III. A cricketer shall be qualified to play for any county in which he is residing and has resided for the previous two years; or a cricketer may elect to play for the county in which his family home is, so long as it remains open to him as an occasional residence.
IV. That, should any question arise as to the residential qualification, the same should be left to the decision of the committee of the Marylebone Club.
V. That a copy of these rules be sent to the Marylebone Club, with a request that they be adopted by the club.
The county qualification was discussed at a meeting of the County Cricket Council, held in the Pavilion at Lord’s, on December 10th, 1888. Representatives were present from the following nineteen counties:—Surrey, Kent, Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Middlesex, Sussex, Derbyshire, Essex, Leicestershire, Cheshire, Hampshire, Norfolk, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Hertfordshire, and Staffordshire. It was carried unanimously that—
“For purposes of county cricket, county boundaries are not affected by the Local Government Act, 1888.”
And on the motion of Sussex, seconded by Gloucestershire, it was decided by ten votes to five that—
“During the two years a cricketer may be qualifying to play for another county under the residential qualification, he shall be allowed to play for the county for which he has previously been playing under that rule.”
In consequence of the passing of this latter resolution, the rules of county cricket were modified by the addition of the words: “That a man can play for his old county during the two years that he is qualifying for another.”