1864 English cricket season explained

Previous Year:	1863
Previous Tournament:	1863 English cricket season
Next Year:	1865
Next Tournament:	1865 English cricket season

1864 was the 78th season of cricket in England (since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)). It was a significant year in cricket history, as it saw the legalisation of overarm bowling and the first edition of John Wisden's Cricketers' Almanac.

Inter-county cricket

The first-class county teams in 1864 were: Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Notts, Surrey, Sussex and Yorkshire. The unofficial concept of a "champion county" took a new turn when periodicals began publishing tables of inter-county results, although there was still no formal or agreed method of deciding positions in the table. Haygarth usually refers to 'generally agreed' when announcing the Champion County.^[1]

+ Table^[2]	width=10		width=100	Team	width=20	P	width=20	W	width=20	L	width=20	D	Pts^[3]
1	Surrey	8	6	0	2	6
2	Cambridgeshire	3	3	0	0	3
	Sussex	8	5	2	1	3
4	Middlesex	4	3	1	0	2
5	Nottinghamshire	7	3	4	0	-1
6	Yorkshire	7	2	4	1	-2
7	Hampshire	4	0	4	0	-4
8	Kent	7	0	7	0	-7

Events

• Law 10 was rewritten by the MCC to allow a bowler to bring his arm through at any height providing he kept it straight and did not throw the ball. The issue of overarm bowling had crystallised in the Willsher-Lillywhite incident of August 1862.
• 12 January  - formation of Lancashire County Cricket Club at a meeting in Manchester.
• 27–29 January  - Otago v. Canterbury at Dunedin was the start of first-class cricket in New Zealand.
• Madras v. Calcutta was the start of first-class cricket in India.
• First issue of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. It was titled John Wisden's Cricketers' Almanac until the 1937 edition.
• 6–7 June  - Middlesex County Cricket Club played its initial first-class match v. Sussex at Islington
• 9 June  - Playing for MCC against Oxford University, H.E. Bull becomes only the second player,^[4] and the first since 1827,^[5] to be dismissed hit the ball twice in a first-class game.^[6]
• 7–8 July  - Hampshire County Cricket Club played its initial first-class match v. Sussex at the Antelope Ground, Southampton
• 11–12 July  - First appearance of WG Grace in a "big" match, though his first-class debut would not occur until the following season.^[7]
• MCC finally purchased the freehold of Lord's Cricket Ground for £18,333 6s 8d with money advanced by William Nicholson.

Leading batsmen (qualification 10 innings)

1864 English season leading batsmen^[8]
width=200	Name	width=250	Team	width=70	Matches	width=70	Inns	width=50	Not outs	width=50	Runs	width=50	Hig score	width=50	100s	width=50	Av
	Yorkshire	6	11	5	255	99*	0	42.50
		15	25	4	824	119	2	39.23
		18	25	0	855	105	1	34.20
	Cambridgeshire	8	12	0	355	66	0	29.58
	Cambridgeshire	8	11	1	270	52	0	27.00

Leading bowlers (qualification 800 balls)

1864 English season leading bowlers^[9]
width=200	Name	width=250	Team	width=70	Balls	width=70	Runs	width=50	Wickets	width=50	Best	width=50	5w inns	width=50	10w match	width=50	Av
	Cambridgeshire	1610	590	67	7/30	8	4	8.80
	MCC & Nottinghamshire	3466	1109	99	9/19	10	2	11.31
		1117	521	48	8/48	4	2	11.84
	Middlesex & Southgate	1054	519	42	9/63	4	2	12.35
	Kent & All England Eleven	3486	1065	79	7/47	6	0	13.48

Annual reviews

• Fred Lillywhite, The Guide to Cricketers, Lillywhite, 1865
• John Lillywhite's Cricketer's Companion (Green Lilly), Lillywhite, 1865
• Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies, Volume 8 (1863-1864), Lillywhite, 1865

Notes and References

1. First Class Cricket Matches 1864 - ACS - Nottingham
2. Table of inter-county results according to Rowland Bowen: see CricInfo
3. "wins minus losses", as used during the first few official County Championship seasons
4. Wynne-Thomas, Peter; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; p. 93
5. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/539622.html Nottingham v Sheffield in 1827
6. https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/1/1320.html Marylebone Cricket Club v Oxford University in 1864
7. http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/108/108379.html Scorecard of Surrey Club and Ground v South Wales Cricket Club.
8. http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Seasons/Seasonal_Averages/ENG/1864_f_Batting_by_Average.html First Class Batting in England in 1864
9. http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Seasons/Seasonal_Averages/ENG/1864_f_Bowling_by_Average.html First Class Bowling in England in 1864