Most cricket played by professionals is not international cricket. Beneath the Test matches and the World Cups sits a much larger layer of domestic competition, and it is where players are developed, where careers are mostly spent, and where the majority of recorded matches come from.
It is also where the terminology gets confusing, because the categories describe match type rather than competition, and they overlap.
First-class cricket
Any match of at least three days, with two innings per side, played between sides that the relevant governing body has granted first-class status.
Test matches are first-class. So are the county, state and provincial competitions that most cricketing nations run, the multi-day domestic tournaments that have existed in some cases for well over a century. A player's first-class record therefore includes their Tests and their domestic red-ball cricket in one figure.
This is the format in which a batting average of 40 is respectable and 50 is excellent, and those thresholds have held remarkably steady across generations, which is part of why first-class figures are still treated as the serious measure of a red-ball career.
List A cricket
The limited-overs equivalent: one innings per side, at least 40 overs, again between sides with the relevant status.
ODIs are List A matches. So are the domestic one-day competitions, which in most countries are played over 50 overs to match the international format. As with first-class, a List A record combines the international and the domestic.
Twenty20 sits outside both categories. It is neither first-class nor List A, and T20 statistics are compiled entirely separately, which is why a player can have three quite different sets of career figures depending on which format you ask about. Our archive keeps them separated by format for exactly this reason.
The franchise leagues
The newest layer and, commercially, the dominant one. Short T20 tournaments in which teams are city-based franchises rather than traditional regional sides, players are assembled through auction or draft, and overseas professionals play alongside local ones.
The model spread quickly after the first of them proved the economics, and most full-member nations now run one. The effect on the sport has been large and is still being worked out: the leagues pay better than most national contracts, they occupy windows in the calendar that used to hold bilateral cricket, and a growing number of players have chosen them over international selection.
For an archive, they matter because they generate an enormous volume of matches. A single season of one league can produce more fixtures than a nation's entire international calendar. You will find them throughout our tournament listings.
Why the categories matter
Because a number without its category is meaningless. An average of 55 is extraordinary in first-class cricket, unremarkable in List A for a top-order batter, and describes a different thing entirely in T20 where strike rate carries most of the information.
The same applies to bowling. An economy rate of 4.5 is expensive in first-class cricket, normal in List A, and would make a T20 bowler one of the most valuable in the world.
When you compare players across eras or across competitions, matching the category is the first thing to check. It is also the most common way statistical arguments about cricket go wrong.
Finding it in the archive
Domestic cricket makes up the bulk of what we hold. Every competition has its own page collecting each season, its champions and its records, and the full tournament index is the fastest way in. If you know the teams and roughly when, the team directory will get you there in one step.
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