In men's cricket, 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 the first ever One Day International in 1971 (also against Australia in Melbourne).
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International cricket in England follow a fixed pattern, the English schedule under which the nation tours other countries during the winter and plays at home during the summer. Generally, there has recently been a tendency to play more one-day matches than Test matches. Cricket in England is managed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
England have been participating in international cricket since 1877 and competed in international tournament since the first ever the 1975 Cricket World Cup. The England cricket team has also provided some of the greatest players to the world, the biggest example of which is W. G. Grace. British cricket has a rich history. The England men's team is currently ranked No. 4 in Tests, No. 7 in ODIs and at 3rd position in T20Is. England won their first world cup in the year 2019
One Day International- England played their first ODI International in 1971 against Australia. England men's have made great impact in ODI international from their early day of this format. They were very consistent in first five edition of Cricket World Cup. They consequently reaches finals in 1987 and 1992. In 2019, they clinch their first title held in England, beating New Zealand in nail bitting super over full of drama in the final.[17]
T20 International- England played there first T2O International in 2005 against Australia. In May 2010, England won the first-ever ICC Men's T20 World Cup held in their home, beating Australia by 7 wickets in the final.[18] In the 2022 Men's T20 World Cup hosted in Australia, England won thie another ICC t20 world cup trophy by beating to Pakistan in the final.[19][20]
England have been participating in international cricket since 1909 and competed in international tournament since the second ever the 1978 Women's Cricket World Cup. They are the most successful women's cricket team in Europe. The England Women's team is also currently ranked No. 3 in ODIs and at 2nd position in T20Is.
Test International- England made their debut as a Test playing nation in 1934 against Australia. In past time, England women's rarely play test. But in recent years they are playing more test matches. They have greatest test rivalry against Australia called the Women's Ashes
One Day International- England played their first ODI International in 1973 against International XI. They are the most consistent team after Australia in women's cricket. They have been participating in Women's Cricket World Cup since, the first edition. After australia, England have won most number of Women's Cricket World Cup titles. They won their first titile in first edition by beating Australia in points table. Recently, in 2017 they have won their latest Women's Cricket World Cup trophy by beating India by 9 runs in the final.[21]
T20 International- England played their first T20 International in 2004 against New Zealand. England Women's have made great impact in T20 international from their early day of this format. They have won the first edition of Women's T20 World Cup held in England, beating New Zealand by 6 wickets in the final. They been consistent in reaching the finals but failed to clinch the title multiple times. In latest 2024 Women's T20 World Cup, they have worst performance of all the editions.
On a domestic level, there are eighteen professional county clubs,[22] seventeen of them in England and one in Wales. All eighteen counties are named after, and were originally representative of, historic counties. These clubs are heavily dependent on subsidies from the England and Wales Cricket Board, which makes its money from television and endorsement contracts and attendances at international matches. The English cricket season traditionally starts at the beginning of April and runs through to the second half of September although in recent years counties have played pre season friendly matches at the very end of March.[23] The following games are considered derbies:-
Roses Match – Yorkshire v Lancashire
Battle of London (Cross-Thames Derby) – Middlesex v Surrey
Battle of the Bridge - Essex v Kent
South Coast Special (El Clasicoast) – Hampshire v Sussex
West Midlands Derby – Warwickshire v Worcestershire
One-Day Cup - Yorkshire v Surrey at the Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds in 2005 It is a fifty-over limited overs cricket competition for the England and Wales first-class counties. It began in 2014 as a replacement for the ECB 40 tournament, which ran from 2010 to 2013. In contrast to its 40-over predecessor, the number of overs per innings was set at 50 to bring the competition in line with One-Day Internationals. The competition begins with a round-robin tournament featuring two groups of nine. The groups were organised geographically with a North group and a South group until 2021, since when the groups have been decided by a draw. As of 2024, the top three teams in each group progress to the knock-out stage of the competition. The final was held at Lord's until 2020, when it was moved to Trent Bridge.
Twenty20 competitions
T20 Blast – It is a professional Twenty20cricket league in England and Wales. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003. T20 Blast is the oldest domestic T20 league in the world. It is one of the top-level Twenty20 league in the world. Vitality Blast comprises 18 teams, with 17 in the England and 1 in Wales.
Women's Domestic Cricket
In women's cricket, 35 teams, mainly representing counties, currently compete in the Women's Twenty20 Cup. The Women's County Championship, a one-day competition, was also competed for by counties until it ended in 2019.[26] In 2016 the Women's Cricket Super League was established, a Twenty20 competition with six franchise teams. The Women's Cricket Super League was replaced in 2020 with a new regional domestic structure for women's cricket.[27] This included eight teams each representing a region of England and Wales, and competing in the 50-over Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy from 2020 and the Twenty20 Charlotte Edwards Cup from 2021.[28]
Twenty20 competitions
Women's Twenty20 Cup- It is a women's Twenty20cricket competition organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board. Until the end of the 2019 season, teams were organised in tiered divisions, with a national winner; since, teams have been organised into regional groups.[29] The competition began in 2009 and now features 35 teams, drawn mainly from the historic counties of England, plus Wales and Scotland. Until 2019, the competition operated alongside the Women's County Championship, but after a restructuring in women's domestic cricket in 2020, between 2021 and 2023 it was the only official tournament featuring county sides, with regional teams competing in new 50-over, Twenty20 and The Hundred competitions.[30]
The Hundred – It is a professional Cricket league in United Kingdom. The Hundred is the only cricket league in the world that played in 100-ball format. It is organised by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) every year in month of July and August. The Hundred is one of the "Big Four" major cricket tournament organised by ECB, others three are County Championship, One-Day Cup, and T20 Blast. The Hundred comprises 8 teams, with 7 in England and 1 in Wales.
