Historical Period No. 2:
Between the World Wars
Historical Periods


From 1877 until World War One

Between the World Wars

Post War to the WSC Revolution

The Professional Era to the New Millennium

The New Millennium and Beyond


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All Test Results and Ratings
for this period by Country


Australia
England
India
New Zealand
South Africa
West Indies
It took nearly three years for competition to resume after World War One.  Australia immediately retook the lead from England and set new record ratings throughout the period.   They were the clearly dominant nation in the era between the two World Wars apart from two brief periods where England gained the ascendancy.

However, the cricket world was utterly dominated by Donald George Bradman.  Bradman was a diminutive fellow who strode the world cricketing stage like a giant.  Bradman was, without any doubt, the greatest batsman to have ever played Test cricket in any era.  There has never been anyone remotely close.  The probability of that statement being true in another 500 years time is exactly 99.94%.

This period was also a period of growth for test cricket.  The number of teams competing on the international stage doubled to six.

The fourth nation to join in was in fact a collection of Independent Island Nations off the east coast of the Americas known as the West Indies.  Throughout the era West Indies maintained a steady rating that varied by only 22 points between 990 and 1012 points.  They ended the period in equal fourth place with New Zealand.

The next nation to join was New Zealand, an Island Nation slightly to the south east of Australia.  For their first two years in Test cricket, New Zealand slipped down the ratings until from 1932 onwards they managed to achieve a reasonably consistent rating until the end of the era.  For most of this period they battled West Indies for fourth and fifth place in the ratings.

The final nation to join in during this period was India in 1932.  India started in third place and managed to maintain this position until the end of the era.  Their lead over West Indies and New Zealand declined to just ten points in 1939.

Each of the three new nations gained initial ratings in the middle of the field between the top two nations (Australia and England) and the poorly performing South Africans.  Over the period, South Africa managed to steadily improve their performance, usually at the expense of England.

The final change of significance was that the number of tests and series held over the period started to increase.  Over the 21-year period a total of 34 test series were completed with a total of 141 test matches held.  However, this is probably more a reflection of the growth of nations playing as most travel between the participating nations was by passenger liner.