66-594: The University Ground was a test cricket stadium in Lucknow , India . The first and the only international Test match was played on 23–26 October 1952 between India and Pakistan. The venue, however, was not as popular as Green Park Stadium in the nearby city of Kanpur which hosted most of the Test matches. The stadium lies on the banks of the River Gomti . In 1994, the K.D. Singh Babu Stadium took its place as
132-475: A cricket team composed of Aboriginal Australians toured England, becoming the first organised group of Australian sportspeople to travel overseas. It would be another ten years before an Australian cricket team classed as representative left the country. The concept of an Aboriginal cricket team can be traced to pastoral stations in the Western District of Victoria , where, in the mid-1860s,
198-449: A World XI in 1971–72, and the commercial " Supertests " organised by Kerry Packer as part of his World Series Cricket enterprise played between "WSC Australia", "WSC World XI" and "WSC West Indies" from 1977 to 1979, have never been regarded as official Test matches as of 2021. A standard day of Test cricket consists of three sessions of two hours each, the break between sessions being 40 minutes for lunch and 20 minutes for tea. However,
264-514: A coalition side). Despite this principle, in 2005, the ICC ruled that the six-day Super Series match that took place that October between Australia and a World XI was an official Test match: some cricket writers and statisticians, including Bill Frindall , have ignored the ICC's ruling and exclude this match from their records. The series of "Test matches" played in Australia between Australia and
330-640: A convict colony." The Daily Telegraph said of Australia that, "nothing of interest comes from there except gold nuggets and black cricketers." The first match was played on 25–26 May at the Oval in London, attracting 20,000 spectators. Presumably many of the spectators attended out of curiosity, rather than merely to savour a cricket contest. The Times reported: "Their hair and beards are long and wiry, their skins vary in shades of blackness, and most of them have broadly expanded nostrils. Having been brought up in
396-595: A cricket-ball-throwing competition by an emerging English all-rounder of star quality, the 20-year-old W. G. Grace , who threw 118 yards. On 16 October, members of Surrey County Cricket Club as well as the general public gathered in Canterbury Music Hall , London, where each of the touring cricketers was presented with a commemorative bat. The team arrived back in Sydney in February 1869. They played
462-469: A league competition for Test cricket was held in 2019–2021 . Arranged as a bilateral series in various countries with one team as host and another team as visitor. The length of each series varies between 2 and 5 matches. Ireland, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan are not taking part in this competition, but instead play a program of Test matches with each other and other teams during the same period. Supporters of Test cricket, including Adam Gilchrist , argue that it
528-627: A match against a military team the following month, then split up. Twopenny later moved to New South Wales and played for the colony against Victoria in 1870. Cuzens died of dysentery the following year. Mullagh was employed as a professional by the Melbourne Cricket Club and represented Victoria against the touring English team in 1879, top-scoring in the second innings. In 1869 the Central Board for Aborigines ruled that it would be illegal to remove any Aboriginal person from
594-542: A match given rise to so much feeling on behalf of the spectators." "The veteran Wills never captained an eleven who so thoroughly possessed the sympathies of the spectators," wrote a Melbourne correspondent for The Sydney Mail . "A dark skin suddenly became a passport to the good graces of Victorians." Although they lost to the MCC, the Aboriginal players were commended for their performance, and showed marked improvement on
660-554: A match scheduled for six days against a World XI, which the ICC sanctioned as an official Test match, though the match reached a conclusion on the fourth day. In October 2017, the ICC approved a request for a four-day Test match, between South Africa and Zimbabwe , which started on 26 December 2017 and ended on the second day, 27 December. The ICC trialed the four-day Test format until the 2019 Cricket World Cup . In December 2019, Cricket Australia were considering playing four-day Tests, subject to consensus with other Test nations. Later
726-615: A memorial to the side in Edenhope, Victoria , where the players had trained prior to the tour. In May 1988, an Aboriginal team captained by John McGuire visited England to mark the Australian Bicentenary , retracing the steps of the 1868 side. Vince Copley of the Ngadjuri people assisted in organising the tour, about which a documentary entitled Dreaming of Lord's was shown the following year on Channel 4 in
