Dimming of the Day

12 Chapter One The Structure of Cricket in 1914 The cricketing world of 1914 was rather different from the one to which we are accustomed. The Imperial Cricket Conference had been formed in 1909 and had three members. England and Australia’s matches had now been brought under the auspices of MCC and the Australian Board of Control which had just won its bitter struggle with the players. England and Australia met regularly. South Africa were also a Test side, though their performances in the Triangular Tournament of 1912 suggested that they were not really a match for the others at full strength. The ICC had organised a programme of tours. Australia would go to South Africa in 1914/15, England would go to Australia in 1915/16 and Australia would come to England in 1916 with South Africa following in 1917. It is notable that there would be no Test matches in England between 1912 and 1916. In addition there were private tours arranged from various parts of the Empire (and from the USA). In 1911, for instance, there were tours from Germantown (in Philadelphia) and by an Indian team captained by the Maharajah of Patiala and including the ‘untouchable’ slow left-arm bowler Palwankar Baloo: this team played first-class matches, though with no definition in place, that was a matter of what fixtures one could arrange. In 1914 there were tours by Merion (from Pennsylvania) and by a team from Egypt and the Sudan. Neither of these teams was first-class, playing against club sides. These were also strictly gentlemanly affairs, the members of the team paying for themselves. The first-class game consisted of the County Championship, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, some scratch games at the end of season festivals, various MCC fixtures, the Free Foresters’ matches against the Universities and the showcase matches of which Gentlemen v Players was the most significant. In fact there were three such games arranged for 1914. The Lord’s game was the one that mattered, but the Oval match was of little less significance: the one at Scarborough at the end of the season would be little more than a romp. The County Championship had expanded to 16 teams in 1905, but most of them were essentially cannon fodder. Since 1890 and the start of the “official” list of champions, there had only been seven different champions and of these Middlesex, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire had only claimed one each. Surrey, Yorkshire, Kent and Lancashire were dominant (and indeed there was to be no new name added to the list of champions