Laws of Cricket and commencement of County Cricket

With the increasing popularity of the game, the Duke of Richmond in the year 1728 set out for the formulation of rules regarding the game. The Laws of Cricket came into existence from 1744. Now, there was a need for establishing a governing body. Few of the members of the "Star and Garter" group came together and formed the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's in London in the year 1787. Since Cricket was mostly played by the people of the upper class it started to be known as the Gentleman's Game. A class of well-behaved individuals who had respect for their opposition had started to find it's roots. The base for the professional Cricket was laid at Lord's in 1787. Hence, Lord's is known as the Mecca of Cricket at present day.

In the year 1839, the first ever county club was formed known as the Sussex County Cricket Club and was followed by the rest of the counties in UK. All these clubs used to be a part of a tournament that had 4-day matches. This lead to the formation of the prestigious English county Cricket.

After some years, the quality of this sport improved to such an extent that staying in the game for long without performing became difficult. The first genuinely talented and special Cricketer was a player from Gloucestershire who was known by the name William Gilbert Grace (W.G. Grace). W.G. Grace started playing the game in 1869 and went on to play till 1904. He played about 870+ First Class matches scoring more than 50,000 runs and taking approximately 2,900 wickets in his 35 year long career. He also went on to represent England and played 22 Test matches for them.