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#1732772930595792-411: A new ball generally favours faster bowlers who can make it bounce more variably. The roughened, softer surface of an old ball can be more conducive to spin bowlers, or those using reverse swing . The captain may delay the decision to take the new ball if he wishes to continue with his spinners (because the pitch favours spin). After a new ball has been taken, should an innings last a further 80 overs, then
858-461: A number of games, completing a tour of New South Wales before returning to Victoria in May. Four players succumbed to the effects of illness: "Sugar" and "Watty" died on tour, while "Jellico" and "Paddy" died shortly afterward. In 1867, Charles Lawrence was contracted to captain-coach Australia's "First Eleven" that toured England in 1868. Lawrence played for Surrey in 1855, the all Ireland XI in 1862, and
924-585: A pattern of international cricket, The Ashes was established as a competition during the Australian tour of England in 1882. A surprise victory for Australia inspired a mock obituary of English cricket to be published in the Sporting Times the following day: the phrase "The body shall be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia" prompted the subsequent creation of the Ashes urn. The series of 1884–85
990-435: A series of matches were staged with the intention of selecting the strongest possible Aboriginal XI. Thomas Gibson Hamilton of Bringalbert Station , near Edenhope , created a team which he coached. They played an exhibition match at Hamilton , which gained the attention of Tom Wills . The resulting team was initially coached by local pastoralist William Hayman. Coaching duties were later turned over to Wills, captain of
1056-597: A song about the tour, having been talking about it to Gamilaraay elder and retired cricketer Les Knox. Scullion wrote the song, "1868", and sang it at the second Twenty20 International at the Sydney Cricket Ground in early 2021, and planned to do so again at the Bradman Museum in April 2021. A number of Aboriginal artefacts brought to England by the tour party are preserved in the collection of
1122-455: A subsequent tour of country Victoria. An entrepreneur, Captain Gurnett, persuaded the team to travel to Sydney to begin a planned tour of the colonies and England. However, after their arrival in Sydney in February 1867, Gurnett embezzled some of the funds raised to finance the enterprise, leaving the team stranded. They were looked after by Charles Lawrence at his Manly Hotel, and he organised
1188-428: A subset of first-class cricket . Performances in first-class matches count towards only the first-class statistical record, but performances in Test matches count towards both the Test statistics and the first-class statistics. Statisticians have developed criteria to determine which matches count as Tests if they were played before the formal definition of Test status. There have been exceptional circumstances including
1254-605: Is "the ultimate test of a player's and team's ability". However, it has been suggested that Test cricket may be losing popularity, particularly in the face of competition from short form cricket . Day/night Test matches have been suggested as one way to address this problem. The suggested fall in popularity has been disputed, with a Marylebone Cricket Club poll showing that 86% of all cricket fans support Test cricket, more than any other format. Australian Aboriginal cricket team in England in 1868 In May to October 1868,
1320-467: Is a format of the sport of cricket , considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of international cricket where two teams in white clothing, each representing a country, compete over a match that can last up to five days. It consists of four innings (two per team), maximum of ninety overs are scheduled to be bowled per day making it
1386-425: Is played in innings (the word denotes both the singular and the plural). In each innings, one team bats and the other bowls (or fields ). Ordinarily four innings are played in a Test match, and each team bats twice and bowls twice. Before the start of play on the first day, the two team captains and the match referee toss a coin ; the captain who wins the toss decides whether his team will bat or bowl first. In
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#17327729305951452-430: Is reversed: Team A will bat in the fourth innings. It is rare for a team forced to follow-on to win the match. In Test cricket it has only happened four times, although over 285 follow-ons have been enforced. Australia was the losing team on three occasions, having lost twice to England, in 1894 and in 1981, and once to India in 2001. Most recently, on February 24, 2023, England lost to New Zealand by one run after enforcing
1518-401: Is the one that scores more runs in their two innings. A team's innings ends in one of the following ways: If, at the completion of Team B's first innings, Team A leads by at least 200 runs, the captain of Team A may (but is not required to) order Team B to have their second innings next. This is called enforcing the follow-on . In this case, the usual order of the third and fourth innings
