1864: The Year That Changed Cricket

The first book to pull together into a single volume the ground-breaking events of 1864 that changed cricket forever.

There have been a great many watershed years in cricket history. The year overarm, rather than underarm, bowling was introduced. The year first-class cricket began to be organised in countries other than England and Australia. The year WG Grace, the greatest player of all time, first arrived on the sporting stage. The year a group of Indian architects began constructing the world’s largest stadium, at Eden Gardens in Calcutta. The year the English press hit upon the notion of a County Championship. And, of course, the year John Wisden launched his world-famous Cricketers’ Almanack.

All these years were, in fact, one year: 1864.

Using contemporary newspaper and magazine reports and letters as its source, 1864: The Year That Changed Cricket takes a thematic journey through six significant turning points in cricket history, with numerous stops along the way, offering a flavour of sporting, cultural and social life in Victorian Britain.

Among the curiosities are: cricket on ice amid a harsh winter; the introduction of lacrosse as a potential threat to the summer game; the use of cricket as a treatment for lunatics in Scotland; cricket in numerous court cases involving murder, plunder and fraud; and the second England cricket tour to Australia.