England Cricket Team
The England and Wales cricket team (Welsh: Tîm criced Lloegr) is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) from 1903 until the end of 1996.England and Australia were the first teams to be granted Test status on 15 March 1877 and they gained full membership to the International Cricket Council (ICC) on 15 June 1909. England and Australia also took part in the first One Day International (ODI) on 5 January 1971. England are the current holders of the Ashes, which is the Test match series contest between England and Australia and which has been played since the 1882–83 Australian season.
As of 7 January 2011, England has won 321 of the 908 Test matches played (drawing in 326), and is ranked third in the ICC Test Championship. England's One Day International record includes finishing as runners-up in 3 Cricket World Cups (1979, 1987 and 1992), and again as runners up in the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004. The team is currently in fifth place in the ICC ODI Championship.
England's first international Twenty20 match was played on 13 June 2005 against Australia. The England team are the current ICC World Twenty20 champions having won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20, beating Australia by seven wickets in the final.
History:
1971 to 2000
They then suffered a loss of form losing to India and a rising West Indian side. This culminated in a 4–1 defeat in the 1974–75 Ashes series. The inaugural 1975 Cricket World Cup saw England reach the semi-finals and was to be the turning point in England's fortunes. The results of the Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket (WCS) were felt in Test cricket with Australia and Pakistan losing many of its star players. England replaced captain Tony Greig, who had joined WCS, with Mike Brearley while Geoffrey Boycott returned from his Test exile. England would defeat a divided Australian side 3–0 in the centenary Ashes series. This was followed by a comfortable 4–0 win against Pakistan and a World Cup final appearance against the West Indies.
With Ian Botham and Bob Willis at their peak with the ball, Boycott and Graham Gooch opening the batting, and a young David Gower in the middle order, England had a promising team whose early results were encouraging. However, the team's lack of real quality was evidenced by a string of defeats, some heavy, against West Indies, the outstanding Test team at the time. England won the 1981 Ashes series 3–1, coming from behind after Brearley, who had retired, was reinstated as captain. The third Test at Headingley saw England win by 18 runs after following-on, only the second time in the history of England v Australia Tests that this has been achieved. After losing the Ashes in 1982–83, England recovered them in 1985 when they comfortably beat a poor Australian team. But England suffered two series "whitewashes" against the West Indies in 1984 and on the 1985–86 tour.
A shocked England team never truly recovered from this defeat and, although they managed to retain the Ashes in 1986–87, they would only win one further Test series in the 1980s against newcomers Sri Lanka. Australia meanwhile staged a recovery and easily defeated England in 1989 to begin a long period of domination.
England continued to decline through the 1990s, a situation not helped by squabbles between players and selectors. Another reason for their poor performances were the demands of County Cricket teams on their players, meaning that England could rarely field a full strength team on their tours. This would eventually lead to the ECB taking over the MCC as the governing body of England and the implementation of central contracts. 1992 also saw Scotland sever ties with the England and Wales team, and begin to compete independently as the Scotland national cricket team.
There was a string of disappointing results as England did not win a Test match for two and half years. However, England's performance in ODI cricket was still good, as they defeated Australia, the West Indies and South Africa to reach the final of the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Shortly after the World Cup Mike Atherton replaced Gooch as England captain but his captaincy was regarded as a failure with England winning only three Test series under his captaincy. A surprise win against South Africa in 1998 was England's first five Test series win since 1986–87, but this would be a false dawn as they were eliminated in the first round of the 1999 Cricket World Cup (which they hosted) and lost a home Test series against New Zealand 2–1, resulting in England being officially ranked as the worst Test nation at the end of the 20th century.
