English cricket team

The logo of the England Cricket Team which shows the three Lions of England below a five-pointed crown

The England cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales, operating under the auspices of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

The sport of cricket evolved in England, and England is a founding Test cricket, one-day international and Twenty20 nation. England played in the first ever Test match in 1877 (against Australia in Melbourne) and also the first ever one-day international in 1971 (also against Australia in Melbourne).

England has been one of the strongest teams in international cricket, fielding a competitive side for most of cricket's history. After Australia won The Ashes for the first time in 1891-92 England had to fight with them for primacy and one of the fiercest rivalries in sport dominated the cricket world for seventy years. In 1963 this duopoly of cricket dominance began to fall away with the emergence of a strong West Indies team. England failed to win a series against the West Indies between 1969 and 2000. England similarly failed to compete with Australia for a long period and the The Ashes stayed in Australian hands between 1989 and 2005. England struggled against other nations over this period as well and after a series loss to New Zealand in 1999 they were ranked at the bottom of the ICC Test cricket ratings. Since 2000, English cricket has seen a resurgence and England reached the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004 and regained The Ashes in 2005. The team is now ranked third after Australia and Pakistan in the Test world rankings, but will return to second position at the end of the series against Pakistan which is currently underway as England now have an unassailable lead in the series as they are currently winning 2-0 with only one Test left to play.

Eligibility of players

The England cricket team represents England and Wales. However, under ICC regulations^[1], players can qualify to play for a country by nationality, place of birth or residence, so (as with any national sports team) some people are eligible to play for more than one team.

ECB regulations^[2] state that to play for England, a player must be a British or Irish citizen, and have either been born in England and Wales, or have lived in England and Wales for the last four years. This has led to players of many other nationalities becoming eligible to play for England. England have been captained by a Scot, Mike Denness, and three South Africans, Tony Greig, Allan Lamb and current captain Andrew Strauss. The South African cape coloured, Basil D'Oliveira, famously played for England during the apartheid era. In recent times Graeme Hick (Zimbabwe); Andrew Caddick (New Zealand); Geraint Jones (Australia via Papua New Guinea); and Kevin Pietersen (South Africa) have all played for England. Some players have played for another country as well as England, for example Gavin Hamilton who played for Scotland in the 1999 World Cup and later played one Test match for England, while Ed Joyce played for Ireland in the ICC Trophy before making his England ODI debut in June 2006 against his former team.

Current players

Batsmen

*Ian Bell (right)
*Alastair Cook (opener) (left)
*Kevin Pietersen (right)
*Andrew Strauss (vice-vice-captain) (opener) (left)
*Marcus Trescothick (opener) (left)
*Michael Vaughan (captain) (right)

Wicket Keepers

*Geraint Jones (right)
*Matt Prior (right)
*Chris Read (right)

All-rounders

*Paul Collingwood (right) (right-arm medium)
*Jamie Dalrymple (right) (off spin)
*Andrew Flintoff (vice-captain) (right) (right-arm fast)
*Liam Plunkett (right) (right-arm fast medium)

Fast bowlers

*Steve Harmison (right-arm fast)
*Matthew Hoggard (right-arm fast medium)
*Simon Jones (right-arm fast medium)
*Jon Lewis (right-arm medium)
*Sajid Mahmood (right-arm fast medium)
*Darren Gough (right-arm fast)

Spin bowlers

*Ashley Giles (left-arm)
*Monty Panesar (left-arm)
*Shaun Udal (off spin)

History of English international cricket

England played in the very first Test match in 1877. Since then, up to 17 December 2004 they have played 827 Test matches, winning 287, losing 239 and drawing 301. During these 827 matches, they have been captained by 75 different players.

1860 to 1900

See also: History of Test cricket (to 1883)::History of Test cricket (1884 to 1889)::History of Test cricket (1890 to 1900)

The team that toured Australia in 1861.

The 1873/4 team.

1877 saw the first Test match when England took on Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. This rivalry took on a new turn in 1882, when England lost at home at the Oval. Upset at this turn of events, the Sporting Times printed an obituary to English cricket:

In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval on 29th AUGUST, 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances R.I.P. N.B. - The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.

