Victorian Premier Cricket

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Victorian Premier Cricket

Administrator	Cricket Victoria
Format	2-day matches, 1-day matches, Twenty20
First edition	1906–07
Tournament format	home and away, finals
Number of teams	18
Current champion	Carlton (2023/24)
Most successful	22 Melbourne
Most runs	Warren Ayres (15,277)[1]
Most wickets	Bert Ironmonger (862)[2]

Victorian Premier Cricket is the highest level club cricket competition in the state of Victoria, administered by Cricket Victoria. Each club fields four teams (firsts through to fourths) of adult players and usually play on Saturdays and public holidays. Matches are played on turf wickets. The competition commenced in the 1906–07 season when it was known as "district cricket" with players allocated to their clubs based on residential qualifications. The district qualification has since been removed and competition was renamed in 1990.

Throughout the majority of its history, the competition was played under two-day, two-innings-per-side rules, with most results being decided on a first-innings basis. In the early 21st century, separate competitions under the premier cricket banner were established for one-day matches (2002–03 to 2017–18) and Twenty20 (2005–06 to 2013–14). These have since been combined, and there is now a single premier cricket competition which features a combination of fixtures in all three formats across the season.

Outstanding players in the competition are selected to play for the Victorian Cricket Team at first-class and List A level, in the Sheffield Shield and Marsh One Day Cup competitions respectively.