The youngest of three brothers, Chris Old first made his mark in school cricket as a left handed batsman playing for Middlesbrough, Durham and England Schools. In 1962 he was recommended to Yorkshire, thus following in the footsteps of his older brothers Alan and Malcolm, who had already preceded him. He made his debut, aged 15, for Yorkshire 2nd XI against Lincolnshire at Grimsby in August 1964 as a batsman, scoring 26 in the first innings and 8 not out in the second, but he was subsequently encouraged by resident coach Arthur Mitchell to develop his bowling. He was still predominantly a batsman when he made his debut for the Yorkshire first team as a 17-year-old against Hampshire in 1966, scoring 3 runs and conceding 8 runs from 3 overs without taking a wicket. That was the start of a first-class cricket career lasting 20 years from 1966 to 1986.

He was mentored by the resident Yorkshire opening bowlers, Fred Trueman and Tony Nicholson, who took over 2800 wickets between them for the county and following Fred Truemans retirement in 1968 he became Nicholsons opening new ball bowling partner. He won his Yorkshire cap in 1969, and was named as the Cricket Writer's Club Young Cricketer of the Year in 1970. Old hit the 3rd fastest century of all time at Edgbaston in 1977, with 100 runs from 72 balls in 37 minutes, with the second 50 taking just 9 minutes. This feat won him the Walter Lawrence Trophy for the fastest century of the year. He was also nominated as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of 1979.

'Chilly' (so known because he appeared on the scorecard as "C.Old") subsequently took the Yorkshire captaincy in 1981, but it was not a happy period. The next season, suffering from personal problems, he was ousted from the role to allow the 50-year-old, Ray Illingworth, to take charge on the field. He then moved on to Warwickshire for three seasons (1983 - 1985) and he also appeared for Northern Transvaal in South Africa between 1981 and 1983. His valedictory first-class cricket appearance was for a Brian Close XI against the touring New Zealand side at Scarborough in September 1986. In 379 first-class matches he took 1,070 first-class wickets at the average of 23.48 and scored 7,756 first-class runs with six centuries. He finished off his domestic cricket career with a season of minor counties cricket, playing 8 matches for Northumberland in 1987, with the highlight being 6 - 98 against Durham at Chester-le-Street in July.

He made his Test debut in the Second Test against India at Calcutta in December 1972. His first victim was the great Sunil Gavaskar whom he caught off the bowling of Derek Underwood as the first Indian wicket to fall. He produced a notable all-round performance scoring 33 and 17 not out and taking 2 for 72 and 4 for 43 but still finished on the losing side as India won by 28 runs. Over the next 9 years he played in 46 Test matches taking 143 wickets and scoring 845 runs.

One of his most notable performances was taking four wickets in five balls on the opening day of the Test Match against Pakistan at Edgbaston in June 1978, the wicketless third ball being a no-ball. Bowling at pace from the City End, the second ball of his nineteenth over was top-edged by Wasim Raja to wicket-keeper Bob Taylor before his third ball nipped back though the gate to remove Wasim Bari's off stump. Old's fourth ball, the no-ball, was edged by Iqbal Qasim into t