When England toured Australia the following winter, and won 2-1, the England captain, the Hon. Ivo Bligh was presented with an urn that contained some ashes, which have variously been said to be of a bail, ball or even a woman's veil. And so The Ashes series was born.

This period of English cricket was dominated by WG Grace. For thirty six years (1865 to 1900). He averaged 39.45 at first class level, an average undoubtedly dragged down by playing into his late fifties. At his peak in the 1870s his first-class season averages were regularly between 60 and 70, at a time where uncovered, poorly-prepared pitches meant that scores were far lower than the modern game. Grace scored over 1000 runs and took over 100 wickets in seven different seasons.

At fifty-three he scored nearly 1,300 runs in first-class cricket, made 100 runs and over on three different occasions and could claim an average of 42 runs. Moreover, his greatest triumphs were achieved when only the very best cricket grounds received serious attention; when, as some consider, bowling was maintained at a higher standard and when all hits had to be run out. He, with his two brothers, EM and GF, assisted by some fine amateurs, made Gloucestershire in one season a first-class county; and it was he who first enabled the amateurs of England to meet the paid players on equal terms and to beat them.

There was hardly a record connected with the game which did not stand to his credit. Grace was one of the finest fieldsmen in England, in his earlier days generally taking long-leg and cover-point, in later times generally standing point (see Fielding positions in cricket). He was, at his best, a fine thrower, fast runner and safe catcher. As a bowler he was long in the first flight, originally bowling fast, but in later times adopting a slower and more tricky style, frequently very effective. According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Test rankings, he was only out of the top 4 Test batsman ratings for two years in the period from 1880 and 1899.

Bodyline

Main article: Bodyline

Bill Woodfull evades a Bodyline ball. Note the number of leg-side fielders.

Before the 1932-3 tour to Australia, England had become used to the prolific run-scoring of Don Bradman. The England captain, Surrey's Douglas Jardine chose to develop the already existing leg theory as a tactic to stop Bradman. Leg theory involved bowling fast balls directly at the batsman's body, and Jardine had two very fast accurate bowlers, Harold Larwood and Bill Voce to bowl them. The batsman would need to defend himself, and if he touched the ball with the bat, he could be caught by one of a large number of fielders placed on the leg side.

England won the series and the Ashes 4-1. But complaints about the Bodyline tactic caused crowd disruption on the tour, and threats of diplomatic action from the Australian Cricket Board, which during the tour sent the following cable to the Marylebone Cricket Club in London:

Bodyline bowling assumed such proportions as to menace best interests of game, making protection of body by batsmen the main consideration. Causing intensely bitter feeling between players as well as injury. In our opinion is unsportsmanlike. Unless stopped at once likely to upset friendly relations existing between Australia and England.

Later, Jardine was removed from the captaincy and the laws of cricket changed so that no more than one fast ball aimed at the body was permitted per over, and having more than two fielders behind square leg were banned.

1980s

The 1980s was a mixed decade in terms of The Ashes. The series in 1981 saw England fight back from being 1-0 down after two Test matches to achieve historic wins at Headingley, Edgbaston and Old Trafford. At Headingley, England won by 18 runs after following-on with Ian Botham named man of the match for his achievement of taking seven Australian wickets and scoring 199 runs for once out. Botham won the award again at Edgbaston with another superlative bowling perfomance in Australia's second innings when chasing 150 to win they were dismissed for 121 (Botham 5/11). At Old Trafford Botham was again the hero with a second innings century and five wickets in the match.

England lost the next winter (1982), but went on to make another run of two consecutive series, in 1985 and Christmas 1986. The 1986 victory had been a surprise, this despite the team being made up of the players such as the hugely talented Ian Botham, along side Mike Gatting, David Gower and Graham Dilley. However, despite the reasonable performances in Ashes series, they endured humiliating home and away 5-0 series defeats to the all-powerful West Indies side of the time. These series have become known in history as the Blackwash.

The 1983 World Cup was held in England, for the third time. They lost in the semi-finals to India, who then won the final. The first World Cup to be held abroad (and also the first to be contested with 50 over games, not 60) in 1987 saw England lose to Australia by 7 runs, in a hugely exciting final.

