1760 English cricket season

The 1760 cricket season was the 163rd in England since the earliest known definite reference to cricket in January 1597 (i.e., Old Style – 1598 New Style). Details have survived of no important eleven-a-side and no single wicket matches. A number of minor matches have been recorded with additional news items, some in a military context, which is a sign of the times.

The drain of manpower and economic resource to the Seven Years' War might explain the paucity of matches but another cause could have been the sort of rows that accompanied the implementation of both roundarm and overarm. It must have been in the decade or so before 1770 that bowlers stopped trundling the ball along the ground and started pitching it. It is feasible to suggest that some patrons may have withdrawn their support in disgust at such a radical change and even that whole teams may have refused to play each other. Strangely, in contrast to the bitterness and fury generated by the later roundarm and overarm controversies, the sources are very quiet about the pitching issue.