How the first-class game's laws evolved

The four-ball over of 1744 lasted until 1889, when English cricket added a fifth ball, the first of several steps that eventually settled the over at six.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, That's the over · recall

England went from five balls to six in 1900, and although other counts were tried elsewhere for decades, six is the length that survived.

Source: Wikipedia, Over (cricket) · recall

From the 1922-23 season Australia played eight-ball overs, and New Zealand and later others followed for a time, so overs of eight balls turn up in their records for decades.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, That's the over · applied

The planned two-year trial of eight-ball overs in the county game was cut short by the outbreak of war in 1939, and England never returned to it.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, That's the over · applied

Australia and New Zealand gave up eight-ball overs after 1978-79, and from the following season every Test-playing country used the six-ball over.

Source: Wikipedia, Over (cricket) · recall

A longer over means fewer end-changes and less dead time, but also fewer fresh starts for the fielding side, and the various counts tried over the years were attempts to get that trade-off right.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, That's the over · applied

Until 1979-80 each country set its own over length, so five, six and eight balls were all in use at the same time in different parts of the cricket world.

Source: Wikipedia, Over (cricket) · recall

Australian eight-ball overs meant a bowler sent down two extra deliveries each turn and a batsman faced them, changing the rhythm of spells and the wear on the ball compared with the six-ball English over.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, That's the over · applied

New Zealand's first-class game took up the eight-ball over two seasons after Australia, went back to six after the Second World War, and used eight again from 1968-69 until the 1979-80 switch to six everywhere.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, That's the over · recall

With everyone finally bowling six-ball overs, an analyst could line up wickets-per-over and economy rates from Australia, England and elsewhere without first converting between eight-ball and six-ball counts.

Source: Wikipedia, Over (cricket) · applied

For almost a century the law required the ball to pitch in line and hit the batsman in line; the 1935 experiment was the first real loosening of that.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, The evolution of the lbw · recall

Before 1935 a ball had to pitch between the wickets; the trial let an umpire give a batsman out to a ball pitching outside off, provided it was going on to hit and struck him in line.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, The evolution of the lbw · recall

With the old law a batsman could safely pad away anything pitching outside off, so bowling to that line was pointless, and the game had grown slow and negative; letting such balls be lbw was aimed at forcing bat on ball.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, The evolution of the lbw · applied

The MCC judged the experiment a success and wrote the outside-off provision into the Laws for good in 1937.

Source: Wikipedia, Leg before wicket · recall

Because impact outside the line of off stump still could not be lbw if the batsman was playing a stroke, players simply reached out with the pad beyond off stump, and negative pad-play crept back.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, The evolution of the lbw · applied

From 1970 a batsman could be lbw to a ball hitting him outside the line of off stump if he offered no shot, which is essentially the rule still in force.

Source: Wikipedia, Leg before wicket · recall

Deliberate pad-play with no stroke had become a way to see off good bowling risk-free, and the new clause removed that shelter by making such a batsman out if the ball was hitting.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, The evolution of the lbw · applied

Each revision made it harder to use the legs as a second line of defence, tilting a law that had once leaned heavily toward the batsman back toward the bowler.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, The evolution of the lbw · applied

With no lbw possible off a ball pitching outside off, a batsman could ignore that line with the pad, so a bowler attacking there earned neither wickets nor catches and captains set their fields elsewhere.

Source: ESPNcricinfo, The evolution of the lbw · applied

However the pitching and impact conditions were loosened over the years, a batsman could never be lbw to a ball that was missing the wicket, and that has held from 1774 to the present.

Source: Wikipedia, Leg before wicket · recall

From 1835 a side that trailed by a hundred or more in a match of three days or longer had to bat again straight away, with the captain given no say in it.

Source: Wikipedia, Follow-on · recall

Because enforcing the follow-on was not always an advantage, captains would have runs given away so their opponents crept past the deficit and the follow-on could not be forced on either side.

Source: Wikipedia, Follow-on · applied

The 1900 revision handed the decision to the side in front, so there was no longer anything to be gained by fiddling the margin, and enforcing the follow-on became a tactical call.

Source: Wikipedia, Follow-on · recall

If the attack was exhausted and the surface had not yet worn, batting again could be the safer road to a win, and the 1900 law gave captains room to make that judgement.

Source: Wikipedia, Follow-on · applied

England followed on more than 250 behind Australia's 586, set 177 to win, then bowled Australia out for 166 to take the game by ten runs, the first Test won after following on.