On 1st August 1989, just as England was losing the third Test match against Australia at Old Trafford (and with this loss surrendering The Ashes after holding them for four years) a rebel tour of South Africa was announced. Because of apartheid, South Africa was banned from international cricket but various unsanctioned and unofficial tours had gone ahead. The planned 1990 tour shocked the cricket establishment in England not only because of its timing but because so many top players were involved. Writing in 2006 Michael Atherton (who was twelfth man at Old Trafford) said "…unbeknown to England captain David Gower and chairman of selectors Ted Dexter, a group of English cricketers negotiated terms, clandestinely, with Ali Bacher to join a rebel tour to South Africa. Atherton added that this left "… English cricket in a complete mess with offering succour to a loathsome regime. It was shameful." [3]. Many of the cricketers involved in this affair, who were immediately banned by the ICC from international cricket, were later restored to some prominence in the game, not least the player/manager David Graveney who became Chairman of the England selectors . The others involved were Mike Gatting, Bill Athey, Kim Barnett, Chris Broad, Chris Cowdrey, Graham Dilley, Richard Ellison, John Emburey, Neil Foster, Bruce French, Paul Jarvis, Matthew Maynard and Tim Robinson.

1990s

The Media Centre at Lord's Cricket Ground

English cricket went on a slide during the 1990s. This was not helped by squabbles between key players and the chairman of selectors, Raymond Illingworth. They were more often than not beaten badly during the Ashes series, as they were spellbound by Shane Warne and later Glenn McGrath. They were declared the unofficial worst side in the world after the 1999 home series loss to New Zealand.

Under their new captain Graham Gooch at the beginning of the decade, England missed out on a historic victory against the all-conquering West Indian cricket team, by losing their final two test matches having gone into them with a 1-0 lead. The elevation to the position of captain for Gooch led to him reaching new heights as a batsman during the summer of 1990. The new captain broke the record for most number of runs in a match against India at Lord's with scores of 333 and 123. New team members such as Michael Atherton, Alec Stewart and Angus Fraser aided the new captain to victories against India and New Zealand yet the team were unable to regain the Ashes during the following winter, losing 3-0.
The team returned during 1991 to more successful ways, by defeating Sri Lanka and New Zealand and holding the West Indies to a drawn series. Another excellent innings from Gooch against the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh at Headingley helped the side to their first victory against the team in England for over two decades. Although England were not the best Test match side in the world, they could lay claim to holding that position in the one-day game. The 1992 Cricket World Cup saw England performing better than everyone else, with victories over Australia, the West Indies and South Africa led them to the final against Pakistan, where a side led and inspired by Imran Khan defeated Gooch's side.

Around this time, players such as Ian Botham, Allan Lamb and David Gower all came to the end of their international careers and specifically in the case of Botham, England had trouble replacing these players. Batsmen like Graeme Hick, Mark Ramprakash, Chris Lewis and Phil Tufnell all promised and sometimes delivered a great deal, yet the side often performed badly and disappointed its fans. Following their victory in New Zealand before the Cricket World Cup, they did not win again for another two and a half years, when the side again defeated the same opponents. During this period defeats to Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Australia culminated in Gooch stepping down in the summer of 1993 as captain, to be replaced by his partner at the top of the order, Michael Atherton.

The period of captaincy under Atherton was seen as one of disaster followed by more and more disappointment for England's fans. Selectoral differences between Atherton and Raymond Illingworth often meant that players such as Angus Fraser and Devon Malcolm would not get picked, against the captain's wishes. Teams would sometimes have too many batsmen,no spin bowler and the plethora of players who would come into the side and then quickly disappear, was symptomatic of a troubled side. The demands of county cricket often meant that injuries would deny Atherton key players and when compared with Australian cricket, it was seen as antiquated by many. Performances of great excellence would often crop up, amid the rubbish. These included two centuries in a test match at Port of Spain by Alec Stewart, nine wickets in an innings from Devon Malcolm against South Africa, seven wickets on debut by Dominic Cork against the West Indies and Michael Atherton batting for ten hours in Johannesburg. By 1997, calls for Atherton to step down were only put off by an exciting victory at The Oval against Australia, despite losing the series 3-2. On the following tour to the West Indies, a 3-1 defeat forced the beleaguered captain to step down, to be replaced by wicketkeeper-batsman Alec Stewart.

