Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket and is considered its highest standard. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The two teams of 11 players play a four-innings match, which may last up to five days (or longer in some historical cases). It is generally considered the most complete examination of teams' playing ability and endurance.[1][2][3] The origin of the name Test stems from the long, grueling match being a "test" of the relative strength of the two sides.[4]
The first officially recognized Test match began on 15 March 1877, between England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), where Australia won by 45 runs.[5] A Test match to celebrate 100 years of Test cricket was held in Melbourne from 12 to 17 March 1977, in which Australia beat England by 45 runs—the same margin as that first Test.[6]
In October 2012, the International Cricket Council recast the playing conditions for Test matches, permitting day/night Test matches.[7] The first day/night game took place between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, on 27 November 2015.[8]
Test status[edit]
Test matches are the highest level of cricket although, statistically, their data forms part of first-class cricket. Matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council. As of December 2014, ten national teams have Test status, the most recently promoted being Bangladesh in 2000. Zimbabwe's Test status was voluntarily suspended, because of poor performances between 2006 and 2011; it returned to competition in August 2011.[9]
In January 2014, during the historic ICC meeting in Dubai, the pathway for new potential test nations was laid out with the winners of the next round of the ICC Intercontinental Cup playing a 5-day match against the bottom rank test nation. If the Associate team defeats the test nation, then they could be added as the new test country and be given full membership.
A list of matches, defined as "Tests", was first drawn up by Australian Clarence Moody in the mid-1890s. Representative matches played by simultaneous England touring sides of 1891–92 (in Australia and South Africa) and 1929–30 (in the West Indies and New Zealand) are deemed to have "Test status".
In 1970, a series of five "Test matches" was played in England between England and a Rest of the World XI. These matches, originally scheduled between England and South Africa, were amended after South Africa was suspended from international cricket because of their government's policy of apartheid. Although initially given Test status (and included as Test matches in some record books, including Wisden Cricketers' Almanack), this was later withdrawn and a principle was established that official Test matches can only be between nations (although the geographically and demographically small countries of the West Indies have since 1928 been permitted to field a coalition side). Despite this, in 2005, the ICC ruled that the six-day Super Series match that took place in October 2005, between Australia and a World XI, was an official Test match. Some cricket writers and statisticians, including Bill Frindall, ignored the ICC's ruling and excluded the 2005 match from their records. The series of "Test matches" played in Australia between Australia and a World XI in 1971/72 do not have Test status. The commercial "Supertests" organised by Kerry Packer as part of his World Series Cricket enterprise and played between "WSC Australia", "WSC World XI" and "WSC West Indies" from 1977 to 1979 have never been regarded as official Test matches.
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