The sport of cricket in this period had already acquired most of its modern features such as eleven-a-side, the three-stump wicket and the lbw law, although pitch preparation was rudimentary and play was largely dictated by the weather.
The main difference was in bowling which was still mostly underarm, the key development of the period being the movement towards roundarm bowling which began in the late eighteenth century and was gathering pace by 1825.
MCC organised the early Gentlemen v Players matches and most of the games played by occasional XIs such as those led by Colonel Lennox, Lord Frederick Beauclerk, George Osbaldeston and others.
Inter-county cricket was rare during the Napoleonic Wars and there were no formally constituted county clubs at the time, but the main centres at county level were Berkshire, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex.
The players included are those known to have played in matches which were given retrospective first-class status between 1787 and 1825 inclusive.