Stewart's first test series against South Africa in the summer of 1998 resulted in the side's first success in a five match test series since their last victory against Australia in 1986/1987. Bowlers such as Dominic Cork, Angus Fraser and Darren Gough now led the bowling attack with Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe and Mark Ramprakash supporting Stewart and Atherton in the batting. Yet the deficencies in the system remained and a 3-1 defeat on their next Ashes tour and a humiliating exit in the first round of the 1999 Cricket World Cup which was hosted by England led to the exit of Stewart.

His replacement of Essex batsman, Nasser Hussain, was the unfortunate holder of the captaincy during the 1999 Test series against New Zealand when a 2-1 defeat resulted in the country which gave birth to the game, being ranked as the worst Test-playing nation in the world.

2000s

Hussain's side was unable to avoid defeat in South Africa, yet his first series victory, against Zimbabwe the following summer, saw the side winning their next three test series. This included the side's first victory against the West Indies in 32 years, impressive wins in Pakistan, where Thorpe and Hussain helped see the side to victory in the dark in Karachi and a 2-1 defeat of Sri Lanka, where England displayed a new-found confidence of playing against spin bowling, a move instigated by their new coach Duncan Fletcher. However, the ultimate test for the side against Australia showed that England were still found wanting against the very best, losing 4-1.

Injuries and retirements from the side over the next year allowed new players to come into the side. Out went Atherton, Hick, Ramprakash, Gough, Cork, Tufnell and Andrew Caddick and in came Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones, Stephen Harmison and Ashley Giles. Hussain looked to create a side which was harder to beat and would often rule with an uncompromising attitude. Changes which the game had long needed were made, with central contracts limiting how much county cricket the players could play and the establishment of an academy. Encouraging performances by players like Vaughan, Trescothick and Hoggard against India and Sri Lanka did give England some positive sentiments towards their chances against Australia, yet a 4-1 defeat against possibly the greatest team ever showed that they were still falling short. This and England's withdrawal from a 2003 Cricket World Cup match in Zimbabwe led to Hussain becoming disillusioned with the job.

After the first Test of the 5 Test series against South Africa was drawn, Nasser Hussain resigned the Test captaincy, with Michael Vaughan being appointed in his stead. Vaughan went on to draw the series 2-2, after an Oval Test match rated by most commentators as the greatest in England since the 1981 Headingley Test. By the time of the tour in early 2004 to the West Indies, Vaughan had settled into his position as captain and was seen as an inspirational leader, who was respected by his players. This newly found confidence in the team led the side to a 3-0 victory in the Caribbean, followed by whitewashes over New Zealand and the West Indies at home, with players such as Harmison and Flintoff becoming amongst the very best in the world.

On December 21 2004 England completed their eighth successive Test victory with a win in the opening Test against South Africa at Port Elizabeth, the best sequence of Test match wins by England and the team were able to complete their first away victory over their opponents since they were re-admitted to the game in 1991.

Coming into the 2005 Ashes series, England had moved up to second, having won 14 and drawn 3 of their 18 previous Test matches since March 2004, raising hopes that the series would be closely fought. The Ashes series had a long build up, with England and Australia playing a triangular ODI series with Bangladesh, with the final England-Australia match ending in a tie (not a draw), prior to a second one day series between England and Australia won 2-1 by Australia.

Australia won the first Test at Lord's comfortably, but England came back to win the second Test at Edgbaston with a two run victory, the narrowest win by runs in Ashes history. The third Test ended in a draw, with one day having been lost to play and England one wicket away from victory. England then narrowly won the fourth Test in Nottingham by three wickets after forcing the Australians to follow on. In the fifth and final Test at the Oval in London England came in to the final day needing to avoid a defeat with a lead of 40 runs and one wicket down, and batted until well after the tea interval to ensure the game would end a draw and England would regain the Ashes 2-1.

In the first Test series (versus Pakistan) after The Ashes triumph (in November/December 2005) England came down to earth with a bump. In the first Test match in Multan England squandered a strong position (first innings lead of 144) to eventually lose the match by 22 runs. The second Test at Faisalabad was drawn with Pakistan pressing hard for victory. In the final Test at Lahore England collapsed again to lose by an innings and 100 runs (their first innings defeat for two years).

