War of CricketBeginning and Growth of Test Cricket
Test cricket, the five-day form regarded by purists as the game's ultimate examination of skill and temperament, began on 15 March 1877, when a Combined Australian XI beat James Lillywhite's touring England professionals by 45 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. From that single match it grew, over nearly 150 years, into a 12-nation championship contested today through the ICC World Test Championship.
Where the name "Test" comes from
The word "test" was first used in a cricketing sense during the 1861–62 English tour of Australia, describing the tourists "testing" themselves against each of the Australian colonies in turn — not yet a formal name for any match. It was not applied to specific fixtures as "Test matches" until 1892, when the term was used to describe games played in Australia by Lord Sheffield's XI. The first authoritative retrospective list of what should count as a Test — including the 1877 match, played 15 years earlier — was compiled by the South Australian journalist Clarence P. Moody in his 1894 book Australian Cricket and Cricketers, and it was that list, not any decision taken at the time, that fixed 1877 as the format's starting point.
The first Test, 15 March 1877
Batting first from 1.05pm, the Combined Australian XI built its innings around Charles Bannerman, who scored the first run in Test history and went on to make 165 retired hurt — the first Test century, compiled against an England attack led by Alfred Shaw. Australia, captained by Dave Gregory, won by 45 runs. A second match followed weeks later and was won by England, but it is the first match that history remembers as the beginning of Test cricket.
1877 to 1883: an uneven, home-grown contest
Thirteen Test matches were played in this formative period, eleven of them in Australia, where the home side made full use of its advantage: seven wins to England's four, with two draws. Amateur cricketers were often unwilling to make the long sea voyage south, leaving England's touring sides weaker than a genuinely representative XI. The rivalry hardened in 1882, when Australia's shock seven-run win over England at the Oval prompted a mock obituary in The Sporting Times lamenting the death of English cricket and the "ashes" being taken to Australia — the origin of the Ashes as a name, even though the small terracotta urn later presented to England captain Ivo Bligh in Australia was a personal gift, never formally adopted as the series trophy.
New nations join the Test-playing world
South Africa became the third Test nation in 1889. It took until 1926 for the game's growth to broaden further, when West Indies, New Zealand and India were admitted as full, Test-playing members of cricket's governing body, the Imperial Cricket Conference (founded 1909) — though each played its actual debut Test in the years that followed, one country at a time, rather than all at once. Pakistan followed in 1952, Sri Lanka in 1982, Zimbabwe in 1992, Bangladesh in 2000, and Afghanistan and Ireland together in 2017, taking Test cricket to its current 12 full members.
| Nation | First Test played |
|---|---|
| Australia & England | 1877 |
| South Africa | 1889 |
| West Indies | 1928 |
| New Zealand | 1930 |
| India | 1932 |
| Pakistan | 1952 |
| Sri Lanka | 1982 |
| Zimbabwe | 1992 |
| Bangladesh | 2000 |
| Ireland & Afghanistan | 2018 (Test status granted 2017) |
Test cricket today
The format that started as an ad hoc match between two touring sides now anchors a global calendar: 12 full members, a World Test Championship final every two years since 2019, and day-night Tests played with a pink ball since the first one at Adelaide in November 2015. It remains, more than 145 years on, the version of the game by which the best players are still ultimately judged.
For the story of international cricket before Test status existed, see Beginning of international cricket; for the body that now governs the Test-playing world, see ICC and the World Cricket.