The 1789 English cricket season was the 18th in which matches have been awarded retrospective first-class status and the third after the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club. It featured 14 top-class matches. The French Revolution escalated after the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July when cricket patron John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, was the British ambassador in Paris. Dorset was reportedly planning a goodwill visit to France by an England team, but the crisis forced him to return home and the venture was cancelled before the team could leave England.