an entirely separate entity, and the two teams played each other on numerous occasions. As with similar leading town clubs, the CTC team
74-505: A contemporary report (i.e., termed "a great match" in this case) and to have been played for a large sum of money was one in Sussex between two unnamed eleven-a-side teams contesting "fifty guineas apiece" in June 1697, a match of enormous historical significance but with no statistical data recorded. Victoria cricket team First-class One-day The Victoria men’s cricket team
111-728: A first-class match, that the ICC clearly stipulates that its match type list "is not exhaustive and is merely indicative of the matches which would fall into the first-class definition". For example, the list includes matches of recognised first-class teams versus international touring teams; and the leading domestic championships (using their then-current names) such as the County Championship , Sheffield Shield , Ranji Trophy , etc. The absence of any ICC ruling about matches played before 1947 (or before 1895 in Great Britain)
148-628: A full listing of past players). Victoria has been a powerful force in Australian cricket and the Australian cricket team has, at least until recent decades, never been short of Victorians in the line up. The tradition of starting a cricket match at the MCG on Boxing Day also featured Victoria when they played New South Wales in 1965. Victoria is the only first-class cricket team to have scored over 1,000 in an innings, which it achieved twice in
185-617: A line between what was important historically and what should form part of the statistical record. Hence, for pre-1895 (i.e., in Great Britain) cricket matches, "first-class" is essentially a statistical concept while the historical concept is broader and takes account of historical significance. Webber's rationale was that cricket was "generally weak before 1864" (there was a greater and increasingly more organised effort to promote county cricket from about that time) and match details were largely incomplete, especially bowling analyses, which hindered compilation of records. According to Webber's view,
222-554: A list of early matches which are believed to have been of a high standard. Test cricket , the highest standard of cricket, is statistically a form of first-class cricket, though the term "first-class" is mainly used to refer to domestic competition. A player's first-class statistics include any performances in Test matches. Before 1894 "first-class" was a common adjective applied to cricket matches in England, used loosely to suggest that
259-451: A match had a high standard; adjectives like "great", "important" and "major" were also loosely applied to such matches, but there tended to be differences of opinion. In the inaugural issue of Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game on 10 May 1882, the term is used twice on page 2 in reference to the recently completed tour of Australia and New Zealand by Alfred Shaw's XI . The report says it
296-633: A meeting of leading English clubs. At a meeting of the Imperial Cricket Conference (ICC) in 1947, it was formally defined on a global basis. A significant omission of the ICC ruling was any attempt to define first-class cricket retrospectively. That has left historians, and especially statisticians, with the problem of how to categorise earlier matches, especially those played in Great Britain before 1895. The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) has published
333-634: Is "taking" the first-class matches to be one against Sydney ( sic ), two each against Victoria , the Combined team and the Australian Eleven, and another against South Australia . In the fourth issue on 1 June 1882, James Lillywhite refers to first-class matches on the tour but gives a different list. The earliest known match scorecards date from 1744 but few have been found before 1772. The cards for three 1772 matches have survived and scorecards became increasingly common thereafter. At
370-399: Is a fairly comprehensive store of data about 19th century matches, certainly since 1825. Subsequently, Webber's view was challenged by Bill Frindall who believed that 1815 should be the startpoint to encompass the entire roundarm bowling phase of cricket's history, although roundarm did not begin in earnest until 1827. In Frindall's view, the inaugural first-class match should have been
407-824: Is an Australian first-class men's cricket team based in Melbourne, Victoria . The men’s team, which first played in 1851, represents the state of Victoria in the Marsh Sheffield Shield first-class competition and the Marsh One Day Cup 50-over competition. It was known as the Victorian Bushrangers between 1995 and 2018, before dropping the Bushrangers nickname and electing to be known as simply Victoria in all cricket competitions. Victoria shares home matches between
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#1732800844350444-463: Is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adjudged to be worthy of the status by virtue of the standard of the competing teams. Matches must allow for the teams to play two innings each, although in practice a team might play only one innings or none at all. The etymology of "first-class cricket" is unknown, but the term was used loosely before it acquired official status in 1895, following
