How the draw became part of cricket’s ‘appeal’

The editor of Cricket Statistician analyses recent events

Aunique feature of the game of cricket is the possibility of a drawn game because the allotted time runs out, not because the scores are level, cricket reserving the separate category of “tie” for this comparatively rare event.

As we have seen with England in recent years, a draw can be as tense as any finish as the last pair stick doggedly together. Some games abhor a draw (it seems especially so to Americans) and for football extra time and penalties to produce a result are gradually replacing replays at many levels.

But the draw was not originally part of the game of cricket, since the games which have come down to us were often played for considerable sums of money.

Because of this the custom was to play to a finish, however long it took, making draws infrequent and reminding us that most of those taking part would have been gentlemen of leisure, often assisted by their servants or by professionals. If weather made it impossible to finish the game would be “given up” or “abandoned” as a draw.

From the early days of the game the standard format was two innings each, which on 18th-century pitches, probably just a rough-cut field, could easily be completed in a day, even where one side was given odds. However, by the end of that period most important matches were taking two days or more. The first draw recorded in the ACS Great Cricket Matches 1772-1800 was between Hampshire and England in 1783, given up as a draw because of bad weather after four days.

When the structure of the game became more organised and matches were scheduled for two or three days – probably with the rise of the wandering XIs in the mid-19th-century – the draw became one of the possible finishes, and fairly common in odds matches. It took time to dismiss 22 men twice. From the start of the County Championship draws were accepted, and later came scoring systems to reward teams in a draw for first innings lead.

In Australia, with only four firstclass teams in the early years, draws were not well thought of, and for many years first-class games as well as Test matches were “timeless” and all games were played out. It was only when games stretched out to eight or ten days duration that this began to seem absurd.

But draws present a problem for knockout competitions. In India’s Ranji Trophy, despite four or five day games uninterrupted by the weather, it is often necessary to award the victory on first innings.

England’s Minor Counties competition featured a ‘challenge match’ between the teams finishing first and second (teams played a wide variety of opponents, although not all). In the event of a draw in the ‘challenge’ the title went to the team who had finished first.

So KO competitions were difficult until the concept of limited overs came in. There were local evening knockout tournaments by the Fifties, even in areas where leagues were anathema, with various ways of deciding the result if not enough play was possible to make sense.

For all the possible excitement of a drawn finish, most are games that meander to a close or are spoilt by weather. Nobody could think this year’s County Championship is ideal – more than half the games have been drawn, with some teams drawing nine out of 13; but I don’t think anyone would want to introduce Duckworth/Lewis there!