First class cricket
As a first-class cricket is called Games of the highest category in cricket .
First-class games always consist of two innings per team and are now scheduled for at least three days. While in one-day cricket, with only one innings per team, this is limited to a certain number of overs, in first-class cricket there is a time limit for the entire game, for example four days every 6 hours. Games with no limit to the number of game days are rarer.
The term is often incorrectly translated as first league in German , but has nothing to do with it. In addition, some “friendly matches” also have this status. It is a statement about the quality of the teams, not about the importance of a trophy.
definition
Although the term has been in use for a very long time, the Imperial Cricket Conference, today's International Cricket Council (ICC), did not establish official criteria for the award of this status until 1947 , which today read as follows:
- The game must be scheduled for at least three days.
- Both teams must consist of 11 players.
- It must be played on a natural grass pitch (trajectory).
- The playing field must meet international standards.
- The standard playing conditions must essentially be applied.
However, this definition was expressly not retroactive.
Only those associations that have the highest of the three possible membership levels in the ICC are allowed to determine for their national area which teams or which games are to be designated as first class . These countries today are England , Australia , South Africa , New Zealand , West Indies , India , Pakistan , Sri Lanka , Zimbabwe and Bangladesh . The few first-class matches outside of these countries, such as the ICC Intercontinental Cup , can only get their status through the ICC. In statistics , these games are sharply separated from other categories.
The 5-day international matches, the so-called test matches , between the countries mentioned above are also considered first-class cricket . Although One-Day Internationals have been held between the major cricket nations since 1971 , and the Cricket World Cup takes place in this form, test cricket is still the most important form of cricket.
history
Since when exactly first-class cricket has existed, or since when games have this status, and thus they can also be included in the relevant statistics, is generally controversial.
Traditionally, the year 1864 was the starting point, since "overarm bowling", i.e. H. Throws over the shoulder are allowed. But also games from the time of the so-called round arm period, which began around 1827 and became official from 1835, were proposed as first class.
Another starting date is the year 1815, the end of the Napoleonic Wars . The latter date is used in particular by the famous Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in its statistics, which has been published annually without interruption since 1864. But since the older "underarm bowling" was still predominant from 1815 to 1845, this date arbitrarily excludes many earlier games of the same kind.
When playing games before 1815, one quickly encounters the difficulty that many people know little more than the names of the teams. It was not until 1772 that scorecards exist for all subsequent years for at least some important games, but not for all games in these years. The oldest known scorecards date from 1744.
The influential Association of Cricket Statisticians & Historians (ACS) has issued a list of all games they consider qualified, starting in 1801. This was done in order to avoid at least all encounters (discontinued after 1962) gentlemen vs. Players , although that comparison didn't begin until 1806.
The ACS often only refers to early games as "Great Matches" or "Important Matches". In the CricketArchive database supported by the ACS, these games are provisionally marked as major or minor .
In the current proposal of the ACS, the year 1660 is even suggested, since games between teams have been played since that time, which could claim to be more than just "village teams" and in the broadest sense forerunners of the county teams.
Nowadays, first-class games are played over 3 or 4 days, and a few, like test matches , over 5 days. In most countries, the first-class teams are permanent teams and usually represent a region, e.g. B. States in Australia or counties in England. The 18 first-class counties in England and Wales are purely professional teams and not to be understood as selection teams.
National first-class competitions
Today all test nations have at least one first class competition.
Web links
- Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (English)
- England & Wales Cricket Board (English)
- CricInfo (English)
Notes and individual references
- ↑ However, there are also traditional encounters, such as Oxford vs. Cambridge, for whom this statement seems questionable today.
- ^ Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 142nd Edition, John Wisden & Co Ltd, 2005, p. 196, ISBN 0-947766-89-8 .
- ^ John Leach: In the Mists of Time: The History of Cricket: 1300-1730, Third Edition ( English ) - Cricket Archive . August 13, 2005. Retrieved September 7, 2012.