Cricket in England
Cricket in England is one of the most popular sports in the country and is known to have been played in England since the 16th century. The Marylebone Cricket Club, based at Lords, developed the modern rules of play and conduct.There are eighteen professional county clubs, seventeen of them in England and one in Wales. All eighteen counties are named after, and were originally representative of, historic counties. These clubs are heavily dependent on subsidies from the England and Wales Cricket Board, which makes its money from television and endorsement contracts and attendances at international matches. The English cricket season traditionally starts at the beginning of April and runs though to the second half of September although in recent years counties have played pre season friendly matches at the very end of March.
1787 English cricket season
1787 was the 91st English cricket season since the earliest known important match was played and is widely seen as a watershed in the sport's history because it marked the transition from an essentially rural game into an urban and metropolitan one. The event that effected the transition was the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) after the opening of Thomas Lord's first cricket ground in the parish of Marylebone, north of London. Lord was financed by the aristocratic members of the long-standing and multi-functional "Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Club" which was based at the "Star and Garter" on Pall Mall and had already founded the Jockey Club to pursue its racing interests. Its most recent cricket venture had been the White Conduit Club in Islington.