In the One Day International series in Pakistan in December 2005 England started well with a win in the first match of the 5 match series. However they were outplayed in the next three matches to lose the series, although they came back well in the final match to win and therefore the series finished in a 3-2 win for Pakistan.

They then played a test series against India in March 2006 with Andrew Flintoff as captain. After the first Test match was drawn due to bad light on the last day, India came back strongly to win the 2nd test. But, England showed true character to come back and win the third test (their first Test Match win in India for 21 years) without five key players, including skipper Michael Vaughan and vice-captain Marcus Trescothick to level the three-game series at 1-1 with one draw. Although Trescothick returned for the three Test series against Sri Lanka in England, Flintoff retained the captaincy in the absence of Vaughan. England went on to draw the first test match despite taking a commanding lead after the first innings, England won the second test match but lost the third to tie the series 1-1.

With Flintoff now also absent through injury, England had yet another new captain in Andrew Strauss for the subsequent one-day series with Sri Lanka. After narrowly losing the one-off Twenty20 international, England then lost all five of the one-day internationals, not helped by wayward bowling and further injuries. However, Strauss remained captain for the start of the Test series with Pakistan which followed. After the first match was drawn, Strauss was given the captaincy for the rest of the series when Flintoff was ruled out for the rest of the season, and under Strauss the side went on to win back-to-back tests at Old Trafford and Headingley and take an unassailable lead in the four-match series.

Tournament History

World Cup

*1975: Semi-Finals
*1979: Runners up
*1983: Semi-Finals
*1987: Runners up
*1992: Runners up
*1996: Quarter-Finals
*1999: First round
*2003: First round

ICC Champions Trophy

(known as the "ICC Knockout" in 1998 and 2000)
*1998: Quarter-Finals
*2000: Quarter-Finals
*2002: Second in Group Pool 2
*2004: Runners up

Records - Tests

Team records

*Highest team total: 903-7.dec v Australia at The Oval in 1938
*Lowest team total: 45 v Australia at Sydney in 1886/87

Individual records

*Most matches: 133 - Alec Stewart
*Longest Serving Captain: 54 Tests - Michael Atherton

Batting

*Most runs: 8900 - Graham Gooch
*Best average: 60.73 - Herbert Sutcliffe
*Highest individual score: 364 - Len Hutton v Australia at The Oval in 1938
*Record partnership: 411 - Colin Cowdrey and Peter May v West Indies at Birmingham in 1957
*Most centuries: 22 - Wally Hammond

Bowling

*Most wickets: 383 - Ian Botham
*Best average: 10.75 - George Lohmann
*Best innings bowling: 10/53 - Jim Laker v Australia at Manchester in 1956
*Best match bowling: 19/90 - Jim Laker v Australia at Manchester in 1956
*Best strike rate: 34.1 - George Lohmann
*Best economy rate: 1.31 - William Attewell

Fielding

*Most dismissals: 277 - Alec Stewart
*Most dismissals in an innings: 7 - Bob Taylor v India at Bombay in 1979/80
*Most dismissals in a match: 11 - Jack Russell v South Africa at Johannesburg in 1995/96

Records - One-Day Internationals

Team records

*Highest team total: 391-4 (50 overs) v Bangladesh at Nottingham in 2005
*Lowest team total: 86-10 (32.4 overs) v Australia at Manchester in 2001

Individual records

*Most matches: 170 - Alec Stewart

Batting

*Most runs: 4677 - Alec Stewart
*Best average: 65.50 - Kevin Pietersen (as of 28 May 2006)
*Highest individual score: 167* - Robin Smith v Australia at Birmingham in 1993
*Record partnership: 226 - Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss v West Indies at Lord's in 2004
*Most centuries: 12 - Marcus Trescothick

Bowling

*Most wickets: 234 - Darren Gough
*Best average: 19.45 - Mike Hendrick
*Best bowling: 6/31 - Paul Collingwood v Bangladesh at Nottingham in 2005
*Best strike rate: 32.2 - James Anderson
*Best economy rate: 3.27 - Mike Hendrick

Fielding

*Most dismissals: 174 - Alec Stewart
*Most dismissals in a match: 6 - Alec Stewart v Zimbabwe at Manchester in 2000

See also: List of England Test cricket records