481-457: Is problematic for those cricket statisticians who wish to categorise earlier matches in the same way. They have responded by compiling their own match lists and allocating a strictly unofficial first-class status to the matches they consider to have been of a high standard. It is therefore a matter of opinion only with no official support. Inevitable differences have arisen and there are variations in published cricket statistics . In November 2021,
518-519: Is the second-most successful state team in Australian first-class cricket, having won 32 Sheffield Shield titles, the most recent of which was in the 2018–19 season . The Victorians have also claimed six One-Day Cups and four Big Bash tiles. The team's origins date back to the very start of Australian cricket when the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) was formed in 1838, and in that same year an MCC team played its first match against
555-764: The Melbourne Cricket Ground in East Melbourne and the Junction Oval in St Kilda . The team is administered by Cricket Victoria and draws its players primarily from Victoria's Premier Cricket competition along with players from throughout the country. Victoria also played in the now-defunct Twenty20 competition, the Twenty20 Big Bash , which was replaced by the franchise-based Big Bash League . The Victorian cricket team
592-404: The 1920s – 1,023 against Tasmania in 1922–23, and 1,107 against New South Wales in 1926–27. Throughout its history, Victoria's dominant colour has been navy blue, either in full when playing One-Day or Twenty20 competitions or on predominantly white kits in first-class cricket. The team logo replicates that of Cricket Victoria and has done so since the organisation chose to cease referring to
629-579: The 2018/19 season. The Victorian Cricket Association, now Cricket Victoria , was founded in 1895 and since March 2018 has been based at its headquarters, the CitiPower Centre in St Kilda . Victoria has featured a significant number of cricketing greats, such as Warwick Armstrong , Bill Woodfull , Bill Ponsford , Neil Harvey , Hugh Trumble , Lindsay Hassett , Dean Jones , Jack Blackham , Jack Ryder , Bill Lawry , Bob Cowper , Shane Warne , Keith Miller and Ian Redpath . (See here for
666-596: The ACS had published its Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles, 1709–1863 in which it listed all the known matches during that period which it considered to have historical importance. The ACS did stipulate that they had taken a more lenient view of importance regarding matches played in the 18th century than they did of matches played in the 19th century. As they explained, surviving details of 18th century matches are typically incomplete while there
703-464: The ACS' Important Matches guide, which have left no scorecard and for which only a brief announcement or report exists, must be based on other factors. Contemporary importance was often measured by the amount of money at stake and the fact that a match was deemed notable enough to be reported in the press. The 18th century matches in the ACS list were primarily compiled to assist historians. The earliest match known to have been accorded superior status in
740-442: The CTC. This article about a cricket team in England is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . First-class cricket First-class cricket One Day International Limited overs (domestic) Twenty20 International Twenty20 (domestic) Other forms First-class cricket , along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket , is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket . A first-class match
777-718: The Cambridge Town and County Club (1844–56). According to the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS), this nomenclature has created a scenario whereby "it is impossible to separate the Town Club from that of the County in major matches". The modern Cambridgeshire County Cricket Club , which plays in the Minor Counties Championship , was founded in 1891 and has no connection with
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#1732800844350814-419: The ICC and the application of ICC conditions when the match is played. In 2010, the ICC published its Classification of Official Cricket which includes the criteria with which a match must comply to achieve a desired categorisation. In the section on first-class cricket, there is a list of the types of match that should qualify. It is important to note, given the differences in opinion about what constitutes
851-463: The ICC retrospectively applied first-class status to women's cricket , aligning it with the men's game. A key issue for the statisticians is when first-class cricket for their purpose is deemed to have begun. Writing in 1951, Roy Webber argued that the majority of matches prior to 1864 (i.e., the year in which overarm bowling was legalised) "cannot be regarded as first-class" and their records are used "for their historical associations". This drew
888-548: The Victorian Military. However, the first official inter-colonial (now interstate) game was contested between Port Phillip and Van Diemen's Land in 1851, in Launceston . Victoria was the dominant force in the early days of Australian first-class cricket, winning two of the first three Sheffield Shield tournaments, and most of its early domestic friendly games against the other states. The first game between
925-634: The answers. In 1880, the Cricket Reporting Agency was founded. It acquired influence through the decade especially by association with Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ( Wisden ) and the press came to generally rely on its information and opinions. The term acquired official status, though limited to matches in Great Britain, following a meeting at Lord's in May 1894 between the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) committee and