1584-647: The Parramatta on 8 February 1868. Arriving in Gravesend on 13 May, they spent time recovering from the journey in Town Malling before travelling to London. They were met with a degree of fascination – being the period of the evolutionary controversies following publication of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species in 1859. Reaction was mixed. The Times described the tourists as, "a travestie upon cricketing at Lord's ", and, "the conquered natives of
1650-550: The Asian Test Championship , an event held in 1998–99 and 2001–02. The number of matches in Test series has varied from one to seven. Up until the early 1990s, Test series between international teams were organised between the two national cricket organisations with umpires provided by the home team. With the entry of more countries into Test cricket, and a wish by the ICC to maintain public interest in Tests in
1716-665: The French Revolution and the American Civil War . The earliest international cricket match was between the United States and Canada , on 24 and 26 September 1844 (bad weather prevented play on the 25th). Overseas tours by national English teams began in 1859 with visits to North America, Australia and New Zealand. The 1868 Australian Aboriginals were the first organised overseas team to tour England. Two rival English tours of Australia were proposed in
1782-793: The Victoria cricket team and founder of Australian rules football , who spoke to the team in the Djab Wurrung language he had learnt as a child growing up in the Western District among the Djab Wurrung people . Wills' decision to join and help the team has been something of a puzzle given that, only five years earlier, he had survived the Cullin-la-ringo massacre in Queensland , in which his father and 18 other European colonists were murdered by local Aboriginal people. "It
1848-515: The constituent countries of England and Wales , the West Indies is a combined team from fifteen Caribbean nations and territories, and Ireland represents both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland . Following the D'Oliveira affair in 1969, South Africa was suspended from all forms of cricket from 1970 until the end of the apartheid regime in 1991 . Zimbabwe's Test status
1914-418: The early days of Test cricket, matches were played for three or four days. England hosted Ireland at Lord's on 1st June 2023 for a four-day test. Four-day Test matches were last played in 1973, between New Zealand and Pakistan . Until the 1980s, it was usual to include a 'rest day,' often a Sunday. There have also been ' Timeless Tests ', which have no predetermined maximum time. In 2005, Australia played
1980-592: The 1890s, but many international matches since 1877 have been retrospectively awarded Test status. The first such match took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in March 1877 between teams which were then known as a Combined Australian XI and James Lillywhite 's XI, the latter a team of visiting English professionals. Matches between Australia and England were first called "test matches" in 1892. The first definitive list of retrospective Tests
2046-730: The Aboriginal players. At this time Lawrence was a publican and billeted the players in his hotel in Manly until he could arrange some cricket matches to raise money to return the players to the Western District of Victoria. In 1867, he trained the players for two months at "Lake Wallace" in Edenhope in the Wimmera before selecting the below side to tour England in 1868. The tour was financed by Sydney Lawyer George Graham. Along with his cousin George Smith (who had been Mayor of Sydney in 1859), and William Hayman, they all travelled to England for
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2112-452: The Aboriginal team played 47 matches throughout England over a period of six months, winning 14, losing 14 and drawing 19, a good result that surprised many at the time. Their skills were said to range from individuals who were exceptional athletes down to two or three team members who hardly contributed at all. The outstanding player was Johnny Mullagh. He scored 1,698 runs and took 245 wickets. George Tarrant , an admired English fast bowler of
2178-561: The Adelaide Sunday Mail in 1912. Test matches are the highest level of cricket, played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council . As of June 2017 , twelve national teams have Test status, the most recently promoted being Afghanistan and Ireland on 22 June 2017. Test status is conferred upon a country or group of countries by
2244-606: The European owners introduced Aboriginal station hands to the sport. An Aboriginal XI was created with the assistance of Tom Wills , the captain of the Victorian cricket team and founder of Australian rules football , who acted as the side's captain-coach in the lead-up to and during an 1866–67 tour of Victoria and New South Wales . Several members of the team joined what became the Aboriginal XI that toured England under
