The 1861 English cricket season saw the creation of the match fund committee that would become Yorkshire CCC.

First-class matches

• 1861 match list

Events

7 March. A Match Fund Committee to run Yorkshire county matches was established in Sheffield, which had been the home of Yorkshire cricket for nearly 100 years. It was from this fund that Yorkshire CCC was founded two years later: an exact parallel with the formation of Sussex CCC from a similar fund (1836-1839).

HH Stephenson captained the first English team to tour Australia. No first class matches were played.

Leading batsmen

Robert Carpenter

Robert Carpenter (cricketer)

Robert Pearson Carpenter was a noted English cricketer and umpire.A right-handed batsman and occasional wicket-keeper, he played for Cambridgeshire during its brief period as a first-class county in the 1850s and 1860s, as well as for the United All-England Eleven...

 was the leading runscorer with 883 @ 30.44

External sources

• CricketArchive – season summaries

Annual reviews

• Fred Lillywhite
  Fred Lillywhite
  Frederick Lillywhite was a sports outfitter and cricketing entrepreneur, who organised the first overseas cricket tour by an English team and published a number of reference works about cricket.-Cricketing dynasty:...
  
  , The Guide to Cricketers, Lillywhite, 1862
• Arthur Haygarth
  Arthur Haygarth
  Arthur Haygarth was a noted amateur cricketer who became one of cricket's most significant historians....
  
  , Scores & Biographies, Volume 7 (1861-1862), Lillywhite, 1863