21st century
With the appointment of Duncan Fletcher as coach and Nasser Hussain as captain, England began to rebuild the team. They won four consecutive Test series which included impressive wins against West Indies (a first in 32 years) and Pakistan. England were still no match for Steve Waugh's Australia and lost the 2001 Ashes 4–1. Good results against India and Sri Lanka gave England some hope for the 2002–03 Ashes series but a 4–1 defeat showed that they were still inferior to Australia. But that setback did not stop England's resurgence as they defeated the West Indies 3–0 and followed up with whitewashes against New Zealand and the West Indies at home. A victory in the first Test against South Africa at Port Elizabeth meant England had won their eighth successive Test, their best sequence of Test match wins for 75 years.In 2005, England under Michael Vaughan's captaincy and aided by Kevin Pietersen's batting in his maiden series (most notably 158 at the Oval), and Andrew Flintoff's superb all-round performances, defeated Australia 2–1 to regain the Ashes for the first time in 18 years. Following the 2005 Ashes win, the team suffered from a serious spate of injuries to key players such as Vaughan, Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Steve Harmison and Simon Jones. As a result, the team underwent an enforced period of transition.
In the home Test series victory against Pakistan in July and August 2006, several promising new players emerged. Most notable were the left-arm orthodox spin bowler Monty Panesar, the first Sikh to play Test cricket for England; and left-handed opening batsman Alastair Cook. Meanwhile England's injury problems allowed previously marginal Test players such as Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell to consolidate their places in the team.
The 2006–07 Ashes series was keenly anticipated and was expected to provide a level of competition comparable to the 2005 series. In the event, England, captained by Flintoff, lost all 5 Tests to concede the first Ashes whitewash in 86 years.
England's form in ODIs had been consistently poor. They only narrowly avoided the ignominy of having to play in the qualifying rounds of the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy. Despite this, in the ODI triangular in Australia, England recorded its first ODI tournament win overseas since 1997. But, in the 2007 Cricket World Cup, England lost to most of the Test playing nations they faced, beating only the West Indies and Bangladesh, although they also avoided defeat by any of the non-Test playing nations. Even so, the unimpressive nature of most of their victories in the tournament, combined with heavy defeats by New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, left many commentators criticising the manner in which the England team approached the one-day game. Coach Duncan Fletcher resigned after eight years in the job as a result and was succeeded by former Sussex coach Peter Moores.
Since then, England's Test record has been indifferent and the team has slumped to fifth in the ICC rankings. There was a convincing 3–0 Test series win over West Indies in 2007 but it was followed in the second half of the summer by a 1–0 loss to India, although England did defeat India 4–3 in the ODI series.
In 2007, England toured Sri Lanka and New Zealand, losing the first series 1–0 and winning the second 2–1. They followed up at home in May 2007 with a 2–0 win against New Zealand, these results easing the pressure on Moores, who was not at ease with his team, particularly Pietersen, who succeeded Vaughan as captain in 2008, after England had been well beaten by South Africa at home.
The poor relationship between Moores and Pietersen came to a head in India on the 2008–09 tour. England lost the series 1–0 and both men resigned their positions, although Pietersen remained a member of the England team. Against this background, England toured the West Indies and, in a disappointing performance, lost the Test series 1–0. Almost immediately, they played West Indies in a home series which they won 1–0.
The second Twenty20 World Cup was held in England in 2009 but England suffered an opening day defeat to the Netherlands. They recovered to defeat both eventual champions Pakistan and reigning champions India but were then knocked out by West Indies.
This was followed by the 2009 Ashes series which featured the first Test match played in Wales, at SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff. England drew that match thanks to a last wicket stand by bowlers James Anderson and Monty Panesar. They won the second Test at Lords while the rain-affected third Test at Edgbaston was drawn. In the fourth Test at Headingley, England suffered one of their worst results for some years and were heavily beaten by an innings. The series was decided at The Oval, where England had to win to recover the Ashes. Thanks to fine bowling by Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann and a debut century by Jonathan Trott, England won by 177 runs.
After a drawn Test series in South Africa, England won their ICC tournament, the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.
The following winter, they beat Australia 3-1 to retain the Ashes; their first series win in Australia for 24 years, which included three innings victories.
This victory has left England in third place in the ICC rankings, whilst back-to-back Ashes defeats have contributed to Australia falling from first to fifth.
England struggled to match their Test form in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Despite beating South Africa and tying with eventual winners India, England suffered shock losses to Ireland and Bangladesh. They scrapped through to quarter-finals before losing to Sri Lanka by 10 wickets.