962-400: The beginning of the 1860s, there were only four formally constituted county clubs. Sussex was the oldest, formed in 1839, and it had been followed by Kent , Nottinghamshire and Surrey . In the early 1860s, several more county clubs were founded, and questions began to be raised in the sporting press about which should be categorised as first-class, but there was considerable disagreement in
999-431: The country's highest playing standard. Later ICC rulings make it 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 may be adjudged first-class if: A Test match is a first-class match played between two ICC full member countries, subject to their current status at
1036-463: The great rivals Victoria and New South Wales was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in 1856. The annual Sheffield Shield tournament first began in the 1892/93 season, contested by Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia . Victoria won that tournament by defeating both opponents twice each. During the history of the Shield, Victoria has won the competition 32 times, most recently in
1073-518: The inaugural first-class match was the opening game of the 1864 season between Cambridge University and MCC at Fenner's on 12 and 13 May, Cambridge winning by 6 wickets. When the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) published its Guide to First-Class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles in 1982, it tentatively agreed with Webber's 1864 start date by saying that "the line between first-class and other matches becomes more easily discernible about that date". A year earlier,
1110-435: The inaugural first-class match was the opening game of the 1895 season between MCC and Nottinghamshire at Lord's on 1 and 2 May, MCC winning by 37 runs. " Test match " was another loosely applied term at the time but the first list of matches considered to be "Tests" was conceived and published by South Australian journalist Clarence P. Moody in his 1894 book, Australian Cricket and Cricketers, 1856 to 1893–94 . His proposal
1147-717: The internet, the CricketArchive (CA) and ESPN Cricinfo (CI) databases both say the earliest first-class match was Hampshire v England at Broadhalfpenny Down on 24 and 25 June 1772. At that time, cricket matches were played with a two-stump wicket and exclusively underarm bowling , although other features of the modern game had been introduced. The opinion of these databases has been repudiated by both Wisden and Playfair Cricket Annual . Wisden agrees with Frindall by commencing its first-class records in 1815. Playfair supports Webber and begins its records in 1864. The status of earlier matches, including many in
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1184-527: The opening game of the 1815 season between MCC and Middlesex at Lord's on 31 May and 1 June, Middlesex winning by 16 runs. Notwithstanding Frindall's reputation, Webber's view has been revived and reinforced in recent times. For example, the Kent researcher Derek Carlaw began his study of Kent cricketers since 1806 by stating: "Part One is confined to players who appeared for Kent in important matches from 1806 to 1863 and first-class matches from 1864 to 1914". On
1221-486: 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 , senior cricket touring teams (i.e., Australia and South Africa at that time) and other teams designated as such by MCC (e.g., North v South , Gentlemen v Players and occasional "elevens" which consisted of recognised first-class players). Officially, therefore,
1258-617: The status of teams. For example, MCC was authorised to determine the status of matches played in Great Britain. To all intents and purposes, the 1947 ICC definition confirmed the 1894 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 International Cricket Council (ICC). The governing body grants first-class status to international teams and to domestic teams that are representative of
1295-540: Was formally defined by the then Imperial Cricket Conference (ICC) on 19 May 1947. It was made clear that the definition "will not have retrospective effect". The definition is as follows: A match of three or more days' duration between two sides of eleven players officially adjudged first-class, shall be regarded as a first-class fixture. Matches in which either team have more than eleven players or which are scheduled for less than three days shall not be regarded as first-class. The Governing body in each country shall decide
1332-460: Was representative of the county of Cambridgeshire as a whole and it ultimately evolved into the original Cambridgeshire county club, but various team names were in use and the town and county clubs were effectively the same thing, both of them folding by the end of the 1870s. The names used for first-class matches were Cambridge Town Club (1817–61), Cambridgeshire (1844–71), Cambridge Union Club (1826–33), Cambridge Townsmen (one match only in 1848) and
1369-534: Was widely accepted after a list of 39 matches was reproduced in the 28 December 1894 issue of Cricket magazine. The list began with the Melbourne Cricket Ground match played 15–17 March 1877 and ended with a recent match at the Association Ground, Sydney played 14–20 December 1894. All of Moody's matches, plus four additional ones, were retrospectively recognised as Test matches and also, thereby, as first-class matches. The term "first-class cricket"
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