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First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two teams 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 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 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 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.
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 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 the answers. In 1880, the Cricket Reporting Agency was founded. It acquired influence through the decade especially by association with 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 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, 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 cricket" 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 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.
A match of three or more days' duration between two teams 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 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 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.
A Test match is a first-class match played between two ICC full member countries, subject to their current status at the ICC and the application of ICC conditions when the match is played.
| Contested by 18 county teams, it dates back to 1890, and has been played in two divisions since 2000. The top team in Division 1 wins the title of County Champion, with promotion and relegation between divisions. There was an informal county championship from 1864 to 1889."Constitution of County Championship", Wisden 2024, p. 422. |
| Contested by 15 provincial teams, beginning in 1889–90 as the Currie Cup. |
| Contested by six state teams, beginning in 1892–93. |
| Contested by six provincial teams, beginning in 1906–07. |
| Competition between all the States and Union territories Association |
| Competition between zonal teams selected by BCCI |
| Played between the winner of Ranji Trophy and a Rest of India team selected by BCCI |
| Contested since 1953–54 by several teams, it has been contested by regional teams since 2019. |
| Beginning in 1960–61 as the Ayub Trophy, it is now contested by teams representing government and semi-government departments, corporations, commercial organisations, banks, airlines, and educational institutions. |
| Contested by six national or regional teams from around the Caribbean, as well as one team of university students and one of emerging young players, it began in 1965–66 as the Shell Shield. |
| Played between the West Indies Academy team and two teams drawn from the best performers in the West Indies Championship and outside the starting West Indies Test XI |
| League of 3-day matches with a 4-day final |
| Competition between district teams |
| Played by 8 division-based teams selected by the BCB. |
| Played between 4 zone teams selected by the BCB |
On the internet, the CricketArchive (CA) and ESPNcricinfo (CI) statistical databases both say the earliest first-class match was Hampshire v England at Broadhalfpenny Down on 24 and 25 June 1772. It was with this match that scorecards began to be completed and preserved on a frequent basis, enabling commencement of the sport's statistical record. 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 was initially repudiated by both Wisden and Playfair Cricket Annual. Wisden agreed with Frindall by commencing its first-class records in 1815. Playfair supports Webber, and begins its records in 1864.
The ACS, however, eventually shifted its position, and adopted 1772 as its startpoint for first-class statistics. In November 2022, Wisden also decided to commence its statistical records in 1772. Wisden made clear, however, that they were not rewriting history—pointing out that "history is full of tweaks"—but seeking "statistical coherence" only, with no intention of degrading the status of what had been called "great or important" matches. They concluded that they hadn't "reinvented the wheel, but tightened a few (statistical) nuts" so that management of first-class statistics "will proceed more smoothly" in future. The ACS reported Wisden's decision in its "ACS News" page on 21 April 2022. The ACS stated that the agreement enabled a "shared approach to the compilation of statistics".
The status of other pre-1864 matches, including many in 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 important 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 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.
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