Oxford and Cambridge universities played their first match against each other in 1827. After the advent of first class cricket, matches between Oxford and Cambridge, and between either of those two universities and another first class side, were considered first class matches, with the status applied retroactively to earlier matches. First class counties started playing matches at other universities in the 1980s, the first being Nottinghamshire vs Durham University at The Racecourse in 1981, but these were not granted first class status.[31]
The first University Centre of Cricketing Excellence (UCCE) was established at Durham University by Graeme Fowler in 1996.[32][33] The success of the Durham centre led to it being adopted as a national model by the ECB in October 2000, with the establishment of six UCCE sides (two – Durham and Loughborough – based around a single university; the others bringing together players from multiple institutions) playing from 2001 in a two-day match competition with a final at Lord's. From 2001 the Oxford and Cambridge matches against the counties were no longer considered first class games, but each UCCE played three early-season matches against county sides, which acted as pre-season warm-ups for the counties,[34][35] and for Oxford, Cambridge and Durham UCCEs these were considered first class. Matches between counties and Loughborough UCCE were considered first class from 2003.[36]
The MCC took over funding of the scheme from 2005, and from 2010 the UCCEs were rebranded as MCC University (MCCU) teams.[37] A further re-arrangement in 2012 granted first-class status to all six MCCUs, but only for two of the three matches against county sides each season.[38]
The MCC ceased funding the programme in 2020, with the organisation transferring back to the ECB.[37] The matches between the MCCUs and counties, and the annual University Match between Oxford and Cambridge, were no longer considered first class matches after 2020.[39] No MCCU matches were played in 2020 due to COVID,[40] although the last first class Oxford-Cambridge match was played that September.
As of 2022, pre-season matches with first class counties are played under the name of "English University Matches" (according to the ECB website, although Wisden uses the term ECB University Matches), and Exeter has been added to the universities participating.[41][42] Both the ECB and Wisden list the university teams participating in these pre-season matches as MCCUs, but they compete in British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) limited-over matches as UCCEs.[43] Inter-university matches outside of BUCS and the Oxford-Cambridge match have not, as of 2022, resumed after COVID. The 2023 and 2024 County v UCCE Matches continued to include Exeter, but Cambridge UCCE did not participate and have not played any matches as Cambridge UCCE (either against counties or in BUCS competitions) since 2022.[44][45][46] From the 2022 season, the Oxford UCCE men's team was replaced in BUCS by the single-institution Oxford Brookes UCCE.[47]
The university teams that have played first-class cricket, the dates when they held that status, the universities they represented and the number of first class matches played are:[48]
The Oxford and Cambridge Universities team played 18 first class matches against touring sides from 1839 to 1992, including two before official first class status started in 1895. The Combined Universities (British Universities from 1995) team, formed originally from Oxford and Cambridge but including other universities from 1987, played in the limited overs Benson & Hedges Cup from 1975 to 1998 and played 13 first class matches against touring sides from 1993 to 2006.[49][50] The MCC Universities team (formed from the six MCCUs) played various matches from 2007 to 2017, including entering the Second XI Championship from 2009 to 2017.[51]
The cricket grounds of England and Wales are smaller than the largest in some other countries, especially India and Australia, but the best of them have been modernised to a high standard, and two new international grounds have been built in recent years. The largest English cricket ground, Lord's in London, is internationally regarded as the "home of cricket".[52]
In 2005 the ECB concluded a commercial arrangement with BSkyB which gave Sky the exclusive television rights for live Test cricket in England for four years (the 2006 to 2009 seasons). This deal, which took live Test cricket for home England matches away from terrestrial television for the first time generated substantial future revenues for English cricket, but was criticised by many England cricket supporters and others.[58][59][60][61]
Cricket is also one of the most popular participation sports in England after football, rugby and tennis with most villages running a side every Sunday through the season, and towns putting out 2, 3, 4 and occasionally 5 sides for Saturday league matches, and 1 or 2 sides on a Sunday. According to the mid year 2020-21 Active Sport England survey an estimated 181,500 people play cricket at least twice a month, a 0.4% fall compared to the previous year.[62] Around 65% population of England follow Cricket.[63][64][65][66][67]
Bibliography
Malcolm, Dominic (2013). Globalizing Cricket Codification, Colonization and Contemporary Identities. Bloomsbury USA Academic. ISBN978-1849665278.
Williamson, Martin (23 January 1998). "The birth of Test cricket". ESPNcricinfo. Archived from the original on 12 January 2018. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
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