Source: Wikipedia, Follow-on · applied

Australia enforced the follow-on at Kolkata in 2001 and lost after a huge stand by Laxman and Dravid, joining England's wins of 1894 and 1981 as the only such results in Test history.

Source: Wikipedia, Follow-on · recall

There was no declaration, so a captain who felt he had enough runs could only instruct his batsmen to throw their wickets away, which looked absurd and wasted time.

Source: Wikipedia, Declaration and forfeiture · applied

The 1889 rule allowed a captain to close an innings, but only on the last day, so declarations could not be used to shape a match spread over two or three days.

Source: Wikipedia, Declaration and forfeiture · recall

Later revisions let captains declare earlier and earlier in a match until the restriction fell away entirely, leaving the free declaration, first innings included, that the game uses now.

Source: Wikipedia, Declaration and forfeiture · applied

From the 2000 Code, in use from October 2000, a side can give up either innings entirely. At Centurion in January 2000, before the Code applied, only a second innings could be forfeited, so England's unplayed first innings went into the records as declared at 0 for 0 while South Africa forfeited theirs.

Source: Wikipedia, Declaration and forfeiture · recall

Instead of ending after a set number of days, a timeless Test continued until both sides had completed two innings and a result was reached, however long that took.

Source: Wikipedia, Timeless Test · recall

Australian home Tests were routinely played to a finish, while in England only the occasional deciding match of a rubber was given no time limit.

Source: Wikipedia, Timeless Test · recall

The fifth Test between South Africa and England at Durban in March 1939 was the last ever played without a time limit.

Source: Wikipedia, Timeless Test · recall

With England on 654 for 5 and closing on a target near 700, rain and then the sailing date of their boat home forced the match to be called off as a draw after nine days of actual cricket.

Source: Guinness World Records, longest Test match · applied

If even ten days could not force a result, the format risked wrecking a touring schedule, and after the war every Test was given a fixed limit of days.

Source: Wikipedia, Timeless Test · applied

Grounds might cover the bowlers' run-ups, but the playing strip itself was usually exposed to any rain that fell once a match had started.

Source: Wikipedia, Brumbrella · recall

When sun followed rain on an open pitch the ball would rear and spit, and even the best batsmen struggled, so the "sticky" was said to level the sides.

Source: Wikipedia, Timeless Test · recall

With sun-on-rain able to ruin a strip, a captain who won the toss usually took first use while it was dry, and reading the sky was as much a part of the decision as reading the pitch.

Source: Wikipedia, Brumbrella · applied

Covering the whole pitch for the duration of a game became standard in England around 1980, Australia having protected its pitches somewhat earlier.

Source: Wikipedia, Brumbrella · recall

Once rain could no longer make a pitch misbehave, the conditions that rewarded a clever slow bowler grew rare, and many blame covering for the thinning of high-class spin in the English game.

Source: Wikipedia, Brumbrella · applied

For decades journalists simply proclaimed a champion, usually the county with the fewest defeats, and rival papers often disagreed, so there was no official winner.

Source: Wikipedia, County Championship · applied

In December 1889 the leading counties agreed among themselves at Lord's how the championship would be decided, and the first official season followed in 1890.

Source: Wikipedia, County Championship · recall

Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Sussex and Yorkshire made up the eight-county field of 1890.

Source: Wikipedia, County Championship · recall

Surrey took the inaugural official title in 1890, winning nine of their fourteen matches and losing three, and would dominate the competition through the 1890s.

Source: Wikipedia, 1890 County Championship · recall

The opening formula counted only wins and losses, so a wet season full of draws left a county becalmed near the foot of the table however well it had played, which is why the method kept being changed.

Source: Wikipedia, County Championship · applied

A method that ignored draws punished counties who played on rain-hit grounds, one that counted them rewarded safe cricket, and every attempt to fix one complaint tended to raise another.

Source: Wikipedia, County Championship · applied

In 1895 Derbyshire, Essex, Hampshire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire were all raised to first-class status, taking the Championship to fourteen counties.

Source: Wikipedia, County Championship · recall

Glamorgan's arrival in 1921 fixed the field at seventeen for more than seventy years, until Durham became the eighteenth first-class county in 1992.

Source: Wikipedia, County Championship · recall

By giving points for brisk first-innings runs and for wickets, the 1968 change tried to keep both sides attacking even when the match itself looked destined for a draw.

Source: Wikipedia, County Championship · applied

From 2000 the counties played in a first and second division with clubs moving up and down between them each year, ending a single table that had run since 1890.

Source: Wikipedia, County Championship · applied