Variations in published cricket statistics

Matches that are believed to have met the official definitions, assuming they featured teams of the necessary high standard, have been recorded since 1697 (having been in vogue since the 1660s).

[4] It was inevitable that historians and statisticians would seek to apply unofficial first-class status retrospectively, despite the ICC and MCC's directives.

[5] One of the problems here is that statisticians have tended not to publish their match lists with their findings: it should, however, be noted that the number of differences is extremely small in terms of the sport's overall statistics.

Sometimes he outlines the differences which range from players' names to runs scored and even to apparent discrepancies in innings totals or match results.

He then makes a highly pertinent comment: In saying that, Haygarth has recognised the essence of the problem when there is no standard means of scoring and no centralised control over the system of capturing and storing the data.

[11] MCC finally responded to the problem in 1836 when they decided to include in their own scorecards (i.e., for matches played at Lord's) the addition of bowlers' names when the dismissal was caught, stumped, lbw or hit wicket.

[12] A greater problem surfaced after 1890 with the establishment of the County Championship because, as described above, this gave rise in 1895 to the concept of first-class cricket and so, for the first time, there was a perceived higher standard based on organisation of games in an official competition.

[1] A further period of competition ensued until another amalgamation in 1880 created John and James Lillywhite's Cricketer's Companion, still incorporating the Guide.

The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in 1973, with Rowland Bowen among the first to raise doubts in its journal that there could ever be a generally acknowledged list of first-class matches.

[18] The ACS disagreed with Frindall about 1815 because it wanted to include the full set of Gentlemen v Players fixtures that began in 1806.

It chose 1801 as a date of convenience, and thereby set up a division between the 18th and 19th centuries, which was contested by several people (including many ACS members) who recognised 1772 as the startpoint given the availability of data in surviving scorecards from that season.

In its spring 2006 journal, the ACS admitted that it could not decide upon its position vis-à-vis 18th century records because of "missing or incomplete scorecards".

In 2005, scorecards and other details of all known matches prior to 1801 were loaded into the CricketArchive database and there classified as "major" or "minor" pending an overall accord with other sources about first-class status.

CricketArchive’s "major" classification effectively stated a view that the matches concerned were first-class providing they were not single wicket, the other form of top-class cricket that was popular in the 18th century.

Contrary to Bowen's view, there is now a general accord, apart from a few matters of detail, in terms of statistical first-class status.

It is true that none of the cricketers with large career totals played before 1864 (Webber's main reason for adopting that date), and so his startpoint was not really an issue in that context.

The real significance of 1864 was the legalisation of overarm bowling, but there is also evidence of a more structured approach to inter-county cricket which ultimately brought about the introduction of the official County Championship.

[2] The first statistician to make a significant challenge to these "accepted figures" was Roy Webber, who published the Playfair Book of Cricket Records in 1951.

During the 1950s, Webber made a detailed study of Grace's career and in the February 1961 edition of Playfair Cricket Monthly, he presented his own revised figures by excluding matches he did not regard as first-class.

Later statisticians have challenged the status of these two matches, and have proposed that Grace in fact completed his hundredth first-class century for Gloucestershire v Middlesex at Lord's on 30 May 1895 when he scored 169.

Jack Hobbs, 92 not out overnight, turned Jimmy Bridges to leg and completed his 126th first-class century to equal Grace's career record.

The only comment there on which matches were regarded as first-class is given on page 96: Ashley-Cooper compiled Grace's batting averages to the end of the 1896 season, and these were published in a series of articles in Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game in late 1896 and early 1897.

The 1869 edition of John Lillywhite's Cricketer's Companion (aka "Green Lilly") does not include the 1868 MCC v Gloucestershire match in Grace's first-class figures, but Ashley-Cooper retrospectively chose to add it to his totals for the season.

Grace's first-class batting aggregate for that season included his scores in the MCC matches against Hertfordshire and Staffordshire, and in the North v. South game at The Oval on 26 July.

Another dubious match in 1873 is the one between an amateur team made up of those who had toured Canada and the USA in August and September 1872 and an XV of the MCC.

"Green Lilly" says: Before the publication of the names of the respective sides there was every prospect of a match at once worthy of the Transatlantic celebrity of Mr Fitzgerald's team and the match-making sagacity of the Club Committee, but when the lists came out, not a few intending spectators of the contest made up their minds for a disappointment.

In Wisden 1882, the editor states: As it is, the untiring energy of the executive will be rewarded by seeing Somersetshire (sic) classed with the first-class counties in the coming season.

Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game differs from the annuals and excludes Somerset from its first-class averages for the seasons 1882 to 1885.

Moody's list gained approval in Australia, and was then accepted by the leading English authority, C. W. Alcock, who quoted it in Cricket.

[34] Retrospective Test status has been granted to the West Indies v England series in 1929–30[35] and the 1945–46 match at Basin Reserve, Wellington between New Zealand and Australia.