Across three Imperial Cricket Conference meetings between May 1926 and May 1929, Test status was granted in turn to the West Indies (1926), India (1929) and New Zealand (1929) — tripling the number of Test nations in three years and transforming international cricket from a three-country game into a six-country one.
The Imperial Cricket Conference had been a quiet body in the 1910s and 1920s. The 1920s tours by MCC sides to India, the West Indies and New Zealand all produced positive recommendations for Test status. The decisions of 1926 and 1929 were therefore well-prepared.
Until 1926 the Imperial Cricket Conference, founded in 1909, had only three full members: England, Australia and South Africa. The expansion of the 1920s was driven partly by Arthur Gilligan's tour of India and West Indies recommendations, partly by the West Indies' competitive 1923 tour of England, and partly by the New Zealand tour of England in 1927 that produced strong county results.
The May 1926 ICC meeting at Lord's admitted the West Indies, India and New Zealand to associate membership and effectively granted Test status to the West Indies. The first West Indian Test followed at Lord's in June 1928. India was admitted to full membership at the May 1929 meeting (delayed because the BCCI was only formed in December 1928). New Zealand was also admitted at the May 1929 meeting; the first New Zealand Test followed in January 1930 at Christchurch.
The expansion increased the number of Test nations from three to six and roughly doubled the volume of Test cricket played per year. The structural consequence — more Test cricket, more national administrations, more uneven standards in early years — would dominate the cricket of the 1930s and 1940s.
May 1926: West Indies admitted; first Test confirmed for 1928
Jun 1928: West Indies' first Test at Lord's
Dec 1928: BCCI founded in India
May 1929: India and New Zealand admitted to full membership
Jan 1930: New Zealand's first Test at Christchurch
May 1926
WI, India, NZ admitted to associate membership
Jun 1928
WI play first Test at Lord's
Dec 1928
BCCI founded
May 1929
India and NZ admitted to full membership
Jan 1930
NZ play first Test at Christchurch
“The expansion of the Imperial Cricket Conference in the 1920s was the most decisive single change in the structure of international cricket between 1882 and 1992.”
The number of Test nations expanded from three to six in three years. Pakistan would be added in 1952, Sri Lanka in 1981, Zimbabwe in 1992, Bangladesh in 2000, Ireland and Afghanistan in 2017 — but the 1920s tripling remains the largest expansion in proportional terms in cricket history.
The 1926-29 ICC expansion was the most consequential administrative change in cricket between the founding of the ICC in 1909 and the formation of the modern Big Three structure in the 21st century.
The 1920s expansion is the founding act of multi-national Test cricket. The ICC, then a closed body of British Empire countries, would become through this decade the international governing body that it is today.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.