Test cricket is the original multi-day format of cricket, first played in 1877. Matches are played over five days. Since its inception it has been associated with propriety and moral instruction, largely owing to the sport's origins in Victorian England. Matches played over five working afternoons put the sport out of reach of the working class. Those who played for a wage were "players"; those who did not were "gentlemen".
Entry to Test cricket has been limited to just 12 countries because of worries about competitiveness. There is a great disparity: the newest entrants—Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Ireland—have played just 78 matches over the past decade; India, England and Australia have played 261.
Those countries—the "Big Three"—are home to the biggest fanbases and economies, which bring them lucrative broadcasting deals. Countries outside the Big Three lose, on average, $500,000 per Test series. Players from the West Indies regularly abscond from international duty to play more lucrative Twenty20 (T20) tournaments.
At least 90m people in India streamed the first India-England Test match of 2025.
Twenty20, played in about three and a half hours, is increasingly popular. T20 leagues have been set up around the world, from America to Afghanistan. The Indian Premier League, the glitziest T20 competition, trails only the NFL and England's Premier League in terms of revenue generated per match.
In 2019 cricket's governing body launched the World Test Championship, turning every bilateral series into a qualifying event with a winner-takes-all final every two years. Officials have mooted a tiered system with promotion and relegation to infuse greater competition into the lower ranks.
It was all so different before everything changed.