2310-541: The Game revived the term "test match" and freely applied it to the three international matches which had just been played in Australia by Lord Sheffield's XI , starting with the match at the MCG which was billed as Lord Sheffield's Team v Combined Australia. The report began: "There was no little appropriateness in fixing the first of the three great test matches for January 1". The first list of matches considered to be "Tests"
2376-402: The ICC, with its inaugural season starting in 2019 . In line with the ICC's goal of having one pinnacle tournament for each of the three formats of international cricket, it is the premier championship for Test cricket. Teams designated as "England" or "All England" began to play in the 18th century, but these teams were not truly representative. Early international cricket was disrupted by
2442-495: The ICC. There are currently twelve men's teams that have been granted this status: international teams that do not have Test status can play first-class cricket in the ICC Intercontinental Cup , under conditions which are similar to Tests. The teams with Test status (with the date of each team's Test debut) are: Nine of these teams represent independent sovereign nations: the England cricket team represents
2508-609: The United Kingdom. In 2002, Charles Lawrence's great-great-grandson, Ian Friend, along with historians and cricketers, including former Test captain Ian Chappell , successfully campaigned to have the Aboriginal XI recognised in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame . Ian Friend and Jack Kennedy (descendant of Johnny Cuzens) both accepted the award on behalf of the team. Also that year, a documentary film about
2574-534: The all England XI in 1863. He was contracted to be the first professional cricket coach in New South Wales, and he first saw the indigenous team under the instructions of Tom Wills who played a match at the Albert Ground, Sydney . On this occasion there was some contract disagreement between the failed sponsor Gurnett and Wills, and the players were left in Sydney. Lawrence was instructed to look after
2640-710: The bush to agricultural pursuits under European settlers, they are perfectly civilised and are quite familiar with the English language." The Daily Telegraph wrote: It is highly interesting and curious, to see mixed in a friendly game on the most historically Saxon part of our island, representatives of two races so far removed from each other as the modern Englishman and the Aboriginal Australian. Although several of them are native bushmen, and all are as black as night, these Indian fellows are to all intents and purposes, clothed and in their right minds. In total,
2706-481: The captain will have the option to take another new ball. A Test match will produce a result by means of one of six scenarios: Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit. Unlike in limited overs cricket , this remains the case in Test cricket, as mandated by the ICC Clothing and Equipment Regulations. Test cricket is almost always played as a series of matches between two countries, with all matches in
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2772-674: The captaincy of Englishman Charles Lawrence . International sporting contact was rare in that era. Previously, only three cricket teams had travelled abroad, all English, to the United States and Canada in 1859 , and to Australia in 1861–62 and 1863–64 . The 1850s and 1860s saw a rapid increase in the popularity of cricket in Australia. In the Western District of Victoria , from the early 1860s onwards, cricket matches took place between Aboriginal Australians and European settlers at local pastoral properties, where many Aboriginal people were employed as station hands. The Aboriginal people were admired for their athletic skills and, in early 1866,
2838-465: The city's premier cricket ground. Now this ground is used by owner University of Lucknow as a multi-purpose stadium for university events and sports activities. 26°51′51″N 80°56′09″E / 26.86417°N 80.93583°E / 26.86417; 80.93583 Test cricket First-class cricket One Day International Limited overs (domestic) Twenty20 International Twenty20 (domestic) Other forms Test Cricket
2904-585: The colony of Victoria without the approval of the government minister. That effectively curtailed the involvement of Aboriginal players in the game. When Mullagh died in August 1891, aged 50, he was reported to be the last surviving member of the team other than Lawrence, who died in 1917. However, Red Cap is now believed to have died between 1891 and 1894, and Tarpot died in April 1900. On 13 October 1951, former Australia captain Vic Richardson unveiled
