ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2017

Preface The aim of this publication, now in its ninth year, is to support cricket statisticians and other followers of the first-class game by providing an annually updated printed record of full match scores of matches all round the world; except, of course, for games in England and Wales, for which the reader is referred to Wisden . Indeed, the existence of this Annual means that it is possible to maintain a full ongoing record by making only two purchases each year. However, it has to be acknowledged that this is a somewhat specialized interest, and that this Annual is thus something of a niche publication with a limited print run. And, inevitably, this has an impact on the price, which has had to be increased this year to £70 after being held at £65 since the 2013 edition. The size of the Annual fluctuates from year to year reflecting changes in the domestic programmes of ICC members, which increase or reduce the number of matches to be covered. Thus, after a slim-line edition of only 600 pages last year (‘slim-line’ must of course be understood as a relative term), the Annual comes in this year at a somewhat heftier 664 pages. This is largely on account of the decision of Sri Lanka Cricket to extend first-class status to Tier B of the island’s Premier Tournament (whereof more below). Another notable addition to first-class cricket this year (although accounting for only six matches) is the Irish Inter-Provincial Tournament. The competition was set up in 2013 to provide Irish players with experience, on their domestic circuit, of multi-day two-innings cricket; and in September 2016 the ICC decided that it would count as first-class with effect from 2017. This is not the only recent ICC decision that will have implications for the Annual . In June 2017 the momentous decision was taken to instate Ireland and Afghanistan as full ICC members, bringing the total to twelve. This means not only that they are now eligible to play Test matches, but also that they determine which matches enjoy first-class status within their own jurisdiction. Thus an Afghan domestic competition will take place in 2017/18 and will feature in next year’s Annual . Time will be the only judge of the ICC’s decision. No one would quarrel with the desire of those charged with the success of the game to see it expand into new territories. On the other hand, the countries most recently admitted to full membership, Zimbabwe in 1992 and Bangladesh in 2000, have both struggled as Test nations. Only now, after years as a whipping-boy, has Bangladesh begun to show heartening signs of progress as recorded in the pages that follow; while Zimbabwe, sadly, despite some encouraging signs in its first few years of Test cricket, now languishes in a distant bottom place in the ICC rankings. Zimbabwe’s critics would fairly argue that its problems are, at least in part, of its own devising; and the same could be said of another nation whose difficulties were very evident in 2016/17, namely Sri Lanka. It was not so much that the Test side had a torrid time (these things happen); it was in the domestic game that the problems were most evident. Sri Lankan cricket has long had a reputation for weak and confused administration, regular political interference, and rapid resort to the courts in pursuance of any dispute. But in the period covered by this Annual , all these factors were in evidence even more than usual. Before the season began Sri Lanka Cricket took the decision to extend first-class status to Tier B of the Premier Tournament. This decision, which added nine new teams to the first-class roster (it would have been ten had a dispute not ruled one of them out), undid at a single stroke much good work that had been patiently undertaken over previous years to reduce the inflated number of first-class sides in the island. Typically, SLC made no clear announcement of its decision and not for many months was there anything about the matter on its website, so statisticians were forced to adjust their records as details gradually emerged. 4