Now, with the advent of another new short-form competition, Twenty20, and the billion-pound Indian Premier League launching this week, the structure of English cricket is once more under threat.
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It means that, when Test matches begin 10 years later, any professional wishing to play for England has to ensure his county and the MCC are kept onside - and very little changes in the next 130 years. The established order prevails and English cricket is 'saved' from the fate of sport in America, where urban, franchise-based teams are backed, as with Spalding in baseball, by the commercial sector. In 1867 the MCC create a benevolent fund accessible only to approved county professionals. The fledgling county game is funded by subscriptions from those keen to continue playing the longer form of cricket familiar to public schools.
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The only way to assert control is to spend money. Gate money becomes so lucrative that the ascendancy of the Marylebone Cricket Club, the sport's rulers, is under threat.
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By 1851, Clarke's men are such a big attraction they have to play 31 matches to satisfy the paying public. Not in 2009 but in 1846, the era of the amateur, when William Clarke, an entrepreneurial publican, is touring with his All England professional XI.
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The cricket grounds of London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle are packed with awe-inspired locals as the world's best cricketers become fantastically rich by playing a fast-moving, short form of the game.