The Six Eras of Test Cricket Policy & Terms
What an era changes, and what it doesn't
An era does not change how good the players are. Player ability is already normalised across history in the ratings pipeline, so a champion of the 1900s and a champion of the 2010s meet on level terms. What the era changes is the conditions: how many days and overs the match runs, when a new ball is available, the follow-on margin, whether pitches are covered, and the overall scoring and wicket tempo of the period.
The six eras
Golden Age (1877-1914). Three-day matches, uncovered pitches, one ball an innings in practice, and a smaller 150-run follow-on margin to match the shorter game.
Between the Wars (1920-1939). Four-day Tests, still uncovered, near-modern scoring with a healthy share of draws.
Timeless Test. Played to a finish with no day limit, the way some pre-war Tests genuinely were. Nobody declares for time, because there is none to run out of.
Post-War (1946-1969).Five days, uncovered pitches, and a more generous new-ball law than today. The most attritional cricket in the game's history.
Pace Age (1970-1999). Covered pitches arrive, five days, the era of the great fast-bowling attacks.
Modern (2000-present). Ninety overs a day, an 80-over new ball, and the Decision Review System, three unsuccessful reviews per side per innings, which switches on the umpiring-error layer in the ball engine.
Two findings that surprised us
Calibrating the eras against the full match archive turned up two things that run against the received wisdom. First, draws in the Golden Age were rare, not common: uncovered, rough pitches meant fast collapses and quick results even in three-day matches, so that era actually carries the highest wicket tempo of any. Second, the highest draw rates in the game's history belong to the Post-War and Pace-Age periods, despite near-modern scoring and five full days available, because the batting technique of the time was so defensive and hard to break down. The engine reproduces both, rather than the intuition.
Why the follow-on margin moves
The follow-on margin is era-aware too. In the three and four-day matches of the early eras it sits at 150 runs; in the five-day modern game it is the familiar 200. That is not a detail: the whole game is named after that rule, and enforcing it is a different calculation when the match is shorter. There is a full guide to the follow-on, and to how a captain weighs it, in the captaincy guide.
See it happen
Choose an era and feel the difference in The Follow-On, or browse real Tests from every period, filtered by year, in the Test archive.