Why IPL is closer to the oldest form of cricket than Test matches

(Image: After an untraced painting by Francis Hayman for Vauxhall Gardens; Allen CL 214. 1743. British Museum via Wikimedia Commons CC 4.0)

As the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, that 74-match behemoth, approaches its climax, you can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from the section of cricket fans. For two months every year, they complain about how this 21st-century cash-rich abomination has mutilated the pristine, idyllic sport cricket used to be. The empty stadia during Test matches, especially if it's not an India, Australia, and/or England match, adds to that narrative.

Test cricket is often perceived as the purest, oldest format of the sport, and one can see why. It is easy to think of traditional cricket as something played in white attire, over a period as long as five days, between nations, where cricketers would get paid decent (but not astronomical) sums, and fans would applaud the occasional boundary with the politest of claps and no more.

Despite the generous helpings of romance and nostalgia, unfortunately, the perception is not based on facts. To begin with, the first Test match was played in 1877 – well over 300 years after the first known cricket (the first undisputed instance, that is) was played, in Guildford, Surrey. The County Championship began only in 1890.

In its early days, cricket was mostly played by workers at furnaces and forages, and shepherds, in Weald – an area that covered some of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Kent. Schoolboys and clergymen (who were so addicted to cricket that they bunked service to play – and were routinely fined) also played cricket, but there was little to no organized sport.

After Oliver Cromwell drove the British nobility away from London in the 17th century, the ‘exiled’ nobility discovered cricket – until then a working-class sport – in the countryside. While not great cricketers themselves, they hired the best to play for their personal sides.

This meant that, for the first time, some of the greatest stars in the area played in the same match, and played outstanding cricket – for they were paid well. With time, these matches grew more and more competitive, with more money at stake. That forced the team owners to recruit cricketers born outside the parishes. These were the first generation of professional cricketers.

With more professionals coming from outside, the squads did not remain restricted within geopolitical borders any more. Multiple parishes now combined to form teams. These gave birth to inter-county matches. The first such match was played in 1709, between Kent and Surrey.

Match fees and prize money were not the only sources of income. As a betting sport, cricket became more popular than prize-fighting and horseracing (to quote James Pycroft, ‘Lord’s was frequented by men with book and pencil, betting as openly and professionally as in the ring at Epsom’).

Betting was rampant. Newspaper advertisements and reports of early cricket matches highlighted how much money was won; match scores featured later in the piece. And as betting was a dominant part of the sport, so was match-fixing. The bookmakers were among the most powerful people in the cricket fraternity around 1800.

These matches were often played at grounds next to inns. The innkeepers had a stake too, for they often put up the cricketers as well as important spectators, and sold food and beverages at the ground. These matches were played in front of boisterous crowds, betting without restraint, cheering and booing cricketers they had placed money on, alcohol flowing freely, sometimes in the presence of a live band. Crowd violence was not unheard of.

In 1846, William Clarke, one of the finest cricketers of the era, founded the All-England Eleven. He recruited contemporary giants like George Parr, Alfred Mynn, Nicholas Felix, and William Lillywhite. The rise of the AEE coincided with the rapid expansion of railways in England, enabling the cricketers to travel across the country. The ensemble cast drew large crowds, resulting in near-unprecedented revenue, and the AEE got a share of that.

It will not be an exaggeration to call the AEE the first franchise to leave an imprint around England.

The AEE played their cricket in white shirts with bright pink dots. While the colours were probably remarkable, they were not alone in playing cricket in coloured attire. In fact, in its early days, cricket was almost never played in white clothing.

After all, cricket was played on unmown grounds with rough, even muddy outfields, and it made little sense to wear white. They played in breeches, coats, stockings, and buckled shoes (even bow ties, to keep the shirts in order).

The MCC played in bright blue shirts, and the Hambledon Club in light blue coats. Jerseys became popular in the second half of the 19th century, but these were mostly spotted (like the AEE), checked, or striped. White was sometimes used as background, but almost never as the only colour.

Traditional cricket was, thus, played between teams owned by the rich. They hired cricketers, often non-locals. The cricketers played in coloured attire, and matches were sometimes one-day – even half a day, in some instances. The money involved was often absurd. Live music was not uncommon.

In other words, it was closer to the IPL and other franchise-based T20 leagues of today than it was to Test cricket, which is a relatively new format. Interestingly, Test cricket and the County Championship both grew in popularity in the 1890s, which was coincidentally when white flannels replaced coloured clothing in cricket.

As the British colonized India, so did cricket. There were more privately owned teams, owned by some of the richest Indians, who waged ugly, political wars against each other – often using cricket as a tool – in the backdrop, even as India fought for her Independence.

But that is another story.