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Cricket · Level 9

Master

5 sub-levels · 25 tests · 250 facts · updated 12 October 2026

Level 9 is the deep pre-modern history of cricket, era by era, from the eighteenth-century village and club game to the upheavals of the late twentieth century. Origins and the first Laws: village and club cricket, the Hambledon club, the 1744 Laws and the 1774 revision, the founding of the MCC and Lord's, single-wicket and stake matches, and the straight bat replacing the curved. The bowling revolutions and the first Tests: underarm to roundarm to overarm, W. G. Grace and the amateur era, the first Test in 1877, the birth of the Ashes in 1882, and the Golden Age up to 1914. How the first-class game's laws evolved: the over at four, five, six and eight balls, the LBW revision of 1937, the follow-on and the declaration, timeless Tests and why they ended, covered against uncovered pitches, and the County Championship from 1890. Gentlemen and Players: the amateur and professional divide, shamateurism, captaincy reserved for amateurs, the Gentlemen v Players fixture, the abolition of the distinction in 1963, and the county professional's life and benefit season. The game spreads and splits: Test status nation by nation, the Imperial Cricket Conference of 1909, Bodyline in 1932-33, the D'Oliveira affair and South Africa's isolation, and Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket. The axis is where the game and its ideas came from and how they changed over time, not the canon of players and matches (Level 7) and not the game as it is run today (Level 6).

Sub-levels

Sub-level 9.1Origins and the first LawsThis sub-level teaches cricket's roots in south-east England as a village and club game; the great Hambledon club of the 1760s–1780s and its place before the MCC; the first written code of Laws in 1744 and its 1774…5 tests · 50 factsSub-level 9.2The bowling revolutions and the first TestsThis sub-level teaches how bowling changed from underarm along the ground to pitched underarm, then the roundarm controversy of the 1820s and its legalisation in 1835, then overarm bowling legalised in 1864; W. G.…5 tests · 50 factsSub-level 9.3How the first-class game's laws evolvedThis sub-level teaches the history of the rules changing, not the rules as they stand — the over lengthened from four balls to five (1889), six (1900), and the eight-ball over tried in Australia and England before…5 tests · 50 factsSub-level 9.4Gentlemen and PlayersThis sub-level teaches the long division between the amateur "Gentleman", who was not paid a match fee, and the "Player", the paid professional; "shamateurism", where amateurs drew expenses and jobs that paid better…5 tests · 50 factsSub-level 9.5The game spreads and splitsThis sub-level teaches how Test cricket grew nation by nation — South Africa (1889), West Indies (1928), New Zealand (1929–30), India (1932), Pakistan (1952), Sri Lanka (1982), Zimbabwe (1992), Bangladesh (2000); the…5 tests · 50 facts

Written from

The Wisden Almanack, ESPNcricinfo, MCC material and standard cricket histories (Birley, A Social History of English Cricket; Altham & Swanton, A History of Cricket; Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development) for the dates, names and turning points. This is history and evolution, not current administration: a question about an era, a rule change or a turning point is in scope, a question about a present-day competition, ranking or office-holder belongs to Levels 4, 5 or 6. Every question carries a specific source. Questions are authored from these sources, not reproduced from them.