| Previous Year: | 1880 |
| Previous Tournament: | 1880 English cricket season |
| Next Year: | 1882 |
| Next Tournament: | 1882 English cricket season |
1881 was the 95th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). There was a first outright title win by Lancashire and a strike by the Nottinghamshire professionals, led by their main bowler Alfred Shaw, over benefits and terms.[1]
| County | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | ||
| 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | ||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 10 | 3 | 7 | 0 | ||
| 13 | 10 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 12 | 4 | 4 | 4 | ||
| 14 | 4 | 9 | 1 | ||
| 12 | 3 | 8 | 1 | ||
| 16 | 10 | 3 | 3 |
| 1881 English season leading batsmen[3] | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Team | Matches | Innings | Not outs | Runs | Highest score | Average | 100s | 50s | |
| Lancashire MCC | 25 | 38 | 0 | 1534 | 188 | 40.36 | 3 | 7 | ||
| Gloucestershire | 13 | 22 | 1 | 792 | 182 | 37.71 | 2 | 4 | ||
| Oxford University Middlesex | 13 | 23 | 2 | 741 | 111 not out | 35.28 | 2 | 5 | ||
| Yorkshire | 24 | 40 | 2 | 1243 | 112 | 32.71 | 1 | 9 | ||
| Surrey | 16 | 30 | 1 | 931 | 160 | 32.10 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 1881 English season leading bowlers[4] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Team | Balls bowled | Runs conceded | Wickets taken | Average | Best bowling | 5 wickets in innings | 10 wickets in match | |
| 1345 | 437 | 43 | 10.16 | 6/18 | 2 | 0 | |||
| 1826 | 557 | 52 | 10.71 | 7/22 | 4 | 1 | |||
| Lancashire | 3504 | 816 | 69 | 11.82 | 7/37 | 5 | 2 | ||
| Lancashire | 2988 | 940 | 79 | 11.89 | 8/29 | 5 | 2 | ||
| Yorkshire | 2438 | 919 | 76 | 12.09 | 8/22 | 6 | 1 | ||
Nottinghamshire's professionals, led by Alfred Shaw, held a strike over playing contracts agreed by the MCC and secretary Captain Henry Holden. The players demanded security of contract for all games during the season and the right to organise their own terms[5] rather than those set by the MCC, which during the 1870s as county cricket grew established a strong grip on terms for professional players.[5]
The dispute meant that seven of Nottinghamshire's top players did not play for the first half of the season, and leading batsman Arthur Shrewsbury played only three first-class games all year.[1] Shaw and Shrewsbury used the dispute to organise an eight-month tour of Australia and New Zealand during the winter.[1]