2970-441: The early months of 1877, with James Lillywhite campaigning for a professional tour and Fred Grace for an amateur one. Grace's tour fell through and it was Lillywhite's team that toured New Zealand and Australia in 1876–77. Two matches against a combined Australian XI were later classified as the first official Test matches. The first match was won by Australia, by 45 runs and the second by England. After reciprocal tours established
3036-880: The face of the popularity of One Day International cricket , a rotation system was introduced that sees all ten Test teams playing each other over a six-year cycle, and an official ranking system (with a trophy held by the highest-ranked team). In this system, umpires are provided by the ICC. An elite panel of eleven umpires was maintained since 2002, and the panel is supplemented by an additional International Panel that includes three umpires named by each Test-playing country. The elite umpires officiate almost all Test matches, though usually not Tests involving their home country. Several pairs of Test teams have established perpetual trophies which are competed for whenever teams play each other in Test series. The current ones are: The twelve Test-playing nations are currently ranked as follows: After years of delays since proposals began in 2009,
3102-425: The follow-on, though chose not to. This is similar to four-day first-class cricket, where the follow-on can be enforced if the difference is 150 runs or more. If the Test is two days or fewer then the "follow-on" value is 100 runs. After 80 overs, the captain of the bowling side may take a new ball , although this is not required. The captain will usually take the new ball: being harder and smoother than an old ball,
3168-494: The follow-on. If the whole of the first day's play of a Test match has been lost because of bad weather or other reasons like bad light, then Team A may enforce the follow-on if Team B's first innings total is 150 or more fewer than Team A's. During the 2nd Test between England and New Zealand at Headingley in 2013, England batted first after the first day was lost because of rain. New Zealand, batting second, scored 180 runs fewer than England, meaning England could have enforced
3234-424: The following scenarios, the team that bats first is referred to as Team A and their opponents as Team B . Usually the teams will alternate at the completion of each innings. Thus, Team A will bat (and Team B will bowl) until its innings ends, and then Team B will bat and Team A will bowl. When Team B's innings ends, Team A begin their second innings, and this is followed by Team B's second innings. The winning team
3300-488: The interval may be delayed until either 30 minutes has elapsed or the team is all out ; the final session may be extended by up to 30 minutes if 90 or more overs have not been bowled in that day's play (subject to any reduction for adverse weather); the final session may be extended by 30 minutes (except on the 5th day) if the umpires believe the result can be decided within that time. Today, Test matches are scheduled to be played across five consecutive days. However, in
3366-520: The recent match at the Association Ground, Sydney played 14–20 December 1894. All 39 were retrospectively recognised as Test matches, as was the unlisted 1890 Old Trafford match that was abandoned without a ball being bowled. No South African matches were included in Moody's list but three against England were also given retrospective Test status. Moody became a newspaper editor and founded
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#17327729305953432-706: The same month, the ICC considered the possibility of making four-day Test matches mandatory for the ICC World Test Championship from 2023. There have been attempts by the ICC, the sport's governing body, to introduce day-night Test matches . In 2012, the International Cricket Council passed playing conditions that allowed for the staging of day-night Test matches. The first day-night Test took place during New Zealand's tour to Australia in November 2015. Test cricket
3498-400: The series taking place in the same country (the host). Often there is a perpetual trophy that is awarded to the winner, the most famous of which is the Ashes contested between England and Australia. There have been two exceptions to the bilateral nature of Test cricket: the 1912 Triangular Tournament , a three-way competition between England, Australia and South Africa (hosted by England), and
3564-473: The simultaneous England touring sides of 1891–92 ( in Australia and South Africa ) and 1929–30 ( in the West Indies and New Zealand ), all of whose international matches are deemed to have Test status. In 1970, a series of five "Test matches" was played in England between England and a Rest of the World XI: these matches, originally scheduled between England and South Africa, were amended after South Africa
3630-427: The sport with the longest playing time. A team wins the match by outscoring the opposition in the batting or bowl out in bowling , otherwise the match ends in a draw . It is contested by 12 teams which are the full-members of the International Cricket Council (ICC). The term "test match" was originally coined in 1861–62 but in a different context. Test cricket did not become an officially recognised format until
