1728 English cricket season

The 1728 cricket season was the 131st in England since the earliest known definite reference to cricket in January 1597 (i.e., Old Style – 1598 New Style). Details have survived of four important matches.

A Swiss traveller in southern England recorded county cricket as "a commonplace" and wrote that it unites "the common people and men of rank". Teams of county strength were being formed as the patrons sought stronger combinations to help them in the serious, for them, business of winning wagers. Easily the most successful this year was Edwin Stead whose Kent teams were "too expert" for the Sussex teams led by the 2nd Duke of Richmond and Sir William Gage.

The following matches are classified as important:

The date of the match on Coxheath Common is confirmed by G. B. Buckley in his Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket Appendix B, based on a report in the Kentish Weekly Post on 19 June. Buckley was correcting an oversight in F. S. Ashley-Cooper's Kent Cricket Matches. The full reference is given by Timothy J. McCann and confirms the patrons, date and venue; the 18th century rendition of Coxheath was Cock's Heath. The results of this match and the next one at Penshurst Park are surmised from the report of the Stead v.Gage game (see below).

The only known primary source is a brief mention in the Whitehall Evening Post dated 6 August 1728. The results of this match and the previous one at Coxheath Common are surmised from the report of the Stead v. Gage game (see below).

The results of the first two games above are surmised from the report of this game at Penshurst Park, which states that the victory of Stead's XI over Sir William Gage's XI was "the third time this summer that the Kent men (i.e., Stead's XI) have been too expert for those of Sussex (i.e., Gage's XI)". In the Stead v Gage game, it seems that Stead's team won the game although Gage's XI needed just 7 in their second innings. The report clearly infers that the teams selected by Richmond, Gage and Stead were representative of the respective counties.

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