Before the toss

Law 1 is the shortest way into the code, and it starts with a count. "A match is played between two sides, each of eleven players, one of whom shall be captain." Eleven, and one of the eleven has a second job.

In writing, before the toss

Clause 1.2.1: "Each captain shall nominate his/her players in writing to one of the umpires before the toss." Three requirements in one sentence. Written, not spoken. Given to an umpire, not announced. And before the toss, which is the moment the match begins to have consequences.

Clause 1.2.2 is the lock. "No player may be replaced after the nomination without the consent of the opposing captain." The eleven names handed over are the eleven, and changing one afterwards is not the nominating captain's decision to make alone.

So the sequence is fixed: nominate, then toss. A side that wants to see the toss before settling its eleven cannot, because the Law makes the eleven a condition of the toss rather than a consequence of it.

The replacement who is the same player

Clause 1.2.3 covers the case where consent is given. "Any replacement player shall be considered the same player as the nominated player he/she replaced for the purposes of these Laws." The replacement inherits whatever the Laws had attached to the nominated player. The Laws do not see two people. They see one nomination, filled twice.

The captain and the deputy

Clause 1.3.1: "If at any time the captain is not available, a deputy shall act for him/her." Clause 1.3.3 restricts who: "At any time after the nomination of the players, only a nominated player can act as deputy in discharging the duties and responsibilities of the captain."

The Law does not say what makes a captain unavailable. Injury, absence from the ground, a spell off the field: clause 1.3.1 covers all of them with one phrase, and it is the deputy's existence, not the reason for it, that the clause secures.

Before the nomination, the clause does not limit who may deputise, because there is no eleven yet. After it, only one of the eleven can. The captaincy, like the side, is closed at the moment the names go in.

Responsibility

Clause 1.4 is the one that reaches outside the Law. "The captains are responsible at all times for ensuring that play is conducted within The Spirit of Cricket as well as within the Laws." At all times. Not while on the field, not while captain in the narrow sense: at all times.

It is the clause the Preamble points to. The Preamble says the major responsibility for fair play rests with the captains; Law 1.4 is where the Laws themselves say so, and it is the one clause in Law 1 that names the Spirit.

What the clause decides

Nagpur, 2004. India's captain and their best spinner both missed a Test that lost them a home series, and the two accounts of why have never been reconciled. The piece on the pitch and the piece on the two men set out what the card shows and what it does not.

What Law 1 adds is the frame. Whoever was nominated before the toss was the eleven. A captain not among the nominated eleven is not the captain of it: Law 1.3.3 gives the deputy's job to a nominated player, and 1.2.2 makes adding a name afterwards the other captain's call. The Law does not say what happened at Nagpur. It says what the paperwork must have looked like, which is a narrower thing and a firmer one.

Eleven

The number is in the first sentence and it is not qualified anywhere in the Law. Law 24 provides for a fielder being absent, and Law 42 for one being removed, but neither changes what a side is. A side is eleven, nominated, in writing, before the toss. Everything else in the code assumes that sentence, and most of it never has to say so.

Law 1, The players: MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code →

Preamble to the Laws, Spirit of Cricket: MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code →

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No. 13 in By the Book, a series of 17.

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