1697 To 1725 English Cricket Seasons - 1702

The source for this game is a receipt sent by one Saul Bradley to the Duke on 14 December 1702. The receipt was in respect of one shilling and sixpence paid by the Duke for brandy when your Grace plaid at Cricket with Arundel men. It is thought the brandy was bought to celebrate a victory. This was the first Duke of Richmond, also called Charles Lennox. He died in 1723 and it was his son, Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, who became the famous patron of Sussex cricket.

The British East India Company bought control of the New (or English) Company that had been set up as a rival trading organisation in 1698. An Act of Parliament then amalgamated the two as "The United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies". The charter was renewed several times in the 18th century, each time with financial concessions to the Crown. The significance of this piece of information is that it was largely via the success of the East India Company that cricket was introduced to and established in India; and consequently in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The first report of cricket in India concerns mariners of the so-called "John Company" playing at Cambay in 1721 as recorded below.