3696-541: The team, titled A Fine Body of Gentlemen , was broadcast by the ABC . Australia sent men's and women's Aboriginal teams to England in June 2018, to mark the 150th anniversary of the tour. A play about the cricketers, Black Cockatoo , written by Geoffrey Atherden and employing an all-Aboriginal cast, was staged at the 2020 Sydney Festival . In January 2020, Len Pascoe encouraged singer/songwriter Matt Scullion to write
3762-450: The time, bowled to Mullagh during a lunch interval and later said, "I have never bowled to a better batsman." In addition to playing cricket, the Aboriginal players frequently put on exhibitions of boomerang and spear throwing at the conclusion of a match. Dick-a-Dick would also hold a narrow parrying shield and invite people to throw cricket balls at him, which he warded off with the shield. The Aboriginal team were narrowly beaten in
3828-399: The times of sessions and intervals may be altered in certain circumstances: if bad weather or a change of innings occurs close to a scheduled break, the break may be taken immediately; if there has been a loss of playing time, for example because of bad weather, the session times may be adjusted to make up the lost time; if the batting side is nine wickets down at the scheduled tea break, then
3894-477: The tour. During June, "King Cole" died from tuberculosis and was buried in Victoria Park Cemetery in what is now Tower Hamlets in London. Sundown and Jim Crow went home in August due to ill-health. None of the Aboriginal players were paid for participating in the tour. Having played an exhibition match attended by Prince Alfred at the Albert Ground , the side departed Sydney aboard
3960-571: Was always a matter of wonder how Tom could be friendly with the blacks, considering that they murdered his father", one sportswriter noted. On Boxing Day 1866, in front of over 10,000 spectators, Wills captained the team against the Melbourne Cricket Club at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . Bell's Life in Victoria reported: "Seldom has a match created more excitement in Melbourne than the one under notice, and never within our recollection has
4026-520: Was coined during the English tour of Australia in 1861–62 but in a different context. It meant that the English team was testing itself against each of the Australian colonies. Following Lillywhite's tour, Australian teams reciprocated, beginning with Dave Gregory's team in 1878 . By the beginning of 1892, eight English teams had visited Australia and seven Australian teams had visited England. In its issue of 25 February 1892, Cricket: A Weekly Record of
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#17327729305954092-490: Was conceived and published by South Australian journalist Clarence P. Moody in his 1894 book, Australian Cricket and Cricketers, 1856 to 1893–94 . Moody's proposal was well received by Charles W. Alcock , editor of Cricket in England and his list of 39 matches was reproduced in the 28 December 1894 issue as part of an article entitled "The First Test Match". The list begins with the MCG match played 15–17 March 1877 and ends with
4158-433: Was suspended from international cricket due to their government's apartheid policies. Although initially given Test status and included as Test matches in some record books, including Wisden Cricketers' Almanack , this was later withdrawn, and a principle was established that official Test matches can only be between nations (the geographically and demographically small countries of the West Indies have, since 1928, fielded
4224-408: Was the first to be held over five matches: England player Alfred Shaw , writing in 1901, considered the side to be "the best ever to have left England". South Africa became the third team to play Test cricket in 1888–89, when they hosted a tour by an under-strength England side. Australia, England and South Africa were the only countries playing Test cricket before World War I . The term "test match"
4290-497: Was voluntarily suspended in 2006 because of very poor performances, but its Test status was reinstated in August 2011. The ICC has made several proposals to reform the system of granting Test status, including having two tiers with promotion and relegation , or a play-off between the winners of the ICC Intercontinental Cup and the team with the lowest Test ranking . These proposals have not been successful as of 2024. For statistical purposes , Tests are considered to be
4356-483: Was written by South Australian journalist Clarence P. Moody two years later and, by the end of the century, had gained acceptance. Day/night Tests were permitted by the ICC in 2012 and the first day/night match was between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval in November 2015. The ICC World Test Championship is the international championship of Test cricket. It is a league competition run by
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