Some differences are obvious. Seam bowlers, usually with long hair, moved the ball extravagantly at times, and Leicestershire regularly used two spin bowlers and sometimes three when Ray Illingworth chose to draft in Jack Birkenshaw, the current cricket manager at Leicester, for his off-spin.
The biggest changes have been the newest. This is the third season in which the overs allocation has been cut from 55 to 50 and fielding restrictions introduced, with only two fielders allowed outside the circle for the first 15 overs. And there is no lunch break now to assess the situation.
Lessons were learnt from the introduction of the Sunday league in 1969, and the penny dropped that these matches could not be won by pretending it was 'proper' cricket. The 40-overs league offered regular one-day games for all counties for the first time.
Barry Dudleston, a member of the Leicestershire side and now an umpire, said: ``After 1969, there was a massive learning curve. Year by year, there have been different tactics.
``There was a time when you felt bowlers ought to try and bowl yorkers, try and hit the batsman on the toe all the time, on the slog. Nowadays, bowlers mix it up and use change of pace. That would have been considered great sophistication.
``Leicestershire are a very good side this year, good all round, as we were in 1972. I wouldn't say we were any better, but one thing the 1972 side wouldn't have done, as the '98 side did recently, is bowl 50 extras. Maybe that is because they try and mix it up more and get it wrong more.
``Those old bowlers were grooved, and one-day games didn't affect them. Illingworth and John Steele would bowl their full complement - 22 overs of spin - and Jack Birkenshaw would also bowl a few overs if the ground was big, like Leicester's.''
Barrie Leadbeater, Dudleston's opposite number for Yorkshire in the 1972 final and now also an umpire, remembers the greener pitches. ``The ball did move around, off the pitch and in the air, in those days,'' he said. ``The bowling was probably better in a lot of cases.''
Leadbeater has rueful memories of the 1972 pitch, having had to retire hurt after a nasty blow above the wrist.
The square had been flooded by a storm the day before and Leicestershire exploited the ridge that was a talking point of the era. ``The ball was doing a lot off the seam and vertically as well off the ridge. If you talk to young players now about the Lord's ridge, they don't understand what you're talking about.''
Several of Leicestershire's side in the 1972 final against Yorkshire have remained in cricket, most notably Illingworth, who became a journalist and, for a while, chairman of England's selectors.
Three colleagues - Dudleston, Steele and Chris Balderstone - work as umpires on the first-class list, and Balderstone, Gold Award winner in the 1972 final, is the third umpire at Lord's today.
Paul Haywood, a lesser-known team-mate, swapped first-class cricket for a career in printing and publishing, though he retained links with the game as chairman of Leicestershire's cricket committee in their championship year of 1996.
Leicestershire's two overseas players were Brian Davison, the Rhodesian, and Graham McKenzie, the Australian fast bowler. Several others from 1972, such as John Spencer, Roger Tolchard and Ken Higgs, coached cricket and taught in schools.
One wonders what will become of the present Leicestershire in 26 years' time. Chris Lewis might become a talk-show host (with Ian Wright), Iain Sutcliffe a headmaster, Phil Simmons a bar owner in Trinidad, Vince Wells a Guinness representative - all eager to talk about the last Benson and Hedges final in 1998. Though only if Leicestershire win today.