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
South Africa
The Early Years Up To
World War I: 1877 to 1914
Australia took an initial lead before England emerged in 1885 to the dominant position. It was not until just after the dawn of the new century that Australia managed to retake the lead in 1902. Except for a brief resurgence from England in 1905, Australia continued to be the better cricket nation until 1912 when England returned to the number one position.
South Africa entered test competition in 1889 but failed to make an impression. In 1890 Australia fell to within 5 points of falling below South Africa. However, South Africa missed this chance and drifted further and further from the founding Test nations. In 1906 South Africa recovered some lost ground and eventually narrowed the gap to England in 1910 to just 11 points.
When World War I effectively ended this era in 1914, England had set the highest rating by any of the nations of 1083 points with a 40 point lead over Australia.
Throughout this initial pre war period, test series were infrequent and irregular. While there was an average of a test series each year over this 37 year period, there were periods where no test cricket was played for up to two and a half years. Relative to the modern era, this extremely small level of activity reflects the difficulty in travelling the vast distances involved between these three nations with pre flight transport - that is, by ship.
