Its real importance is probably due to its history of employing professional players of international standing to play in the League.

In the early years, Bury CC were also members, but they withdrew after participating for two seasons.

The early 1890s saw the sudden emergence of cricket leagues all over Lancashire, with the first in 1888 – the Bolton Association.

The Football League had set a trend in season 1888–89 and also had its heart in Lancashire, and with professionals and regular friendlies and local derbies, the leagues quickly became very popular institutions, with games played at weekends when working people had rare leisure time.

In 1981, the League's name was amended to include the name of a sponsor, initially Blackburn brewer Matthew Brown, later E. W. Cartons and Sponsorbank, among others, and currently J. W. Lees.

[2] In 2018, the number of member clubs was increased to 24 with the admission of Crompton, Norden, Littleborough, Middleton, Milnrow, Rochdale and Walsden;[3] however, in 2019 Milnrow resigned from the League after two seasons, to be replaced in 2020 by Bury's Greenmount CC.

It is played to the same match rules as the Worsley Cup except that overs are deducted for bad weather.

The method for working out reduced targets is to subtract the full run rate for every over lost in the second innings.

A remarkable number of exceptional cricketers from all over the world have come to live in Lancashire and play in the League, including Dik Abed, Bill Alley, Nyron Asgarali, Nathan Astle, Sydney Barnes, Allan Border, Chris Cairns, Michael Clarke, Sir Learie Constantine, Kapil Dev, Allan Donald, Bruce Dooland, Roy Gilchrist, Dennis Lillee, Trevor Chappell, Jason Gillespie, Kerry O'Keeffe, Charlie Griffith, Andrew Hall, Wes Hall, Roger Harper, Chris Harris, George Headley, Michael Holding, Murali Kartik, Charlie Llewellyn, Clive Lloyd, Manny Martindale, Mark Orchard, Cec Pepper, Viv Richards, Andy Roberts, Fred Root, Jacques Rudolph, Peter Sleep, 'Big' Jim Smith, Hugh Tayfield, George Tribe, Lou Vincent, Shane Warne, Chester Watson, Steve Waugh, Bilawal Bhatti, Alviro Petersen, Robin Peterson, Vijay Hazare , and Everton Weekes.

James' autobiographical Beyond a Boundary, the Trinidadian writer writes about his visits as a young man to his friend Learie Constantine, at that time living in Nelson while playing as a professional for the town Lancashire League team.

He gives a vivid sense of what it must have been like for a young West Indian to arrive in the wet and strange East Lancashire.

Although an extreme example, the meetings between other professional cricketers from the British Empire, and the mainly working-class amateurs of the Lancashire League, must have resulted in many other instances of mutual support and understanding.

[7] The film features original footage of the players, shots of the ground and interviews with Wes Hall, Viv Richards, David Lloyd, and Learie Constantine's daughter.